How employers can make good decisions about remote work before the next crisis strikes

Researchers from Babson College studied four global companies' R&D units through the pandemic and found that organizational culture, not executive personality traits, determined how quickly and how well remote-work policies stabilized. Hierarchical companies moved faster to set firm rules but faced more employee pushback; collaborative companies took longer, sometimes 3 to 15 months, but faced less resistance.

A separate Stanford study found remote workdays jumped from 7% pre-pandemic to over 60% early in the pandemic, settling around 30% two years later. More than one in five U.S. workers who can work remotely still do so at least part-time, six years on.

The researchers suggest employers build more flexible decision-making cultures before the next crisis forces the question, since culture, once set, is slow to change.

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