• Australian companies should think twice before ushering their workers back into the office full-time, a leading organisational academic says.
• Dr Julian Waters-Lynch, a lecturer at the RMIT University School of Management, says evidence suggests working from home is beneficial for worker productivity and well-being.
• His statement comes as state governments and commercial real estate interests lure white-collar workers back to the office.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

As Victoria ushers employees out of the home and back into the workplace, a leading Australian academic says companies should seriously consider the benefits of flexible work arrangements before returning to the office full-time.

From Friday night, Victorian businesses will no longer be required to permit their workers to work from home, ending a key measure designed to protect jobs through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“More Victorians back at work means more people supporting their local cafes, restaurants and live music venues – boosting the economy where it’s needed most,” Acting Premier James Merlino said Tuesday.

But Dr Julian Waters-Lynch, a lecturer in innovation and organisational design at the RMIT University School of Management, says businesses shouldn’t be so quick to abandon flexible work arrangements.

“The evidence is largely that working from home is beneficial for workers in terms of productivity and well-being,” Dr Waters-Lynch told Business Insider Australia.

The Victorian Government’s announcement follows calls from the Property Council of Australia (PCA) to boost CBD office tenancy nationwide, which remains suppressed after the widespread industry shutdowns of 2020.

The PCA says an exodus to the office say will bolster weak trade in city centres and nudge day-to-day life back to normal during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Others see more specific benefits for businesses — and potential consequences for white-collar employees who opt to stay at the kitchen table.

In the Australian, Kylie Rampa, Lendlease chief executive of property for Australia, last week said offices are a “clubhouse for culture”, while suggesting out-of-office workers could “become less relevant” or have their roles automated.

The Australian’s economics editor Adam Creighton echoed that claim on Tuesday, saying a conversation with an unnamed CEO left him convinced “white-collar workers should be champing at the bit to get back into the office to keep their jobs.”

It’s a “possibility” that some roles may change due to ongoing work-from-home arrangements, Dr Waters-Lynch said.

“But I don’t think the answer is to force people back into the office, right?” he added,

Multi-billion dollar companies Basecamp, Automattic, and Atlassian “have worked out how to do this distributed organising very well,” he said.

“And they don’t necessarily have negative effects or detrimental effects on social relationships. But they do structure work differently, they organise work differently, and they address those problems in different way than forcing everyone into a centralised office.”

When pushed on the risk of at-home workers having their jobs outsourced, or eventually automated, Dr Waters-Lynch reiterated that a return to the office isn’t a productivity panacea.

“Again, I don’t think the way to address that is to force people back in the office, I think it’s to work out how to function as an organisation in a more productive and innovative way, even when distributed,” he said.

“There often is a role still for face-to-face [work] … But not coming into the office every day, and spending seven of those eight hours sitting in front of a workstation.”

As Australian workplaces adapt to the new normal, the ABS reports 41% of Australians worked at home one day a week or more in late February, up 17% from pre-pandemic levels.

Some 17% of women and 11% of men said they wanted to increase the amount of work completed from home, despite the nation’s gradual emergence from the harsh COVID-19 restrictions.

Acknowledging research which suggests remote workers are more worried about promotional opportunities than their in-office counterparts, Dr Waters-Lynch said more could be done to support employees hoping to escape the open plan.

“I would say a more mature system looks at the outcomes of their work, has transparency and accountability around that, and then gives talented individuals freedom to do that work the way that suits them,” he said.

Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.