Evaluating the Impact of Working from Home on Productivity and Work-Life Balance in China

Last registered on April 12, 2017
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Evaluating the Impact of Working from Home on Productivity and Work-Life Balance in China
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000276
Initial registration date
April 12, 2017

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
April 12, 2017, 4:58 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
China
Region
East Asia

Primary Investigator

Name
Nicholas Bloom
Affiliation
Stanford
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Zhichun Jenny Ying
PI Affiliation
Stanford Economics and Cornerstone Research
Contact Investigator
PI Name
John Roberts
PI Affiliation
Stanford GSB and SIEPR
Contact Investigator
PI Name
James Liang
PI Affiliation
Beijing University Guanghua Management School, and Ctrip

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2010-01-01
End date
2014-11-06
Keywords
Labor
Additional Keywords
working from home, organization, productivity, telework
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
A rising share of employees now regularly work from home (WFH), but there are concerns this can lead to “shirking from home.” We report the results of a WFH experiment at Ctrip, a 16,000- employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency. Call center employees who volunteered to WFH were randomly assigned either to work from home or in the office for 9 months. Home working led to a 13% performance increase, of which 9% was from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick days) and 4% from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter and more convenient working environment). Home workers also reported improved work satisfaction and their attrition rate halved, but their promotion rate conditional on performance fell. Due to the success of the experiment, Ctrip rolled out the option to WFH to the whole firm and allowed the experimental employees to re-select between the home and office. Interestingly, over half of them switched, which led to the gains from WFH almost doubling to 22%. This highlights the benefits of learning and selection effects when adopting modern management practices like WFH.
External Link(s)
J-PAL Evaluation Summary

Registration Citation

Citation
Bloom, Nicholas et al. 2017. "Evaluating the Impact of Working from Home on Productivity and Work-Life Balance in China." AEA RCT Registry. April 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.276-1.0
Former Citation
Bloom, Nicholas et al. 2017. "Evaluating the Impact of Working from Home on Productivity and Work-Life Balance in China." AEA RCT Registry. April 12. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/276/history/16533
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
From a group of 996 employees, 503 volunteered to participate, of which 249 were qualified by virtue of having worked at the firm for 6 months, having broadband internet, and having their own workspace in their homes. From this group, those with even-numbered birthdays (day of birth ending in 0, 2, 4, etc.) were randomly selected to work at home. Those with odd-numbered birthdays were required to continue working from the office and served as the comparison group. Employees selected to participate in the program worked four days per week from home and one day in the office. They were still supervised by their team leader, who always worked in the office, and they maintained the same hours, wage levels, type of work, and computer and communication equipment.
Intervention Start Date
2010-12-06
Intervention End Date
2011-08-14

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Impact on employee productivity and promotion, Impact on employee satisfaction, Employee and company learning.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment took place in Ctrip’s airfare and hotel booking call center in Shanghai, China. The experiment lasted roughly nine months, and a mandatory post-experiment survey was conducted eighteen months later of all remaining employees and 200 randomly selected new employees.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
This selection of even birthdates into the treatment group was randomly determined by the Chairman, James Liang, by drawing a ping pong ball from an urn in a public ceremony one week prior to the experiment’s start date.
Randomization Unit
Individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A, no cluster
Sample size: planned number of observations
249 call center employees
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Treatment:131 call center employees

Control: 118 call center employees
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Study has received IRB approval. Details not available.
IRB Approval Date
Details not available
IRB Approval Number
Details not available
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
August 14, 2011, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
May 31, 2013, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
N/A not clustered
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Yes
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
184 call center employees. By the end of the 9-month experiment, the total attrition rate in the treatment group (17%) was less than half of that in the control group (35%).
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
110 employees in the treatment group and 74 employees in the control group by September 1st, 2011.
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
Yes
Public Data URL
https://people.stanford.edu/nbloom/research

Program Files

Program Files
Yes
Program Files URL
https://people.stanford.edu/nbloom/research
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
A rising share of employees now regularly work from home (WFH), but there are concerns this can
lead to “shirking from home.” We report the results of a WFH experiment at Ctrip, a 16,000-
employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency. Call center employees who volunteered to WFH
were randomly assigned either to work from home or in the office for 9 months. Home working led
to a 13% performance increase, of which 9% was from working more minutes per shift (fewer
breaks and sick days) and 4% from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter and more
convenient working environment). Home workers also reported improved work satisfaction and
their attrition rate halved, but their promotion rate conditional on performance fell. Due to the
success of the experiment, Ctrip rolled out the option to WFH to the whole firm and allowed the
experimental employees to re-select between the home and office. Interestingly, over half of them
switched, which led to the gains from WFH almost doubling to 22%. This highlights the benefits of
learning and selection effects when adopting modern management practices like WFH.
Citation
Bloom, Nick, James Liang, John Roberts, and Zhichun Jenny Ying. 2014. "Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment." Quarterly Journal of Economics, forthcoming.
URL
https://www.povertyactionlab.org/sites/default/files/publications/649%20Working%20from%20Home%20Nov2014.pdf

Reports & Other Materials