Abstract
Flexibility in work arrangements has become increasingly relevant for employees and their ability to reconcile work and family life, both for men and women, and for employers, who are looking for new ways to increase productivity, adapt to new technologies and retain talents. This project aims at assessing the causal impact of flexible work on socio-economic outcomes.
We design a randomized experiment on a sample of workers in a large Italian company, and introduce smart-working for 9 months for a randomly selected group of workers in the sample. By comparing the two groups of workers - those subject to smart-working and the others - before and after the introduction of smart-working, we find causal evidence that the introduction of smart-working increases productivity of workers and their well-being.
To assess the effective success of the introduction of flexibility, we administered 2 questionnaires: one before the introduction of the policy, and one immediately after the end of the trial policy. In these questionnaires, after questions on general socio-demographic variables, we have asked questions about several dimensions: productivity at work, flexibility, individual well-being, individuals’ work-life balance and commitment towards the company.