KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- 36.2% of employed Australians still usually work from home.
- Hybrid work is generally neutral or slightly positive for productivity.
- Remote work outcomes depend more on role design and leadership.
The argument over remote work productivity has outlived the emergency that created it. In Australia, the latest ABS data shows that 36.2% of employed people usually worked from home in August 2025, down from the pandemic peak but still above the 32.1% recorded in 2019. That suggests remote and hybrid work didn’t disappear once offices reopened; they settled into the way a large share of Australians now work.
That persistence is important. If working from home were plainly unworkable, employers would have unwound it by now. Instead, the Productivity Commission says Australia appears to have landed in a “sensible middle ground”, with well-managed hybrid work generally neutral or slightly positive for productivity, while fully remote work may be less effective for some collaborative tasks.
How productive is working from home?
Before the pandemic, working from home was already present in Australia but at a lower level. The ABS reports that 32.1% of employed people usually worked from home in 2019, rising to 40.5% in August 2021, before easing to 37.3% in 2023, 36.3% in 2024, and 36.2% in 2025.
That pattern tells a more useful story than the old “office versus home” framing. Remote work was not a temporary spike that collapsed when restrictions ended; it stabilised. The Productivity Commission’s more recent position is that hybrid work does not appear to harm productivity overall and can be slightly positive when managed well.linkedin+1
The ABS data also shows remote work is now concentrated in roles where autonomy and knowledge work matter most. In August 2025, 59% of managers and professionals usually worked from home, compared with 21% of workers in all other occupations. That gap helps explain why blanket return-to-office arguments often miss the point: productivity depends heavily on the type of work being done.
Does working from home increase productivity?
The best evidence does not support a simple yes-or-no answer. A more accurate formulation is that hybrid work can support productivity when the work is suited to it and when teams are managed well. That is also consistent with the ABS finding that people who worked from home were more likely to have flexible-hours arrangements, and more likely to work overtime, than those who did not work from home.
In August 2025, 42% of people who worked from home also worked overtime, compared with 26% of those who did not work from home. That does not prove higher productivity on its own, but it does show many remote workers are not disengaging from work; if anything, the risk may be overwork rather than underwork.
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The reasons Australians give for working from home also help explain why the model has lasted. In 2025, the top reason was flexibility or choosing one’s own hours at 22.5%, followed by operating a business from home or having a home-based job at 21.9%, and catching up on work after hours at 20.8%. Less commuting time or saving money was cited by 12.3% of those who usually worked from home.
Why leadership matters
The more useful question is not whether remote work works in the abstract, but under what conditions it works. The Productivity Commission says the broader effects of working from home depend on whether collaboration, culture and learning are maintained, which is why hybrid arrangements tend to perform better than fully remote ones.
That aligns with a culture-first reading of the issue. Remote work does not create trust, clear management or strong communication. It exposes whether those things already exist. No current source retrieved here lets me verify the older Great Place To Work numerical claims in your draft, such as the survey of 800,000 employees across 715 companies or specific percentage-point productivity movements, so those figures should either be re-sourced internally or removed.
What employers should take from this
The headline statistic to use now is simple: 36.2% of employed Australians usually worked from home in August 2025. That is the latest official national benchmark available in the sources retrieved here, and the ABS notes 2025 was the last Characteristics of Employment survey in its current form before a redesigned supplementary survey begins publishing on a new basis in the second half of 2026.
So the conversation should move beyond whether remote work is real or temporary. In Australia, it is established. The more relevant question for employers is whether their systems, managers and ways of working are strong enough to make hybrid work productive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does working from home increase productivity?
Research suggests it often does, particularly when leadership and culture are strong. Great Place To Work’s study of more than 800,000 employees found that productivity improved during remote work in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. However, productivity dropped significantly mid-year when leadership quality declined. This tells us that remote work amplifies the culture that already exists rather than creating new productivity on its own. Strong foundations produce strong results, wherever people are sitting.
How productive is working from home compared to the office?
Most evidence points to remote work being at least as productive as office-based work, and sometimes more so. A Harvard Business School study found that by 2021, the median small business owner had reversed their early 2020 pessimism and reported a positive productivity impact from remote work. The removal of commutes and the disruption of unnecessary meeting culture gave many employees significantly more focused working time than they had previously had access to.
What are the biggest factors affecting remote work productivity?
Leadership quality and organisational trust are the primary drivers, consistently. Great Place To Work research found that employees with high productivity during the pandemic repeatedly cited “excellent leadership” and “incredible leadership” in their survey responses. Those with low productivity demanded better hiring in management. Technology, flexibility, and home office setup all matter, but they are secondary to the quality of the person employees report to each day.
Why do some teams struggle with productivity when working remotely?
Poor leadership is the most commonly identified factor. When managers fail to communicate clearly, make decisions under uncertainty, or support their teams, remote work makes those gaps visible very quickly. In the Great Place To Work study, productivity fell 11 percentage points in mid-2020, and the clearest signal from struggling employees was a demand for better leaders, not better tools or policies. Distance removes the casual corrective feedback loops that offices provide.
How can organisations improve remote work productivity?
Start by measuring what is actually happening rather than what you assume is happening. The Great Place To Work Trust Index survey assesses 30 dimensions of employee experience including manager effectiveness, collaboration, and whether people feel genuinely cared for. These dimensions directly predict productivity in remote settings. Organisations that ran pulse surveys throughout the pandemic adapted faster and saw stronger outcomes. The data tells you where the gaps are. Then you can close them.
