Study: Remote Workers Report Highest Levels of Well-Being

New research finds fully remote employees reporting the highest levels of well-being.

A team including researchers from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business analyzed survey data from 7,704 employees at a large healthcare organization.

As they assessed the findings, “one pattern stood out,” the researchers recently wrote. “Employees who worked fully remotely reported the highest-level of well-being, while those who worked entirely onsite reported the lowest.”

Published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the study also found “little evidence that remote workers felt less connected to colleagues or workplace culture,” according to the authors.

The findings suggest that “you let people work remotely if they want to work remotely,” said study co-author Stefanie Johnson, professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at the Leeds School of Business, in a statement.

“Taking away people’s choice of how they work is probably not going to help them in terms of their well-being.”

The results also challenge the notion that employees need to be working together, in person, to feel a sense of connection, the authors said.

For example, employees taking part in the study were asked to describe their organization’s culture in just a few words. Remote workers were slightly more likely than their hybrid and onsite colleagues to use words associated with teamwork, inclusion and support.

“The data from our study and others suggest remote and hybrid work result in better outcomes than return-to-office mandates,” Johnson said. “Leaders are not making decisions based on data. I think they are just returning to what they are used to.”