Between 2019 and 2022, companies that maintained remote work after the health crisis saw a productivity gain of 0,7% to 1% for every ten percentage points increase in the proportion of teleworkers in their workforce. This is the key finding of a study conducted by INSEE (the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) in partnership with DARES (the statistics department of the Ministry of Labor), on a panel of 6,600 non-financial and non-real estate companies. The most significant benefits were observed in companies that, in 2019, rented offices separate from their production sites, thanks to a reduction in office space and less disruption to teams.
The bulk of the gains are not due to real estate savings, but to deeper transformations: improved work processes, better coordination between departments, more appropriate management, reduced commuting times, increased employee autonomy, and a more conducive environment for concentration. In five years, the practice has scaled considerably: 22% of private-sector employees were teleworking at least once a month in 2024, compared to only 4% before the pandemic, primarily using a hybrid model of two days working remotely and three days in the office.
A critical threshold beyond which the benefits evaporate
The study, however, introduces a significant nuance: the positive correlation between remote work and productivity only holds true when the proportion of teleworkers remains moderate. As soon as it exceeds 20 to 25% of the workforce, the gain "becomes statistically insignificant." The authors attribute this ceiling to the emergence of increasing coordination costs when too many employees are simultaneously working remotely. Notably, this threshold corresponds precisely to the average proportion of teleworkers observed in the French private sector since the end of the pandemic.
At the macroeconomic level, the positive effects on business productivity can be partially offset by negative repercussions on sectors dependent on in-person work, most notably office real estate. However, the study qualifies this finding by highlighting that, in the longer term, the gradual adaptation of the real estate supply could allow these gains to be more widely disseminated throughout the economy. Company size, meanwhile, does not alter the equation: with comparable characteristics, the link between remote work and productivity remains the same regardless of the company's structure.
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