NBER Working Papers · 2026 · Cevat Giray Aksoy、Nicholas Bloom、Steven J. Davis、Victoria Marino、Cem Ozguzel
中文摘要
远程工作已迅速扩张，但定期面对面接触的价值仍不明确。我们报告一项随机对照试验（RCT）：一家大型跨国公司将248名客服员工随机分配至完全远程工作，或每月到办公室共同工作一天。每月的办公室日逐步提高了生产率，处理组员工在干预后期间每小时处理的电话量增加了7.8%。办公室日还加强了职场沟通：处理组员工在一次办公室访问后的一周内与同事沟通的时间增加了36分钟，更有可能报告收到经理反馈，且被随机分配为相邻工位的员工对，事后沟通的可能性高出11个百分点。此外，每月办公室日使员工流失率降低了三分之一。由此产生的生产率与留任收益带来了约5:1的收益成本比。这些发现表明，有限且协调的面对面接触可以改善远程团队的沟通、绩效与留任。
Abstract
Remote work has expanded rapidly, but the value of regular in-person contact remains unclear. We report a randomized controlled trial in which a large multinational randomly assigned 248 customer-service employees to remain fully remote or to work at the office together one day a month. Monthly office days gradually increased productivity, with treated employees handling 7.8% more calls per hour in the post-intervention period. Office days also strengthened workplace communication: treated employees spent 36 additional minutes communicating with colleagues in the week after an office visit, were more likely to report receiving manager feedback, and employee pairs randomly assigned as desk neighbors were 11 percentage points more likely to communicate afterward. In addition, monthly office days reduced attrition by a third. The resulting gains in productivity and retention generated a benefit–cost ratio of about 5:1. These findings show that limited, coordinated in-person contact can improve communication, performance, and retention in remote teams.