Does working from home improve productivity? Binghamton student plans to find out

If there’s one thing Yu Wang learned during her six years as a human resources manager, it’s that companies perform best when employees and managers act as a team, not adversaries.

Wang is a first-year PhD student at Binghamton University’s School of Management, but before that, she worked in her family-owned IT company based in Shanghai. Human resources gave her a unique perspective on balancing employee needs with the company’s initiatives and how, sometimes, it can lead to clashing ideologies about the best approaches to get the work done.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to work from home and upended traditional business practices, Wang saw an opportunity that has since formed the backbone of her research at Binghamton. By digging into remote work practices used to varying extents by 200 of the top law firms across the U.S., she’s exploring how these approaches could impact human capital, firm productivity and employee satisfaction.

Wang’s ultimate goal is to find ways of helping different businesses optimize their remote work policies, which isn’t a “one size fits all” solution.

“I’m very interested in how work-from-home policies are still being put into practice because studies have shown why it benefits employee well-being and job satisfaction, but there hasn’t been much focus on whether it’s beneficial to the company,” Wang said. “If practiced properly, it could also help a lot of socially vulnerable groups, from pregnant women to people with disabilities, by creating a wider applicant pool and much-needed flexibility for workers without being limited by location.”

Wang chose 200 law firms as the foundation of her research because the legal profession is in the unique position of depending heavily on their lawyers’ in-person performance while also recognizing the value of autonomy and the ability to perform many aspects of the work outside a traditional office setting.

Although many of the firms in her sample require their attorneys and staff to work fully in person, more than half use a hybrid work model. One trade-off she’s noticed among the firms working in remote settings is that it can hinder mentorship opportunities between senior-level attorneys and junior associates.

Before coming to Binghamton, Wang experienced firsthand something of what it takes to be successful in a legal arena. She passed the bar exam in China in 2022 and spent two years in legal aid service helping people file labor disputes or other legal grievances against their employers.

When she decided to delve further into academia after earning her graduate degree in accounting from the University of California, Binghamton’s reputation for strong research made it a standout for where to pursue her doctoral studies.

“The faculty members at Binghamton, they’re very supportive, and they all have their specialty areas like leadership or human resources, human capital and management,” Wang said. “They’ve been so crucial in helping me along with my research, so the opportunity for that kind of hands-on collaboration really made it clear this was the right place for me.”

As part of her ongoing research, Wang plans to conduct surveys or design field experiments to determine whether there is an optimal number of days per week that can lead to more favorable outcomes for companies and their employees when using a work-from-home approach.

“If people are satisfied with their jobs, it makes sense that will improve performance and allow employees and managers to work better together,” Wang said. “If that can be accomplished by implementing these practices, then work-from-home options are in a company’s best interest. I hope my research helps companies to find a way to turn this to their advantage.”