Yes and no. First of all, remember that the concept of "productivity" is an industrial-age term that compares output with input; when output goes up per unit of input, that's a productivity increase. But that concept is woefully inadequate when applied to most office work; there isn't the same simple kind of input-output relationship for knowledge workers.

That means that if we're honest with ourselves, we really don't have a clue about what "white-collar productivity" means, in most cases. That doesn't keep us from throwing that term around, however. It has often been used to describe what happens with telecommuting, and you'll see frequent references to productivity gains in the range of 15-25% for telecommuters.

While I firmly believe that well-run telecommuting programs DO lead to increased work output - for many reasons - I think it's important to discipline ourselves away from that "P" word. Instead, I prefer to use the term "effectiveness" - which is meant to include all the aspects of knowledge-worker's activity. To be sure, it includes quantity of work produced - but also includes quality, timeliness, and ability to handle multiple projects and priorities.

These four measures are the kinds of things we see improving under telecommuting. In fact, a well-run telecommuting program should be AT WORST a break-even; that is, the telecommuters should do the same amount of work, at least as well, as in the office. In almost all cases, though, their results are significantly better.

The bottom line: "Productivity" is a convenient and comfortable term that gets used often, but really doesn't describe what most office workers do no matter where they work. We have seen in case after case that telecommuters are doing more and better work, are meeting their deadlines better, and are better able to juggle multiple priorities and deadlines. Call it what you will - productivity, effectiveness, or something else: the results are there.

NOTE: You'll find a detailed commentary about productivity measurement and cost-benefit analysis (titled "The "Last Word" on Productivity") in the Free Downloads section of this site.