Nicholas Bloom, Hybrid-Work Expert
He’s emerged as a go-to academic for insight into remote work, meeting this year to share research with more than 100 institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, Wall Street banks and tech startups.
Photo illustration: 731: photo: Courtesy: Nicholas Bloom
When he began studying remote work 20 years ago, there wasn’t enough research to hold a conference and opinions were all over the map. In 2015, Nicholas Bloom published a groundbreaking study of call center workers in China, showing that remote work could improve job productivity and satisfaction. Two months into the pandemic, his research team started an online survey of thousands of workers’ habits and desires around remote work, analyzing how they often contrasted with their employers’ wishes. (Spoiler alert: People want more time at home than their bosses are willing to offer.)
Bloom first got interested in the topic while growing up in North London, where both of his parents were employed by the UK government and could work from home on occasion. Early in the pandemic, he had trouble convincing CEOs that remote work was here to stay. Now his tips on managing hybrid organizations—on giving teams autonomy over which days to be in the office, for example—are being sought out by human resources professionals, policymakers and civic leaders. A July paper of his, showing that the option to work remotely makes people 35% less likely to quit, could help soothe the concerns of corporate leaders who remain uneasy about letting people Zoom from their kitchen.