This past weekend during the BlogHer panel, “Screw Work/Life Balance, We Need Work/Life Policy,” an attendee raised her hand and said, “I know from personal experience that when I work from home I am more productive.  I wonder if anyone has done research on whether this is true more broadly?”

I’ve been immersed in work+life flexibility for so many years that it’s easy to forget that most people don’t know about the stacks and stacks of research that proves that flexibility not only increases productivity but benefits businesses and individuals in many other ways.

In an effort to answer the question, I’m sharing a few of my favorite pieces of flexibility research.  I’ve also included a list of resources that have been studying and advocating for greater flexibility for more than a decade.  Many are on social media.

Great Flex Research Links (no particular order):

• CFOs See Business Impacts of Work-Life Flexibility, But They Can’t Execute for Strategic Benefit (Flex+Strategy Group/Work+Life Fit/BDO) our landmark study of the top 100 CFOs published in World at Work Journal
• Workplace Flexibility: Finding from the Age and Gender Study (Sloan Center for Aging and Work), very comprehensive.  Conducted by an excellent team of researchers.  One of my favorites.
• Workshifting Benefits: The Bottomline (Citrix/Telework Research Network)
• Flexible Work Strategies: Attitudes and Experiences (Corporate Voices for Working Families)
• Measuring the Impact of Workplace Flexibility (Boston College Center for Work and Family)
• National Work+Life Fit Reality Check series of studies we’ve conducted that measure what individuals are thinking about work+life flexibility (here, here and here)

Great Resources…that I know personally and who seriously understand the underlying research-based business case for supporting work+life fit and flexibility (no particular order):

• Sloan Center for Aging and Work at Boston College
• Psychologically Health Workplaces
• Alliance for Work-Life Progress/World at Work
• Families and Work Institute–When Work Works
• Sloan Work and Family Network
• Boston College Center for Work and Family
• Institute for Workplace Innovation
• Telework Research Institute/ Undress for Success

Do you have a favorite piece of flexibility research you’d like to share?  Add it to the list in the comments section.  And spread the word!  Flexibility in how, when and where work is done and life is managed benefits everyone…individuals and business.