It’s no secret that telecommuting is the way of the future, as the digital revolution continues to transform our lives both in and out of the workplace.

In the previous post, we dissected how the changing professional landscape and burgeoning culture of telecommuters is intersecting with people’s personal lives. Today, we are going to talk about what it’s doing for business – and whether it’s actually a viable option. While the black and white answer is yes, the reality is a bit more complex.

First of all, as reported by Global Workplace Analytics, losing a valuable employee can cost a company thousands of dollars or more. Given that 14 percent of americans have changed jobs to shorten their commute and 95 percent of employers say telework has a high impact on employee retention, telecommuting can be critical in reducing turnover rates. That’s a really big pro.

Now, lets look at telecommuting in action. Recently, the New York Times published an article that reported an experiment on 250 randomly selected workers from Ctrip, China’s largest travel agency. Of the sample, 50% were chosen to work at home for nine months, while the other half worked from the office.

In the end, the study found that home-based employees worked 9.5 percent longer — and were 13 percent more productive than their office-based counterparts. More surprising still, results showed home-based workers to be happier with reduced rates of depression and suicide. As if that wasn’t enough, Ctrip saved nearly $2,000 for every employee who was not taking up office space during this time.

Nevertheless, at the end of the study, more than half of the home-based employees requested to return to the office. So what’s the problem then?

This is where things get more complicated. First of all, despite largely out-preforming their office-based colleagues, the study also showed that workers who telecommuted were promoted half as often as employees who were physically present in the office.

There could be a number of reasons for this, but more often than not, it’s a result of the age-old proverb “out of site out of mind”. It’s basic human nature to think less often of, remember, or take serious the people you do not see and viscerally interact with on a regular basis. According to a Psychology article published by Business Insider, the human brain can remember about 3-4 things (for about 20 seconds) after which point, they will disappear from your memory.

This means that when you’re not strolling by them every few minutes or chatting at the water cooler, bosses, colleagues, office mates, and superiors tend to overlook you, at least to some extent.

Another factor that throws a monkey wrench into the otherwise pristine world of telecommuting bliss is isolation. Humans are social creatures. This has been proven up and down, backwards and forwards. Therefore, when you take employees away from the busy office environment of cubicle chatter and post work happy hour, it starts to feel like something is missing.

Following a news conference at Stanford University, many major business leaders discussed the issue. Those present acknowledged that because the “non-verbal cues and informal talk that play a critical, behind-the-scenes role in the functioning of an office tend to be filtered out”, it’s critical to maintain some semblance of a face-to-face relationship with telecommuters.

The conclusion is, the key is not to see the issue of telecommuting as black and white. The solution is to facilitate some kind of a hybrid scenario, where employees can work from home from time to time, but still maintain their office presence.