StatCan COVID-19: Data to Insights for a Better Canada Working from home: Productivity and preferences

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in telework since mid-March 2020. At the beginning of 2021, 32% of Canadian employees aged 15 to 69 worked most of their hours from home, compared with only 4% in 2016.^Note  A change of such magnitude raises several questions. To what extent are teleworkers more or less productive now relative to when they were at their usual place of work? For those who are less productive, what are the main barriers to productivity? Once the pandemic is over, how many Canadians would prefer to work most of their hours at home or outside the home?

Answers to these questions are crucial to inform discussions about the sustainability of telework in a post COVID-19 context.

To shed light on these questions, this study uses the supplement to the Labour Force Survey of February 2021. The focus is on employees aged 15 to 64 who are new teleworkers, i.e. who usually worked outside the home prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but worked most of their hours at home during the week of February 14 to 20, 2021.^Note  To facilitate productivity comparisons between now and when employees were at their usual place of work, the analysis is restricted to those who have been with the same employer since at least March 2019, i.e. at least one year prior to the economic lockdown of mid-March 2020.

The vast majority of new teleworkers report being at least as productive at home as they were in their usual place of work

Of all new teleworkers, 90% reported being at least as productive, i.e. accomplishing at least as much work per hour at home as they did previously in their usual place of work. More than half (58%) reported accomplishing about the same amount of work per hour while roughly one third (32%) reported accomplishing more work per hour (Table 1). The remaining 10% mentioned that they accomplished less work per hour while working at home than they did previously in their usual place of work. Very similar trends are found for men and women.^Note 

The likelihood of accomplishing more work per hour varied across industries and workers’ characteristics. For example, the percentage of new teleworkers reporting doing more work per hour was relatively high in public administration (41%) as well as in health care and social assistance (45%). In contrast, the corresponding percentage was lower in goods-producing industries (31%) and educational services (25%). Likewise, unmarried individuals with no children reported less often (24%) than married individuals (35%) accomplishing more work per hour. Most of these differences remained in multivariate analyses.^Note 

Conclusions about how much work new teleworkers accomplish at home are, if anything, strengthened when the amount of work accomplished per day, instead of the amount of work accomplished per hour, is considered. This is the case for several reasons.

First, a large proportion (48%) of the employees who report doing more work per hour also report working longer hours per day than they did in the past. Second, virtually none of the workers who report accomplishing at least as much work per hour at home as they did previously now work shorter hours per day. Lastly, close to half (44%) of the employees who report doing less work per hour now work longer hours per day while being at home, thereby potentially offsetting—at least in part—their lower (than pre-pandemic) productivity measured on an hourly basis.^{Note  Note} 

Barriers to productivity

The employees who reported doing less work per hour faced different barriers to productivity. About one in five (22%) reported a lack of interaction with co-workers as the main reason why they accomplish less work per hour (Chart 1). Close to 20% reported having to care for children or other family members. The remainder faced different challenges, such as accessing work-related information or devices (11%), having to do additional work to get things done (13%), having an inadequate physical workspace (10%), or experiencing difficulty with internet speed (5%).^Note 

Data table for Chart 1



Data table for Chart 1
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 1 percent (appearing as column headers).

	percent
Lack of interaction with co-workers	21.7
Other reasons / don't know	20.6
Caring for children / other family members	19.0
Need to do additional work to get things done	12.8
Accessing work-related information or devices	10.7
Inadequate physical workspace	10.1
Internet speed	5.1
Note: Due to high sampling variability (coefficients of variation ranging between 16.5% and 33.3%), these estimates should be interpreted with caution. Sources: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey and Labour Force Survey supplement, February, 2021.

New teleworkers report diverse preferences for telework

New teleworkers were also asked the degree to which they would prefer working from home or outside the home once the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Eighty percent indicated that they would like to work at least half of their hours from home once the pandemic is over.^Note  Forty-one percent indicated that they would prefer working about half of their hours at home and the other half elsewhere while 39% preferred working most (24%) or all (15%) of their hours at home (Chart 2). The remaining 20% reported that they would prefer working most (11%) or all (9%) of their hours outside the home.

Data table for Chart 2



Data table for Chart 2
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 2 All hours outside the home, Most hours outside the home, Half of hours at home/outside the home, Most hours at home and All hours at home, calculated using percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).

	All hours outside the home	Most hours outside the home	Half of hours at home/outside the home	Most hours at home	All hours at home
	percent
Both sexes	9.1	11.1	40.9	24.2	14.7
Men	10.1	10.6	41.9	24.9	12.5
Women	8.2	11.5	39.9	23.6	16.7
Sources: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey and Labour Force Survey supplement, February, 2021.

This diversity of preferences is observed regardless of the socio-economic groups considered.^Note  For example, 43% of the new teleworkers employed in large firms in the commercial sector indicated that they would like to work most or all of their hours at home once the pandemic is over. Forty-percent would prefer working half of their hours from home and the other half elsewhere. The remaining 17% would prefer working most or all of their hours outside the home.

As expected, worker’s preferences for telework are positively associated with their productivity. Of all employees who reported doing more work per hour, 57% preferred working most or all their hours at home (Table 2). This is almost twice the rate of 30% observed among other employees. Virtually all of this difference remains in multivariate analyses. This finding is important: it confirms that workers’ assessments of the amount of work they perform per hour is a strong predictor of their preferences for telework.

Of all groups considered, teachers were the most likely to prefer working most or all of their hours outside the home. Fifty-four percent of them expressed such preferences. This is three times the percentage observed for other employees (18%). Most of this difference holds in multivariate analyses.

Conclusion

Whether relatively high rates of telework will persist once the COVID-19 pandemic is over depends on at least three conditions. First, to satisfy employers’ requirements, employees must generally be as productive at home as they were in the office. Second, employees must express strong preferences for telework in a post COVID-19 context. Third, employers must be willing and able to accommodate employees’ demand for telework.

Using workers’ assessments, this study shows that, at least in February 2021, the first two of these conditions appear to be largely satisfied in Canada. Ninety-percent of new teleworkers report accomplishing at least as much work per hour at home as they did in the office. Eighty-percent would prefer to work at least half of their hours from home once the pandemic is over. Furthermore, for the minority of employees who report reduced productivity at home, some barriers to productivity, namely an inadequate physical workspace and the need to take care of children and other family members, would likely be reduced over time as schools fully re-open and employers provide further tools to make telework more feasible.

One challenge for employers will be to accommodate the diversity of preferences for telework expressed by their employees. If workers’ preferences for telework do not fully align with those of employers, a new form of job mismatch might emerge once the pandemic is over. On the other hand, increased feasibility of telework will likely increase the pool of potential employers for job seekers, and vice-versa. In the end, job mismatch could be significantly reduced in a virtual global labour market.

 

References

Bloom, N. 2020. “How Working from Home Works Out”. Policy Brief, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.