The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of teleworking (working from home). What initially was a necessity during the lockdown period, is now thought of as a tool to better balance work and life. A significant portion of the workforce is continuing to telework at least some days of the week, depending upon the nature of work and ability to work from home.
Our recent study in Halifax, Canada shows that 16% of the workforce are teleworking all days of the week, 35% are hybrid working (combination of home and workplace work) and 49% are working at the office. The percentage of teleworkers has increased three-fold compared to pre-pandemic. Employers and employees both are realizing the benefits of teleworking, making it a permanent trend in work-cultures. Imagine, you are logged-in to your work system while making meals or driving to pick up your kids from school! It makes balancing tasks so easy, right?
Among the work arrangements, hybrid working is quickly gaining popularity, especially among high-income households with child-care responsibilities. The reason probably is that it gives people more flexibility to juggle work and family duties. Hybrid working is a more balanced work-arrangement, boosting productivity. Office working days give the opportunity to physically interact with colleagues and get face-to-face meetings done, while home working days give the chance to look after families at home. There is a tendency of hybrid workers to work at the office on middays of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) as it gives them a continuous stay-at-home opportunity connected with weekends. Our research also shows that people with university degrees and employed in business and education sectors are likely to embrace hybrid work. They tend to live close to their workplaces and usually own their houses. They spend more time on out of home shopping and dining out – utilizing the flexibility in their daily schedules.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the choice to work from home. For example, transit workers, healthcare professionals or manufacturing industry workers cannot miss a single day of in-person work. Also, there are people who do not have conducive working environment at home. These people are unable to get the benefits of teleworking. Moving forward, we need to deal with this ‘digital divide’ in workplaces to ensure more equitable work environments.
The popularity of hybrid work will likely increase. More people are shifting to hybrid work pattern from full teleworking and full workplace arrangements. As teleworking continues to transform the workplace landscape, it is essential to understand its full potential both from the employer and employee perspective. Teleworking also has huge promise to curb traffic congestion and emissions, especially during peak hours. Policymakers will be highly interested in using it as an effective policy tool for travel demand management.
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