Productivity and wellness up among Canada employees working from home
Financial services employees reported feeling more productive and well while working from home, new research has found.
Some seven in 10 financial services employees who usually work in Canada found home working to be a positive experience throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Research from Deloitte found 38 per cent of employees felt more productive while working from home, compared to just under a quarter (24%) of respondents who said they felt less productive.
When asked about the future, 77 per cent of financial services employees said they expected to work from home for at least one day a week, compared with just 41 per cent before the pandemic.
Chief among the reasons cited for enjoying working from home was avoiding the commute (66%), followed by a more flexible working life (48%) and spending more time with family (40%).
Meanwhile over a third (36%) of financial services employees saw an improvement in their well-being while working from home, compared to 23 per cent who felt their wellbeing was worsened by the change.
One of the major drawbacks from home working, however, is the lack of face-to-face interaction. Some 60% of respondents ranked the ability to meet in person as the most valuable aspect of working in an office, followed by having valuable unplanned conversations by chance.
Covid-19 poses major questions about how the City’s physical environment will look in the future.
Nearly half (48%) of respondents said they expected the space occupied by their employer to decrease over the medium-to-long term.
Deloitte said in the future it expects physical offices to be prioritised for specific purposes, such as in-person meetings, and that there will be a more extensive use of work from home, supported by digital technology.
The majority (78%) of financial services employees felt their employer was prepared for long-term home working, with firms with better technology better placed to handle the switch.
Respondents were also overwhelmingly positive about their leader’s ability to meet expectations on providing clarity around the changing environment surrounding Covid-19. Some 79 per cent of respondents felt their boss did a good job.