Publications and Resources

On March 11th, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since this announcement, working from home (WFH) has become a necessary measure to mitigate the potential transmission of COVID-19. Millions of Canadians have had the way they live, work, and interact with their communities suddenly and significantly change. With a peak of 5.4 million Canadians in a WFH arrangement during the pandemic (Statistics Canada, 2021a), a national survey aimed to capture how Canadians are faring, and how WFH has impacted their mental and physical wellbeing. Led by the Canadian Institute for Safety, Wellness & Performance (CISWP) and in collaboration with La Trobe University in Australia, we surveyed Canadians across the country between October 27th and December 21st, 2020. During this time frame, there was an average of 5,270 new cases of COVID-19 per day in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2021b). Questions focused on respondents’ mental and physical health, and work-life conflict associated with their WFH experience. At the time of survey completion, over 90% of respondents were working full time hours in a WFH setting. We present a preliminary descriptive summary of the initial results. We begin with a demographic overview of our respondents, outline major findings associated with stress and mental health, and highlight the results surrounding physical health. We then present results focused on work-life conflicts and conclude with additional key takeaways. This report includes several infographics to present detailed descriptive analysis of key findings

Background Work-from-home (WFH) has become an increasingly adopted practice across the globe. Given the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, WFH arrangements have risen substantially in an extremely short amount of time. WFH has been associated with several physical and mental health outcomes, however these health and safety issues often receive little resources and attention from a business and managerial perspective compared to organizational and worker performance and productivity. Therefore, aligning WFH practices and strategies with business goals of organizations may help catalyze awareness from decision makers and serve to effectively implement WFH policies. Objective We conducted a scoping review to synthesize current knowledge on the impact of WFH arrangements on personal and organizational performance and productivity. Methodology Through a two-step screening process, we selected and extracted data from 37 relevant articles from a search of four databases that yielded 3,402 articles. Key search terms included terminology surrounding two core concepts: WFH and productivity and performance. Results The findings from this scoping review suggest that WFH can have positive impacts on personal and organizational productivity and performance, however these positive impacts are likely related to non-mandatory arrangements. When WFH becomes mandatory and full-time in nature, or external factors (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) are at play, the overall impacts are less positive and can be detrimental. Further, evaluation of the effectiveness of a WFH arrangement vary greatly in terms of the measurement tools used and the types of questions asked. The lack of consistency will make it difficult for organizations to infer conclusive results as to the impacts of WFH and highlights the need for organizational policies to define what productivity and performance means to them, and what measurements are best suited to reflect these impacts. Key Messages: The results of this scoping review will help foster a broader understanding of the impact of WFH arrangements on personal and organizational productivity and performance, help inform the development of recommendations of organizational strategies to prepare employers to create an effective, resilient, and inclusive WFH workplace, and serve as a means to effectively implement WFH policies when aligned with business goals of the organization.