Remote work is here to stay — but only for some
Businesses are expected to further embrace more flexible arrangements
The shift to remote work has been among the most dramatic changes for businesses since the onset of the pandemic, and amidst a provincewide lockdown and rising case counts, the end is likely a long way off.
While many industries were already embracing working from home, COVID-19 accelerated this trend — forcing many businesses to offer such options for the first time, or to a much greater extent than before.
For many notable tech firms, from Shopify to OpenText, the pandemic also served as a catalyst to publicly announce permanent remote work policies, leading to widespread speculation about whether the way we work has changed forever. Some have even questioned the relevance of cities and public transit after the pandemic.
The enduring impact of this shift, however, is likely overstated. It’s true that flexible work arrangements have the potential to improve productivity and employee satisfaction, as well as better accommodate working parents and caregivers, all of which will be critical to Ontario’s long-term economic recovery.
However, ask any newly remote worker, and they’ll tell
you that the honeymoon period has largely ended as Zoom fatigue sets in, the line between work and leisure erodes, and the lack of social and creative interactions with colleagues hampers morale. Many industries and business models don’t lend themselves to fully remote work, either.
Like most things, the truth about the future of work-fromhome models lies somewhere between all and nothing: Many businesses across the province shifted entirely to remote work throughout the pandemic, but far fewer organizations anticipate this to be permanent. What is here to stay, however, is the increased presence of flexible work arrangements, particularly
for certain sectors.
According to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, at the end of August, Ontario businesses were more likely to switch to remote work options when compared to the Canadian average, likely owing to the outsized presence of service-producing, knowledge-intensive industries in the province. Nearly 40 per cent of firms across Ontario reported that 90 per cent or more of their employees were working remotely, seven percentage points higher than the national average. In both information and cultural industries, and professional, scientific and technical services, more than 60 per cent of
businesses across Ontario reported that most of their employees were working remotely at the end of August.
But there are still many businesses that continued operating in person (16 per cent), and many more that anticipate a return to on-site work after the pandemic (42 per cent, a jump of over 26 percentage points). Further, the proportion of businesses expecting to operate almost entirely remotely after the pandemic is only 17 per cent, down 23 percentage points from how they were operating at the end of August.
At the same time, most Ontario businesses plan to maintain their physical presence, with only 9.5 per cent of respondents suggesting they are likely to reduce their physical space once the pandemic is over.
However, as a vaccine now allows us to envision the end of the pandemic, many businesses expect to embrace a more measured approach to remote work. More than one-third of Ontario businesses anticipate having somewhere between 1 and 60 per cent of their workforce operating remotely after the pandemic.
Our brief experiment with remote work has exposed many people to new ways of working, but it would be unrealistic to suggest the old way is gone forever. Many employers who did not think remote work was possible have embraced it, and will likely continue to allow partial remote work options after the pandemic. For a smaller proportion of firms, the pandemic will have served as a catalyst for a fully remote work model. But for the majority of businesses, those that weather the myriad challenges the pandemic continues to put in front of them can likely expect a slow walk back to normal.