With many businesses having worked through their return-to-work strategies following the easing of pandemic public health measures, there’s been some debate regarding where things may settle. Industry leaders were generally agreed that hybrid and work-from-home arrangements were here to stay, but to what extent was mostly a matter of speculation.
We may now have a clearer idea of what the “new normal” will be when it comes to people working from home versus working from the office or other workplace. Transportation experts have noted a stabilisation in worker habits since September last year, and predict Australia is unlikely to see any significant further increase in people returning to the office.
“We’re at the stage now where we can finally be confident that the incidence of work from home has stabilised,” David Hensher, Director of the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, whose twice-yearly transport survey has been tracking return-to-office trends, told the Guardian Australia. “But it does vary by location.”
So what does the work from home new normal look like?
The headline figure is that on average, employed Australians are spending 27 per cent of their working hours at home. But there are variations based on location and occupation, with some sharp discrepancies apparent between some states.
Broadly speaking, workers in the major cities are spending more time working from home than workers in rural or regional areas. Also, unsurprisingly, office workers, in particular professionals and managers, are working from home more than essential workers.
Melbourne workers spend 35 per cent of their working hours at home – the highest rate of any of the major cities – while Brisbane and Sydney both saw rates in the early 30s (33 and 31 per cent respectively).
Looking at the states as a whole, Western Australia is an outlier, seeing work from home rates of just 11 per cent, compared with 34 per cent in Melbourne. Such discrepancies are perhaps not surprising given those states’ wildly different experiences of the pandemic.
Other notable findings include:
- Prime home days: Monday and Friday are the most popular days to work from home, however office rates are only 5 per cent lower on these days.
- Greater flexibility: 88 per cent of respondents made trips for leisure, shopping and personal business during work-from-home days.
- Getting it done: Employees maintain productivity by working early mornings, in the evening or on weekends, while taking advantage of weekday lulls to do in-house work, e.g. chores.
What it means for employees
Notably, the rise of work-from-home represents a significant time saving for those workers who can, and choose, to work from home at least some of the week. A previous survey found commuters in Greater Sydney for example were saving over an hour a day on average by skipping the commute.
So the “new normal” equates to more time in Australians’ pockets that can be spent on leisure or family time (an average of 45.9 per cent of time saved on not having to commute is used this way) or on other productive or self-care pursuits. This in turn is good for work-life balance and for employee satisfaction and wellbeing.
Of course, people are saving more than time by spending at least part of their working week at home. According to the survey report: “People repeatedly mentioned high petrol costs, increasing public transport fares and other fees such as toll roads.”
Adds Hensher: “If someone chooses to work from home every day, that could be a saving of a couple of thousands of dollars a year.”
What it means for businesses
We’ve previously identified flexibility and trust as a key component of employee attraction and retention strategies. Our research found that:
- 63 per cent of candidates think work-life balance is extremely important.
- 56 per cent of candidates want hirers to offer remote or flexible working.
- 54 per cent of employees think flexible work is at least as important as a 5 per cent pay increase.
Flexibility is about more than just allowing employees to work from home. It might also include things like scheduling hours around parenting, carer or study commitments, asynchronous work schedules that allow team members to work when they feel they can be most productive, or having a culture that emphasises measuring output over tracking minutes of screen time.
Work from home and hybrid work however have become a central plank not just of businesses’ approaches to flexible work, but also the attitudes of Australian employees – especially office and professional workers – to how work integrates with their overall life and goals.
It is important to note that there is a dividing line between those who can work from home and those who can’t because of the nature of their role. This creates challenges for businesses from a management perspective. Communication and consultation are key to ensure work-from-home policies are equitable while also reflecting team members’ particular work-life balance needs.
Trust and productivity
Trust is an important part of flexible work. In particular, employers need to have confidence employees are being productive when they work from home, without resorting to measures like surveillance or micro-management that have been shown to negatively affect productivity.
Given that of the time saved by not commuting, workers are giving more than half of it to doing additional work (including 22 per cent to unpaid work), the signs are there that such confidence would not be unfounded.
“It’s interesting that it took the pandemic to test some thinking about remote working,” said Hensher. “Importantly, what’s made it work is the productivity implications have not decreased. If employers found they weren’t getting value from their staff, I suspect it wouldn’t have continued.”
