Key working from home trends emerging from COVID-19 (Published November 2020)
This report to the Fair Work Commission discusses findings from a range of different research projects, conducted between April and November 2020, including our own survey, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Roy Morgan, and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
The objective of the report was to identify important work from home (WFH) trends emerging in Australia as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, investigate the impacts of this move towards WFH in more detail, and discuss the key challenges, benefits, gender effects, and implications for health and wellbeing, in addition to future predictions for this trend.
COVID-19 Work From Home Survey - May 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many people having to work from home, some for the first time, and often at very short notice.
Together with Swinburne University of Technology, WorkFLEX conducted a survey in April-May 2020, to learn more about this transition, the strategies and tools that are being employed, and what impact this period might have on the long-term future of work in Australia. This project has been approved by Swinburne University of Technology’s Human Research Ethics Committee. A preview of a small number of early results from this survey are available in the infographic above.
LinkedIn Survey - August 2020
In August 2020 we ran a poll on LinkedIn, to try and gain a quick understanding of how workers were currently feeling towards working from home, and how often they think they will continue to work from home in the future.. and the results were fascinating.
We joined a current trend on LinkedIn, for running polls using the LinkedIn reaction emojis, to ask whether workers predicted they would work 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 days from home per week in the future, once all COVID-related restrictions had been lifted. After 322 responses the option of working full-time from home (5 days per week) was the clear winner, attracting 35% of the vote, whilst only 5% predicted they would return to working 5 days per week in the office once all restrictions had been lifted.
This was particularly interesting, as the WorkFLEX team asked exactly the same question as part of a survey earlier in the year, and the results were very different (see below). Back in April, only 5% of participants in our survey predicted they would work from home full time in the future, so what has caused such a change of heart in only a matter of months?
Academic RESEARCH
Listed below is a selection of their academic publications from the past 5 years.
Anywhere working as a system for accelerating the transition of HCMC into a more liveable city.
Journal of Cleaner Production (2019)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095965261833289X?via%3Dihub
Investigating 'anywhere working' as a mechanism for alleviating traffic congestion in smart cities
Technological Forecasting and Social Change (2018)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162518301549?via%3Dihub
A review of work and family research in Australia and New Zealand
The Cambridge Handbook of the Global Work-Family Interface (2018)
The work-family interface in Australia
The Work-Family Interface in Global Context (2017)
The impact of technology on work in the twenty-first century: Exploring the smart and dark side
The International Journal of Human Resource Management (2016)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2015.1021155.
Does the quality of information technology support affect work-life balance?
The International Journal of Human Resource Management (2016)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2016.1232293?journalCode=rijh20
Worklife balance: the agency and capabilities gap
Community, Work and Family (2016)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13668803.2016.1161742?journalCode=ccwf20
'Fit' for telework'? Cross-cultural variance and task-control explanations in organizations' formal
International Journal of Human Resource Management (2016)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2016.1232294
Work-life management tensions in multinational enterprises (MNEs)
International Journal of Human Resource Management (2015)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2015.1074089
A framework for work-life management in multinational corporations
Work and family interface in the international career context (2015)
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-17647-5_11
Henry Stewart Talks - Future Work Now (March 2021)
WorkFLEX's John Hopkins was invited to deliver a Henry Stewart Talk, entitled 'Working form Home during COVID-19: An Insight from Australia,' as part of their Future Work Now Series.
Henry Stewart Talks Ltd (HSTalks) is a leading provider of specially prepared, animated, online, audio-visual lectures, seminar-style talks and case studies for medical schools, business schools universities and commercial enterprises in over 60 countries around the world. Their talks feature leading world experts and practitioners, including Nobel Laureates, drawn from academia, research institutes, commerce, industry, the professions and government.
Click here to watch the talk (HS Talks subscription required)