More Than Half of Canadian Office Workers Want to Keep Working Remotely: Survey

A woman is seen working on a computer in her apartment in downtown Vancouver on Dec. 3, 2020. Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press

With the gradual relaxation of COVID-19 measures, a majority of Canadian office workers say they want to keep their remote work pattern, a new survey shows.

More than half of 1,595 Canadian officer workers say that working mostly or entirely remote is their ideal work scenario, compared to one in eight (12 percent) who prefer working entirely in the office, according to the Amazon Business Canada’s Return to Office Report.

Remote work is so desirable that two in five (43 percent) office workers say they would look for another job if their current employer asked them to return to work full-time in the office, while more than half (55 percent) say they would be less likely to accept a job if a prospective employer also mandated full-time in-office work.

Out of the 57 percent of those who want to spend some time in the office, 27 percent say they would prefer to split their time equally between in-office and remote, while 30 percent say they would like to spend three or more days during the week working remotely.

“It’s clear that the role that the physical office plays in the day-to-day work and satisfaction of employees has changed dramatically during the pandemic. We’re not going back to how things were before, and businesses need to adjust to the many operational realities that come with that,” Nick Georgijev, the country manager for Amazon Business Canada, said in a news release on March 10.

“Canadian employers will need to consider not just how and when to bring their employees back to the office, but if they should ... and how to set that talent up for success from anywhere if they don’t return entirely.”

Georgijev noted that to meet these changing demands, employers need to adjust many things, including their real estate footprint, procurement, and technology and supplies.

“Those that adapt best and quickest will have a strong advantage, particularly if they provide their teams the means to thrive while working remotely,” he said.

The survey said only 50 percent of office workers who moved to remote work due to the pandemic had returned to the office before the Omicron wave. Among these workers, 48 percent returned before the end 0f 2020, and 36 percent returned in the second half of 2021.

Provincially, office workers in British Columbia were the most likely to have returned to the office before the Omicron wave (60 percent), while workers in Ontario were the least likely to have done so (43 percent).

To bring workers back to in-office work, the survey said more flexible work hours, salary increases, more vacations, and better benefits are four key incentives.

Flexible work hours and the ability to work remotely are among the top five most sought-after factors for Canadian office workers who are looking for a new job—more important than workplace culture, opportunities for growth, advancement or training and development, and in-office perks.

Georgijev said an upside to this change is that he can hire employees from distant regions now that remote and hybrid work are getting more popular.

“It’s definitely opened up our talent pool, and I think many other companies would probably be seeing this as well,” he told the Toronto Star, adding however that he still prefers in-person meetings or events in the office.

“But on the day-to-day kind of work that each individual is doing, we believe that can be done either from the office or from home,” he said. “So everybody should have the flexibility to decide that for their own circumstances.”

The Amazon Business Return to Office Report was conducted in two waves—in December 2021 and February 2022. An online poll was completed Dec. 12–16, 2021, surveying 1,595 employed Canadians who transitioned to remote work at some point during the pandemic.

The survey had a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The second poll was conducted Feb. 11–14, 2022, surveying 423 such Canadians to examine the impact of the Omicron wave on return-to-office plans, carrying a margin of error of +/- 4.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Both surveys were offered in English or French.