Covid-19 Workplace Impact Statistics

The pandemic’s impact on the globe has reshaped the way we think about work and changed our expectations on employee conditions. While working from home isn’t something new, the workforce number operating from home or other locations has hit an unprecedented number with no indication of going back to a complete normal.

Here are a few workplace statistics which have formed as a result of Covid-19.

Office Vacancy is Still Around

During the height of Covid restrictions, an equal proportion of people remained working in their office, from home and hybrid.

While most have now returned to working mainly in the office, this varies by state across New Zealand.

• 23.6% of employees worked from an office during Covid.
• 25.1% of people work from home and at an office during Covid.
• 25.8% of people mainly worked from home during Covid.

Now:

• 41.4% of people work from an office.
• 19.9% mostly work from home.
• 11.4% of people work in a hybrid setting.
• 2.1% of people are currently not working.

Productivity Levels

Overall, professional service workers are feeling more productive working in an office. This could be a result of burnout syndrome which can arise when your work environment is the same as home.

• 24.2% of people are more productive at home.
• 18.6% of people have the same level of productivity regardless of location.
• 57.2% of people are more productive in the office.

Factors Which Impact Working from Home

If only 24.2% of people feel productive at home, then there must be several factors which are prevent employees from doing their job effectively. When business owners were asked what impacts their ability to work effectively, the follow factors were selected:

• 41.1% find their internet speed not fast enough to work from home.
• 42.8% of people found the environment was not distraction-free.
• 33.1% of people are impacted by a dedicated workspace.
• 28.4% of people found collaboration difficult when working from home.
• 29% of people found the absence of physical meetings being a negative impact.
• 18% of people lacked privacy while working from home.
• 12.7% of people struggled in having an appropriate location to meet clients.
• 11% of business owners were unable to effectively monitor the productivity of employees.

Factors Which Prevented Business’ Adaptability

Amidst the height of Covid lockdowns and restrictions, businesses struggled to adapt because of a range of constraints. Although companies found the switch to remote work difficult, almost 70% of New Zealander's who have been working from home because of Covid would like to continue to do so.

Constraints in switching to remote work that businesses cited were:

• Slow internet connection – 22.5%
• Minimal working capital – 19.3%
• Unable to access Job Keeper or other government funding – 18.2%
• Nothing – 15%
• Inability to accommodate remote teams or remote working – 10.7%
• Required significant investment in capital such as IT infrastructure – 10.7%
• Reliance on a physical office space (eg retail or café) – 9.6%
• Locked into contracts which creates a lack of flexibility – 8.6%
• Location of business – 6.4%
• Inability to reduce office footprint – 5.3%
• Large staff payroll – 3.7%
• Reduced or no customers/ clients/ reduced sales – 3.2%
• Other – 9.6%

How Did Businesses Survive During Covid

While there were many reasons for why businesses were unable to adapt to remote working, the list for how businesses survived is significantly shorter.

• 33.2% of businesses survived through their ability to change staff work requirements (eg work from home, flexible hours, stand down some staff).
• Job keeper policy was responsible for 28.3% of businesses to stay afloat.
• 26.7% of businesses had adequate technology.
• 26.2% of businesses had minimal capital investments which made it easier to survive.
• 17.6% of businesses were not locked into contracts.
• 11.2% of businesses had temporarily closed some parts or all of their business.