The future of telecommuting post COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 caused unprecedented changes in the daily lives of many people worldwide, with many working from home for the first time. This shift in working arrangement has the potential to have a lasting impact in future. This paper investigates longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on work-arrangements, specifically, individuals’ preferences towards work-from-home post COVID-19. This study utilizes data from a stated preference component of a travel survey conducted in the Central Okanagan region of British Columbia. A random parameter ordered logit model is developed to accommodate the ordinal nature of the preference variable and capture unobserved heterogeneity. One of the key features of the study is to confirm the effects of residential choice in-terms of location characteristics and dwelling attributes on work-from-home preferences after the pandemic. For example, individuals’ dwelling attributes such as larger sized dwelling, larger sized apartments are likely to have positive effect on frequent work-from-home. The model confirms significant heterogeneity, in relation to location characteristics such as commute distance and distance to urban center. For instance, initially, females were less likely to work-from-home. However, they showed significant heterogeneity with large standard deviation, specifically their preference was found to vary by residential location. For instance, females residing farther from urban centers prefer a higher frequency of work-from-home. Elasticity analysis suggests that part-time female workers, mid-age individuals, full-time workers with children, and full-time workers with longer commutes have a significantly higher probability to work-from-home every day after the pandemic. The findings of the study provide important insights which will assist in developing effective work-from-home strategies post-the-pandemic.