BACKGROUND:
With the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations embraced Work From Home (WFH).COVID-19 pandemic An important component of transitioning to WFH is the effect on workers, particularly related to their productivity and work experience.
OBJECTIVES:
The objective of this study is to examine how worker-, workspace-, and work-related factors affected productivity and time spent at a workstation on a typical WFH day during the pandemic.
METHODS:
An online questionnaire was designed and administered to collect the necessary information. Data from 988 respondents were included in the analyses.
RESULTS:
The overall perception of productivity level among workers did not change relative to their in-office productivity before the pandemic. Female, older, and high-income workers were likely to report increased productivity.
The number of hours spent at a workstation increased by approximately 1.5 hours during a typical WFH day. Longer hours were reported by individuals who had school-age children, owned an office desk or an adjustable chair, and had adjusted their work hours.
COVID-19 pandemic and work from home in Hong Kong
Many places have been adopting different means to deal with and defend themselves against the COVID-19 pandemic, and Hong Kong is no exception.
Hong Kong was among one of the first places in the world hit by the disease, where the city announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19 as early as 23 January 2020 (HKSAR Government 2020b).
Since the beginning of the outbreak, the city has experienced four waves of infections, and the third wave is by far the most severe while the fourth wave is being experienced at the time of writing.
In response to the epidemic, Hong Kong has taken quite a different approach compared to its counterparts. The city has not enforced a complete lockdown; instead, a series of measures have been implemented, which include public-gathering limits, suspended schools, special work arrangements including WFH and remote working for civil servants, and an appeal to private sector organizations to make similar arrangements as far as practicable, etc.
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(HKSAR Government 2020c)
At first, the city seemed to be able to contain the spread of the disease and keep its infection numbers relatively low. Prior to the third wave of infections, there was a relatively small number of infected cases and few deaths in the city (Cheng, Cheung, and Magramo 2020).
Things gradually returned to normal, where schools reopened and restrictions on social distancing were eased.
The city was hailed as a success when it came to managing the spread of COVID-19 (Marlow 2020; Saiidi 2020). Some gave credit to the quick action on the COVID-19 crisis of the city’s government.
At the same time, others tended to give credit to the community, with the public having no confidence in the city’s government and taking matters into their own hands (Cheung and Wong 2020; Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute [HKPORI] 2020a).
However, in early July, the COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong started soaring. The situation exponentially deteriorated, and stricter measures were rolled out to control the spread of the virus, such as the new rules on mandatory mask-wearing in all public places, etc.
Ting, Cheung, & Cheng, Cheung, and Magramo 2020. However, some government regulations like the suspension of dine-in services sparked intense controversy, especially from those that could not WFH due to the nature of their work, citing inconvenience and lack of places to eat (Choy 2020).
The government then backtracked and decided to resume daytime dine-in services merely a day after the new regulation came into force (RTHK 2020a). The infection finally began to go down in late August, and some anti-epidemic measures were gradually eased.
Unfortunately, the number of confirmed cases surged again since mid-November, with 6,040 confirmed cases recorded as of 27 November 2020, while the death toll climbed to 108 (CHP 2020c). The city has been struggling to cope with the fourth wave of infection at the time of writing.
Hong Kong, like most places, has long been following a standard practice to work in a formal office environment, where 85% of surveyed Hong Kong employees reported that they are required to work at the office during regular office hours with no flexible working options being offered, in a cross-regional survey on the global employment trend back in 2018 (Randstad Hong Kong, n.d.).
It can be seen that only a small proportion of people had the experience and opportunities of WFH before the pandemic.
The survey findings are consistent with a document prepared by the city’s government back in the early 2000s, suggesting that teleworking would not become the mainstream in Hong Kong in the short to medium term (Planning Department 2002).
However, the spread of the coronavirus has, in fact, brought about unexpected changes to people’s lives in many ways, one of which is driving people worldwide to WFH, Hong Kong being no exception.
At the start of the pandemic—the first wave of infection in Hong Kong—civil servants excluding those providing emergency and essential public services and publicly funded university staff were the first batches of employees allowed to WFH, as a measure to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Some private companies, such as HSBC and Standard Chartered among many others, also allowed their back-office employees to WFH (RTHK 2020b).
Recommendations
The below recommendations include a series of possible actions that could be taken by the Government to make WFH more feasible in a local context.
In the short run, the Government should consider:
• Introducing a formal WFH guideline for employees and employers;
• Taking COVID-19 risk assessment into account when developing the guidelines.
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