Office work could be changed forever by COVID-19. Here's why that matters

CBC News Posted: Sep 07, 2020 4:00 AM ET

Only a fraction of employees who began working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic have returned to full-time office work, and that has ramifications for everything from how workplaces are run to where we live and whether the small businesses that surround office buildings survive.

Nearly three-quarters of the 3.4 million Canadians who began working from home at the start of the crisis were still working remotely in August, according to Labour Force Survey data released by Statistics Canada on Friday. And another survey suggests many of those new remote employees would like to continue working from home indefinitely.

That research, conducted by Maru/Blue on behalf of ADP Canada, found that 45 per cent of survey respondents would prefer to work remotely at least three days a week. Another 15 per cent would like to work remotely one or two days a week. "It seems remote work is here to stay, or at least the majority of us want it to be," said Heather Haslam, vice-president of marketing at ADP Canada, a human resources company.

What the COVID-19 employment crisis tells us about the future of work. That's in part because of fear of the virus itself, the survey found. Of the 12 percent who said they were anxious about returning to their former work locations, 56 percent said they were worried about contracting the novel coronavirus.

Another 13 percent said they didn't know how they could meet their COVID-era family responsibilities while working outside of the home things like caring for elderly family members or children whose schools could close if there's an outbreak, Haslam said. Seneca Human Resource Agency (SHRA) was working with different clients to make the office spaces safe so people can return to work. You are part of the project team working for one of the biggest clients.

Q2-

Seneca Human Resource Agency (SHRA) has appointed you as Project Manager with the task of carrying out this change. What steps would you put in place to measure and evaluate the performance of this project