Employee intentions and employer expectations: a mixed-methods systematic review of “post-COVID” intentions to work from home

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated cultural and organisational acceptance of remote working. For a portion of the commuting workforce, working from home (WFH) is now possible. Of great interest is whether increased WFH will diminish actual mobility, and thereby reduce the transport task of cities. To understand this possibility, we must know how much WFH will be sustained into the future. Using a bespoke approach combining scholarly and grey literature, this review develops a tangible record of employee desires and intentions to WFH, in the context of the expectations of employers. Its contribution is a novel and rigorous appraisal of recent practices and sentiments. Results confirm that there is a strong underlying demand to WFH. Many studies, however, estimate unrealistically high rates of WFH which cannot be projected onto the wider working population. Further, we find there is a conflict between employee preferences and their expectations to WFH, with estimations of preferences far greater than estimates of expectations. This finding is confirmed by the analysis of employer sentiments. Employers broadly realise that accommodating WFH reflects a best-practice approach, yet favour predictable routines where specific days of on-site attendance are mandated. We conclude with reflections on the impact of our findings on the transport system. We propose that the impact of WFH on commuter decision-making depends on the degree to which employers mandate on-site attendance. Finally, we emphasise the need to acknowledge the wider political, economic and social milieu in which work is performed as shaping future WFH practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Work from home
• Covid-19
• Telecommute
• Mixed-methods review
• Journey to work

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Professor Patricia Mokhtarian, whose long-term contribution to the literature on telecommuting, telecommunications and derived demand is foundational to this field. Dr Delbosc conducted the systematic search and Dr Kent conducted the grey literature search. Both authors contributed equally to the paper conception, writing and editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://jcr.clarivate.com/jcr/home

2 One interesting counter-example was Moens et al., 2022, which placed a print advertisement in the newspaper, then used post-stratification sample selection to choose a sub-set of responses that were representative of the population of Flanders, Belgium.