Perceived health and productivity when working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, office workers were obliged to work from home (WFH). Alongside known positive aspects of home-based telework, it is associated with reduced health and productivity impacts. Its success depends on employee and environmental characteristics.

This paper fills the gap in knowledge on the mediating role of health between personal and environmental factors and employee productivity, when obliged to work from home full-time. It covers health in full (physical, mental, and social) unlike other WFH studies.

Two large survey-based datasets (gathered April 27th - November 20th, 2020) were analysed resp. with a path model and descriptive analyses. The data provide experiences on health and productivity of resp. 25,058 and 18,859 Dutch office workers from different public organisations, who were obliged to work from home during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

In general, the workers in the sample perceived their health to be quite good. Path analysis revealed that gender, age, education, the at-home workspace, the presence of children in the household, and perceived organisational support were significantly related to self-perceived productivity. However, most of these effects were found to be mediated by physical, mental, and/or social health indicators. Possible explanations for health issues from the descriptive analyses were sedentary behaviour, unsuitable furniture, having to be at home, social isolation and changed content and frequency of contact with colleagues.

Findings imply that specifically engagement and organisational support of teleworkers are most relevant to steer on to ensure productivity while WFH.