Analysis shows public sector productivity grew while working from home

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Almost one month into updated in-office requirements for public servants, a new analysis shows that productivity grew within the federal government as many employees were working from home during the pandemic.

Data on labour productivity, collected by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) from Statistics Canada, show a 4.5 per cent growth in productivity between 2019 and 2023 within the federal government.

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Treasury Board president Anita Anand, who recently announced a new government study on public service productivity, has has said that the public service is confronted with “many challenges” and that there is “declining productivity in our country overall.”

However, the Statistics Canada data show that the country’s weak productivity growth is largely linked to the private sector, rather than the public service.

While the private sector saw its productivity grow in 2020 before dropping significantly in 2021, the public service saw a fairly steady increase in productivity through the pandemic years, despite a small decrease between 2020 and 2021.

PSAC says that despite the dip in 2021, which all sectors experienced, overall growth over the years shows that remote work has not had a negative impact on productivity in the public service.

“The numbers don’t lie. Flexible work delivers better outcomes across the board,” said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC’s president, in an emailed statement. “The notion that remote work hinders productivity is just plain wrong — and the federal government openly admits they’ve done no research on productivity. When federal public service workers are trusted to choose how and where they work best, they thrive — and so does the public service. So why is the government still stuck in the past?” 

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The new remote-work rules, which took effect in early September, require all staff employed under the Treasury Board to work on-site a minimum of three days a week. For executives, the expectation is that they work in the office four days a week. As of June, that included more than 282,000 workers, of the more than 367,000 working for the federal government.

Since May, when the government announced the new rules, unions have been fighting back — holding rallies, filing complaints, encouraging members to submit grievances, sending open letters and launching petitions. PSAC, which is the largest federal public sector union, also filed a challenge in Federal Court of the new remote-work policy and has called on the government to “scrap the mandate, rethink its approach, and follow the evidence.”

Internal Treasury Board documents, obtained by PSAC through access to information requests, show that the federal government’s decision to send employees back to the office three days a week was partially made to gain the public’s trust and contradicted studies that found remote work boosted productivity. The government maintains that it conducted no formal studies of productivity before deciding to update its policy.

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While deputy clerk of the Privy Council Christiane Fox told the Ottawa Citizen in early October that she doesn’t disagree with the argument that some workers could individually do their work just as well from home as they can in the office, she said she would argue that those employees are needed in the office “to support younger staff so they can learn from you and learn the trade and be part of something that is about service to Canadians.”

Fox said that the government “did look at data and in some cases, there is some data to suggest that productivity at home can remain consistent.”

To bolster its argument, PSAC also contracted marketing firm Spark*Advocacy to poll Canadians on their views of remote work and productivity. The resulting survey of 1,635 people found that 66 per cent of respondents believe that remote work leads to improved productivity.

“Most Canadians believe remote work has proven beneficial to productivity and deserves to be a part of the modern workforce,” said Bruce Anderson, a pollster and partner at Spark*Advocacy, in a news release. “People value flexibility, and think a flexible approach makes sense compared to a one-size-fits-all model when it comes to the best outcomes for employers and employees.”

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The survey, conducted on behalf of PSAC between Aug. 23 and 27, also found that 81 per cent of Canadians think remote work is good for employees. Asked about what is the best approach for companies in the future, 63 per cent of respondents said employers should “keep it flexible” to that “managers and workers can make the best choices for each workplace.”

But that support for more flexible work arrangements doesn’t seem to extend to public servants. A poll conducted by Nanos Research earlier in the summer found that three out of four Canadians either supported or somewhat supported the government’s new requirement that public servants work in the office at least three days a week.

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