Quebec civil servants prefer to work from home. Teleworking, which generated annual savings of $120 million for the Legault government, has little impact on the performance of state employees.
This is what emerges from the first assessment of the teleworking framework policy in the Quebec government. Remember that since the pandemic, hybrid work is now the norm among civil servants, who must work a minimum of two days per week in person.
But if it were up to employees of departments and agencies, the number of days of remote work would be higher. In fact, 63% of them would prefer that the maximum number of days allowed for teleworking be increased to four or five days per week.
62% of civil servants also believe that they are more efficient at home than in the office and that they work more hours per day teleworking.
The frames nuance
This is not the opinion of government officials. Barely one in four managers believe that the effectiveness of their team is higher when working remotely. The majority of bosses instead judge that employee performance is equivalent, whether they are teleworking or in person.
Civil service executives, however, believe that it is more difficult to evaluate the performance of their troops when they are not in the office. Therefore, a majority of managers would like their teams to work no more than two or three days at home.
According to studies documented in recent years, “a hybrid working method seems to have a neutral (or slightly positive) impact on productivity, depending in particular on the nature of the tasks”.
Attractiveness?
Teleworking is one of the factors encouraging people to want to work for the State. But it is above all the salary and benefits, as well as job security, that attract workers.
In the office of the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, we prefer to see the glass half full, rather than the glass half empty. “The first assessment of the framework policy on teleworking, implemented in 2022, reveals that teleworking in hybrid mode has a positive impact on the mobilization of employees and on the attractiveness of the Quebec public service,” a- we argued on Friday.
Especially since teleworking has resulted in annual savings of $120 million per year. Not to mention the money that could be saved by modernizing and optimizing office spaces.
François Legault has already said he can reduce civil servants' office space by 30% and convert part of it into apartments using hybrid mode.
Thus, departments and organizations that carry out rearrangements must “take into account the principles of the activity-based work environment, particularly prioritizing unassigned workstations,” specifies the document produced by the Treasury Board, in collaboration with experts from HEC Montréal and CIRANO.