Understanding Employee Preferences towards Flexible Work Arrangements for the COVID-19 Post-Pandemic Period

This research examines employees’ preferences toward post-pandemic flexible work arrangements (FWA) using logit modelling techniques. First, it conducts an online questionnaire survey among working professionals in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), Canada, to gather information on their socio-demographics, travel characteristics and work arrangements before and during the pandemic, and their preferences towards post-pandemic work from home (WFH) and flexible work hours (FWH). Using the collected 337 complete responses, then it develops a binary logit model (BLM) to examine factors affecting employees’ WFH choice, a multinomial logit model (MLM) to examine the choice of WFH frequency, and an ordered logit model (OLM) to investigate preference for FWH. Results show that approximately 55% of the employees prefer WFH, while almost half of the respondents prefer WFH a few days/week. Logit model results indicate that increasing WFH preference also increases FWH preference, while employees who perceive higher importance of FWH tend to choose higher WFH frequency. Employees with higher commute frequency during the pandemic are less likely to prefer FWA post-pandemic. Increasing commute time increases the willingness to have FWH. The results will assist transport policymakers in better understanding the factors influencing employees’ FWA choices which will aid in developing effective TDM policies.