Structural modeling of the personas of urban office workers and their demands for Japanese-style workcations

In Japan, the work style of “workcations”, in which employees telework and take vacations in rural regions, has been introduced as a way to improve working environments. Thus, this study applied a data-driven approach using machine learning to generate “personas” of urban office workers and formulate hypotheses regarding the demand for Japanese-style workcations. A cross-sectional study was conducted in February, 2022 using an online questionnaire, which included 39 questions related to demographic information, workplaces, and the willingness to take workcations. The participants were 4049 office workers working in and living within commuting distance of Tokyo's special wards. For the statistical analysis, 29 personas related to urban office workers were extracted using probabilistic latent semantic analysis, after which the relationships among the personas were structurally modeled through a Bayesian network. The findings indicated that although many urban office workers were interested in taking workcations, the majority of their employers had no plans to introduce this working style. Urban office workers' willingness to take workcations was positively associated with active lifestyles and positive perceptions of the effects of nature. These findings imply that the presence and quality of nature around workplaces may contribute to workers' willingness to take workcations. • Personas of office workers were identified by demographics, workplaces, and workcations. • Bayesian network modeled the interaction between 29 personas of office workers. • Willingness of office workers to workcations corresponded to their active lifestyles. • Willingness of office workers to workcations related to their positive perceptions of nature. • The availability of the nature around the workplaces may improve demands for workcations.