Fewer Canadians are now working from home compared to last year, but there’s one group more likely to be avoiding the daily commute: parents of young children.

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Three in 10 parents with one child or more aged five years or younger either work from home full time or have a hybrid schedule, Statistics Canada said in its November labour force survey released Dec. 1. Flexible schedules are more prevalent among mothers, and 33.2 per cent of them with little kids work from home either all the time or part of the week. The same is true for 27.4 per cent of fathers. By comparison, 23.5 per cent of people without small children work remotely.

Overall, the number of people working exclusively from home has fallen since last year, to 12.6 per cent in November from 24.3 per cent in January 2022. But hybrid work has gained ground, and 11.7 per cent of employees now split their days between the office and home, compared to 3.6 per cent in January 2022.

A flexible schedule has long been touted by experts as a boon for working parents and others who find it challenging to juggle their jobs with caregiving responsibilities. Since the pandemic, many employers have become more open to allowing caregiving staffers to enjoy some kind of flexibility, whether in the form of versatile hours or allowing them to work from home occasionally or full time.

The results have been nothing short of life-changing for many, according to various studies. Time saved on commuting transforms into time spent with children or managing the health of an elderly parent, said a 2022 survey of caregiving employees and executives conducted by Care.com Inc. As a result, 76 per cent of such employees say remote work has improved their quality of life, something 77 per cent of their managers agree has done the same for them.

Nevertheless, more companies have demanded employees return to the office, although hybrid work remains a key pillar in most mandates. That could be partly because of how successful it’s been at getting people, especially mothers, into the workforce, according to Stanford University researcher Nicholas Bloom. “The pandemic generated this massive jump (in the labour force participation rate) that everyone turned around and said: ‘Wow, this work from home, it isn’t perfect, but we should be doing a lot more of it than we used to,'” he said recently.

In Canada, the employment rate of women aged 25 to 54 hit a record of 82.2 per cent last January. Experts credit the rise of flexible hours, hybrid and remote work, and a landmark $10-a-day child-care deal between the federal government and provinces for the improvement. The employment rate has since dropped to 81.6 per cent in November, as rapid population growth outstrips new jobs.

But the hybrid trend appears here to stay, with many bosses offering days at home to keep good workers with caregiving responsibilities from quitting, experts say. Surveys suggest caregivers who don’t have access to supportive job policies are more likely to leave the workforce altogether. Such workers may also cost their companies money if they’re not given adequate support.

Presenteeism and missed work days among U.S. caregiving employees can take a toll on company balance sheets, according to research from the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, with the average such worker putting in an extra 20 hours of unpaid labour a week taking care of children, elderly parents or both.

Besides reaping monetary gains, bosses who offer parents hybrid and remote work are also acknowledging the marked shift brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the lines between work and home responsibilities blurred. “It’s not about work-life balance that we’re striving for anymore … but work-life integration,” said Candy Ho, board chair at non-profit career development organization CERIC, and an assistant professor of careers at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C.

Still, a hybrid work schedule might not always help caregivers’ well-being. Flexibility in work hours and location is more likely to lead to isolation and loneliness among U.S. parents, said a study from Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a child-care company. In the survey, 47 per cent of parents said they only interact with people in their homes when working remotely and 41 per cent admitted to spending the whole day cooped up inside. More than a third said working from home made them feel “very isolated.”

Remote work might not be completely rosy for Canadian parents, either. Almost half of parents report being under more stress while feeling they’re constantly working because of the difficulty separating job and home responsibilities, research by Capterra Inc. showed. Around one-third of parents also admit the quality of their work suffers at home amid distractions from children, pets and housework.

Of course, that’s not enough reason to completely axe remote-working options. Keeping parents active in the labour force remains vital, especially with talent shortages predicted to get worse as more baby boomers retire. Beyond that, flexibility might also signal to caregivers that employers genuinely care about their well-being — something more employees expect of their companies these days.

There’s certainly no discounting remote work’s success, for both companies and staff. “Work from home has worked so much,” Bloom said. “I’ve just been amazed how well it’s worked.”

• Email: vwells@postmedia.com

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