Mid Sweden University

The way office workers work was greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, when most office workers had to start working from home. Since the restrictions following the pandemic lifted people started going back to their offices, but for many the possibility to work from home remained. Hybrid work, when the office worker can alter between working in the office and from home, is now very common.

Earlier research has shown conflicting results whether office workers’ productivity is affected by working from home or not. Some studies shows that there is no difference in productivity outcomes between people who work from home compared to those who work in offices. Other studies suggest that productivity outcomes are higher among office workers working from home than the ones who only work at the office.

There is a trend among some employers wanting their staff to come back to work in offices full time again. With this study we search to investigate if this is conflicting with productivity output (and by extension economical goals) and if it is in the best interest of the office workers’ health.

This study has two aims:

1. To compare self-rated productivity between office workers who work a small amount of their working hours from home, office workers who work a medium amount of their working hours from home and office workers who work a large amount of their working hours from home.
2. To investigate if and how productivity and health related variables (such as stress/burnout) can be explained by work-life balance, emotional demands, proportion of hours working from home and aspects of the physical work environment (such as disturbing noise).

The study population is office workers who work in a municipality in northern Sweden. They have answered two different surveys, one was based on the COPSOQ III-survey with some additional questions and the other one compiled of questions about the physical work environment and work productivity. The later survey was originally designed and used in their research project in another municipality in northern Sweden. 

Introduction: Prolonged labour pain is a challenging aspect of childbirth. This study examined how a woman's job affects her prolonged labour pain experience in India's diverse healthcare and socioeconomic landscape. Methods: The National Family Health Survey 5, a nationwide study conducted in India investigated the correlation between occupation and prolonged labour pain among 176,385 women aged 15–49 with a 97% survey response rate. Information on labour pain duration and intensity, alongside demographic factors was collected through structured interviews, medical records, and self-reporting. Occupation, age, education, religion, and wealth index were analyzed as predictor variables using cross-tabulation, chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Certain occupations in India, such as clerical, services/household, and agricultural, were linked to increased labour pain compared to women who were not employed. Among these, clerical workers reported the highest level of labour pain at 55.2%. The age group of 20–24 years demonstrated the highest prevalence of prolonged labour pain at 42.4%, and those aged 45–49 exhibited the lowest prevalence at 30.6%. Women with secondary education reported higher pain levels (41.6%) compared to others, this association did not remain significant in the multivariate analysis. Particularly, Hindu (41.9%), and Muslim women (37.6%), experienced more pain compared to other religions, while both the richest (41.7%) and middle-class (41.4%) women reported higher pain levels than other categories. Conclusion: The research unveiled a correlation between occupation and prolonged labour pain. Policymakers can utilize these current findings to enhance preventive planning strategies. It's imperative to give due consideration to the factors identified in the study that are linked with prolonged labour pain. More in-depth primary studies are warranted to explore this issue further. 

Many public organizations are striving to develop sustainable workplaces with a focus on employee engagement. Different models are used in different countries and contexts to measure employee engagement. In Swedish public sector workplaces, a model consisting of three components is used: motivation, leadership and strategic management. There is a need to enhance understanding of the model and its relation to employee advocacy. This study aimsto provide greater understanding of employee engagement dynamics in the public sector, including team climate and work-life balance components,and how this relates to aspects of employee advocacy. Statistical analyses of key components were carried out using survey results from 6020 employees and managers in municipal workplaces.The findings highlight significant relations between the components investigated and the employee-advocacy-related measurement employee Net Promotor Score. Based on OLS regressions, motivation emerged as the most influential component, followed by leadership. It was possible to classify the participants into three categories: Promoters, Passives and Detractors.The promoters exhibited higher scores on all components, and managers had higher scores on several components compared to employees. The results confirm that it is important to use a multi-dimensional approach when studying employee engagement in public sector workplaces.

Bakgrund Arbetets organisering har genomgått stora förändringar under de senaste decenni-erna, särskilt i relation till COVID-19-pandemin. Under denna period blev distans- och digitala arbetsformer, där en väsentlig del av det betalda arbetet utförs i hemmet, allmänt accepterade och praktiserade. Ytterligare forskning krävs dock om hur flexibiliteten i arbetslivet, och sär-skilt distansarbete, påverkar engagemanget i olika arbetsformer och därmed den könsmässiga fördelningen av insatser i lönearbete och obetalt hemarbete. Syfte och forskningsfrågor Syftet med denna studie är att analysera relationer mellan att arbeta hemifrån och engagemang i hushållsarbete och lönearbete bland kvinnor och män anställda inom den offentliga sektorn i Europa. Följande frågor analyseras: Hur påverkar hemarbete graden av engagemang i hus-hållsarbete och lönearbete? Finns det signifikanta skillnader mellan kvinnor och män i dessa relationer? Bekräftar resultaten idén om att arbete hemifrån förstärker traditionell könsmässig fördelning av arbete mellan kvinnor och män eller motverkar snarare arbete hemifrån denna traditionella fördelning? Metod Analysen baseras på data från den sjätte omgången av Euro-pean Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). Totalt omfattar EWCS svar från över 40 000 an-ställda i 35 europeiska länder och ger värdefulla insikter om olika aspekter av arbetsvillkor och sysselsättning. I denna studie har urvalet begränsats till respondenter anställda inom den of-fentliga sektorn, en grupp som i materialet omfattar cirka 10 000 individer. Denna avgräns-ning möjliggör en analys av hur distansarbete påverkar yrkesmässigt och hushållsrelaterat an-svar för personer som arbetar inom offentlig sektor. Resultat Preliminära resultat pekar på att hemarbete påverkar graden av engagemang i såväl hushållsarbete som lönearbete. Analysen visar att hemarbete för kvinnor är signifikant positivt korrelerat med antal rapporterade tim-mar i lönearbete, vilket tyder på att hemarbete för kvinnor är förknippat med ett ökat engage-mang i betalt arbete. För män påvisas i stället en signifikant positiv relation mellan hemarbete och hushållsarbete, vilket indikerar att män som arbetar hemifrån i högre grad deltar i hus-hållsarbete jämfört med män som huvudsakligen arbetar på arbetsplatsen. Dessa resultat ger en mer nyanserad bild än den som ofta beskrivs i tidigare forskning, där distansarbete beskrivs som en företeelse som vanligen förstärker könsmässiga skillnader i hushållsarbete och lönear-bete. Våra resultat indikerar i stället att arbete hemifrån tycks utmana den traditionella könsmässiga arbetsfördelningen genom att något jämna ut yrkesmässigt och hushållsrelaterat ansvar mellan kvinnor och män.

The present study, employing a mixed-methods approach, explores leaders and sub-ordinates measures of sustainable employee engagement. Further it explores leadership behaviors in the changing work environment of today, where many traditional office spaces have transitioned to work from home (WFH) and or/together with activity- based work environments (ABW) at the workplace.   This study focuses specifically on leadership dynamics and behaviors within the public sector and is part of a broader collaborative research initiative conducted in partnership with two municipalities. 

I denna delrapport redogörs för resultat och tolkningar från publicerade studier och intervjuer med medarbetare mellan februari 2024 och februari 2025 i Sundsvalls kommun.

Den första delen medarbetarengagemang och rekommendationsvilja baseras på analyser av mätningen av Hållbart Medarbetar Engagemang (HME) och rekommendationsvilja (net Promotor Score, eNPS).

I den andra delen, Hur pratar medarbetare om medarbetarengagemang, presenteras resultat med utgångspunkt i intervjuer med grupper av medarbetare från olika verksamheter inom kommunen. Fokus i dessa intervjuer var att försöka fånga och skapa en förståelse om hur medarbetarna upplever faktorerna motivation, styrning, ledarskap samt rekommendationsvilja. Syftet var att försöka beskriva de underliggande resonemangen bakom faktorerna som mäts i HME - undersökningarna.

I den tredje delen Intervjuer med första linjens chefer presenteras analyser av enskilda intervjuer med sex chefer från olika verksamheter.

I del fyra Vad kan arbetsgivaren göra för att du skall stanna kvar? presenteras resultat från intervjuer med olika medarbetargrupper med fokus på medarbetarskap och arbetsgruppens syn på kommunen som arbetsgivare.

Rapporten avslutas med ett sammanfattande slutord där möjligheter och utmaningar beskrivs, avsnittet avslutas med förslag på personalpolitiska åtgärder. För teoretiska resonemang hänvisas till publicerade artiklar.

I den slutrapport som planerar att presenteras i januari 2026 fördjupas resultat, teoretiska resonemang och förslag för framtida åtgärder.

Each year, approximately 1.2 million employees in the Swedish public sector participate in an employee survey designed to assess various dimensions of their work environment. This survey includes questions that examine employee motivation, perceptions of leadership, and understanding of governing documents, with each factor addressed through three specific questions, totaling nine questions in all. This study took a two-pronged approach. In Part I, we focused on validating the quantitative measures of the survey, while Part II, which will be detailed here, employed focus group interviews with various work groups to explore how employees discuss these questions. The results from Part I demonstrated that the measures are reliable. They further revealed that motivation and leadership were the most significant predictors of employees' likelihood to recommend their workplace. Other factors, such as team climate and work-life balance, also played a role in this decision. In Part II, which will be presented at the EAWOP conference, we aimed to uncover how different work groups discuss the topics covered in the survey. We conducted semi-structured focus group interviews with 12 work groups from different areas within the public sector, including schools, kindergartens, social care, elder care, and administration. Each focus group included 3-6 employees and was facilitated by two researchers: one led the discussion, while the other observed and posed additional questions when necessary to delve deeper into certain topics. The findings provide insights into how different work groups articulate motivational factors, their perceptions of leadership, and their engagement with governing documents. Based on these studies, we suggest that combining quantitative employee surveys with qualitative methods enhance our understanding of work life conditions. Additionally, how employees "talk the talk"—or how they frame and discuss these issues—emerges as an essential aspect of understanding workplace dynamics.

The organisation of labour and work-life arrangements continuously change across time. One significant change is that remote and digital work arrangement have been more common in the struggle of achieving a sustainable working life. However, more research is needed to analyse whether the flexibility of remote work arrangements has influenced how women and men involve themselves in professional and personal matters. 

The present study aims to investigate the relationships between work from home and level of involvement in household work and paid work among women and men in Europe working in the public sector. The analyses are based on the 6th European Working Conditions Survey where more than 40 000 workers from 35 countries were interviewed on different aspects of working life. The sample used in this study consists of roughly 10 000 people working in the public sector.

Preliminary results indicate that the extent of work from home is related to what extent individuals involve themselves in household labour and paid work. Separate analyses of women and men indicate that women became more involved in paid work, and men more involved in household work, when working from home compared to those who mostly work at a workplace.

The results challenge and provide a more nuanced picture compared to most previous research which has indicated that working from home can further reinforce social inequality between men and women regarding responsibility for household labour and involvement in paid work. Work from home rather seems to counteract the gendered division of labour.