Posted: Tuesday, April 27, 2021 17:46
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only disrupted and transformed the workplace for millions of Canadians but has also exposed a digital divide between office workers and field workers whose jobs cannot be performed remotely, a new study has found.
The study by consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Canada found that while 67 per cent of office workers were able to upgrade their digital skills during the pandemic, offering them a degree of physical and job security, less than half (49 per cent) of field workers were offered opportunities for digital upskilling.
The Canadian field worker study also found that most field workers weren’t using technology very much or at all both before (58 per cent) and during (53 per cent) the pandemic. And when asked if technology has helped them work differently since COVID-19, the majority of respondents (52 per cent) said no.