According to new research from Statistics Canada, increasing numbers of workers across the country are taking advantage of flexible working policies to improve their work/life balance.

Just over 3.6 million Canadians work from home, found the report from the research body, which also revealed that, of that figure, half were self-employed and half were contracted to companies who advocated flexible working.

The rise in home working is, however, not as significant as researchers had predicted it would be – the levels have risen by two per cent in the last eight years, making up 19 per cent of the Canadian workforce.

The number of self-employed people working from home has seen the greatest increase, rising from 1.4 million in 2000 to 1.8 million.

Other factors impacting the number of those working from home includes education levels. Fifty-four per cent of those working from home were degree educated. The research also found that slightly more men worked from home than women, and, of those, 55 per cent were in professional or management jobs.

The most common reason for working from home was found to be that employers requested their staff do so – 25 per cent of flexible workers cited that as a reason. Twenty-three per cent said that their homes offered better working conditions than an office would.