This document describes a conjoint analysis study conducted by Numerious Inc. to help companies determine optimal return-to-work strategies as COVID-19 restrictions ease. The study used an online survey with 590 respondents to evaluate preferences for different return-to-work policy attributes. Conjoint analysis was used to determine the most important attributes and simulate preferences for various policy combinations. The results provide recommendations to maximize the percentage of employees willing to return to work under different options.

1. Optimizing Post-Covid Return
to Work Strategies
A Conjoint Case Study
Megan Peitz & Abby Lerner
Numerious Inc.
July 2021

2. Sponsors
Communication

3. 2021 | Numerious Inc.
Optimizing Post-Covid Return
to Work Strategies
A Conjoint Case Study
Megan Peitz
Abby Lerner
NUMERIOUS INC.

4. 2021 | Numerious Inc.
4 | New MR Webinar
As COVID-19 restrictions are
eased in some parts of the
world, businesses who have had
employees working from home
for the past few months now
have decisions to make about
whether to require their
employees to return to the
office or whether they should
keep working from home

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Return to Work Policies
Expect to be back in the
office at least three days a
week by September
Expects as many as 20 percent of
its employees to continue working
remotely on a permanent basis
Workers at all levels across
the company can request
to work remotely full-time
"By Labor Day, I'll be very
disappointed if people haven't
found their way into the office
and then we'll have a different
kind of conversation“ CEO
Choose from three options; flex,
fully-remote, or office-based
30,000 white-collar office workers that
they can continue working from home
indefinitely as long as their managers
approve flexible hours, but not the same
policy for blue-collar/factory workers

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But as researchers, we
know that employers
shouldn’t be making these
decisions in a vacuum…
…employers should listen to the
voice of the employee!

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One Approach

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Our Approach – Conjoint Analysis

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How Does it Work?
Break down your product or service into its
component parts, or attributes
Define levels for each attribute
Show consumers different combinations of
products, usually 3-products per screen, and
ask them to choose which option they would
be most likely to buy
Task is repeated many times, showing a
different set of products in each task
Resulting model provides shares of preference
scores for all possible product combinations

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Conjoint helps us answer strategic questions like…
– Given this competitive set, who will choose our product/service/offering?
– At what price will people switch to a competitor?
– Can we modify our product to reduce cost while maintaining share?
– Should we launch a high-end product or a budget model (or both)?
– Will the new product cannibalize our own sales?
– If we can’t deliver on Feature X, what does that mean for us?
– Will delivering on Feature Y gain us enough incremental preference to justify the cost of
investment?

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But conjoint is NOTjust limited to
buying and selling…

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From our research, we will be able to understand…
– Can we have one plan for everyone or should we give our employees options?
– What is the optimal # of WFH days to offer?
– How does our return-to-work strategy compare to other companies?
– If we can’t offer X, what does that mean for our employees?
– Can we decrease the # of WFH days while maintaining employees?

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Methodology
N=590 respondents from the US were recruited
through Prodege’s Marketplace in July 2021
Requirements
• Age 18+
• Currently employed full or part-time
• Worked at an office prior to Covid-19
AND worked from home during Covid-19
Median time to complete – 8 minutes
43% completed the survey on a mobile device!

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Attributes & Levels
ATTRIBUTE LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5
# of days in the
office / week
1 day 2 days 3 days 4 days 5 days
Capacity 100% of the desks are
occupied
Limited to 75% of desks
occupied
Limited to 50% of desks
occupied
Limited to 25% of desks
occupied
Mask Requirement Masks required for all
employees at all times
Masks required for all
employees when not at
desk
Masks required for non-
vaccinated employees at
all times
No mask requirement
Desk Partitioning No partitions Temporary partitions
between desks available
Partitions required
between desks
Meeting Rooms Meeting rooms NOT
available
Meeting rooms available
for single occupancy only
Meeting rooms available
(no occupancy
restrictions)
Kitchen Kitchen closed Kitchen open but no
communal dishware
Kitchen open (no
restrictions)
Professional Deep
Cleaning
Daily clean only, No
professional deep clean
Daily clean + Professional
deep clean every week
Daily clean + Professional
deep clean every other
week
Daily clean + Professional
deep clean every month

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Conjoint Outputs
The model creates “utilities” for each
respondent.
– Utilities are an overview of the
preferences of the sample and the crux
of your analysis!
– A numeric value for every level of every
attribute that reflect how desirable
different features are.
– The higher the utility, the better - but it’s
all relative.
Utilities
Importance
Scores
Sensitivity
Analysis
Market
Simulations
Optimization
Searches

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Conjoint is an additive model
How much a respondent likes a
product is simply* the sum of all
the utility values for the levels that
describe that product!
Therefore, we can create a market
simulator that is essentially a
“choice laboratory” for testing a
multitude of real-world
possibilities.

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Employer Plan
# of days in the
office / week
5 days
Capacity 100% of the desks are
occupied
Mask Requirement Masks required for all
employees at all times
Desk Partitioning Partitions required
between desks
Meeting Rooms Meeting rooms NOT
available
Kitchen Kitchen closed
Professional Deep
Cleaning
Daily clean only +
professional deep clean
every month
% of employees that would
actually want to return to work
under these conditions

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Sensitivity Analysis
Observe the change in
share of preference due
to changing specifications
We do this by holding the
“employer plan” constant
and changing only 1 level
at a time
Therefore, the biggest
improvement would be
reducing the # of days in
the office from 5 to 2
%
of
employees
that
would
actually
return
to
work
under
these
conditions

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Sensitivity Analysis
However, the gain in percent of
employees that would actually
return to work is almost equal
with 2 or 3 days in the office
Not to mention, more
employees are interested in 2
or 3 days versus only 1 day
%
of
employees
that
would
actually
return
to
work
under
these
conditions

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Optimization Search
% Return
# of days in
the office Capacity Mask requirement Desk Partitioning Meeting Rooms Kitchen
Professional Deep
Cleaning
1 81.2% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Temporary
partitions
Single
occupancy
Open, no communal
dishware Every week
2 81.1% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Temporary
partitions
Single
occupancy
Open, no communal
dishware Every other week
3 81.0% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Temporary
partitions Available
Open, no communal
dishware Every week
4 80.8% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Temporary
partitions
Single
occupancy
Open (no
restrictions) Every week
5 80.70 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Partitions
required
Single
occupancy
Open, no communal
dishware Every other week
6 80.6% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Temporary
partitions Available
Open, no communal
dishware Every other week
7 80.6% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Partitions
required
Single
occupancy
Open, no communal
dishware Every week
8 80.5% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Temporary
partitions
Single
occupancy
Open (no
restrictions) Every other week
9 80.5% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Partitions
required Available
Open, no communal
dishware Every week
10 80.4% 2 Limited to 50%
Required for
non-vaxed
Temporary
partitions
Single
occupancy
Open, no communal
dishware Every month

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Cluster
Analysis
We can also find
clusters in the data
based on conjoint
responses
Here we see some
minor differences in
demographic and
attitudinal responses,
but the major
differences are in
their preferences for
the work environment

23. | NUMERIOUS TRAINING
Optimization Search by Segment
Top Ranked Combination
Segment
% Would
Return
# of days in
the office Capacity Mask requirement Desk Partitioning Meeting Rooms Kitchen
Professional
Deep Cleaning
1 97% In the
office 1
day a week
Limited to
50% of
desks
occupied
No Masks
Required
Partitions required
between desks
Meeting rooms
available for
single
occupancy only
Kitchen open but no
communal dishware
Daily clean +
Professional
deep clean
every month
2 94% In the
office 4
days a
week
Limited to
50% of
desks
occupied
Masks required
for non-
vaccinated
employees at all
times
Temporary
partitions between
desks available
Meeting rooms
available for
single
occupancy only
Kitchen open but no
communal dishware
Daily clean +
Professional
deep clean
every other
week
3 46% In the
office 2
days a
week
Limited to
50% of
desks
occupied
Masks required
for non-
vaccinated
employees at all
times
Partitions required
between desks
Meeting rooms
available for
single
occupancy only
Kitchen open but no
communal dishware
Daily clean +
Professional
deep clean
every week

24. 2021 | Numerious Inc.
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Suggested Plan Based on Results
Option 1 Option 2
# of days in the
office / week
1 day 4 days
Capacity 50% of the desks are
occupied
50% of the desks are
occupied
Mask
Requirement
Masks required for non-
vaccinated employees
Masks required for non-
vaccinated employees
Desk Partitioning Partitions required
between desks
Partitions required
between desks
Meeting Rooms Meeting rooms available
for single occupancy
Meeting rooms available
for single occupancy
Kitchen Kitchen open but no
communal dishware
Kitchen open but no
communal dishware
Professional Deep
Cleaning
Daily clean only +
professional deep clean
every other week
Daily clean only +
professional deep clean
every other week
% of employees that would
actually return to work under
these conditions
31%
19%
88%
43%
20%
72%
3%
41%
49%
9%
9%
16%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Seg 3
Seg 2
Seg 1
Total
1 day a week 4 days a week None

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So What?
Conjoint Analysis does a great job at eliciting discriminating preferences among
respondents, both in the aggregate and by subgroup.
Researchers should strongly consider conjoint when trying to understand
the trade-offs between different alternatives or when there is a likelihood for non-
discriminating data.

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When respondents are
forced to make difficult tradeoffs,
we learn what they truly value

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And when we create a relevant and easy to
understand survey, people enjoy it!
I enjoyed doing that survey. The questions required careful thinking, but it
was easy to answer and short.
I liked the format of the survey. Questions were clear and easy to answer.
Thanks- nice survey! Enjoyed the layout with the choices.
This was a fun and relevant survey.
Great survey, easy fill out and I enjoyed participating in it.
“ “

28. 2021 | Numerious Inc.
MEGAN PEITZ
megan@numerious.com
@MeganPeitz
@NumeriousInc
ABBY LERNER
abby@numerious.com
Thank You

29. Q & A
Ray Poynter
Potentiate &
NewMR
Abby Lerner
Numerious Inc.
Megan Peitz
Numerious Inc.

30. Sponsors
Communication