The Influence of Teleworking on the Job

Satisfaction, Employee Commitment and

Productivity of the Employees during the
COVID-19 Pandemic
 REPORT ON:
Course Title: HR Strategy
Course Code: MGT 4127
Section: 1

SUBMITTED TO:
Ms. Farhana Ferdousi
Assistant Professor
Southeast Business School
Southeast University Banani, Dhaka.

SUBMITTED BY:
Rema Rani Paul
ID: 2018010000105

Date of Submission: January 27, 2021

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................4
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Objective of the Study.................................................................................................................................5
Methodology...............................................................................................................................................5
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................6
Findings.......................................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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1. Executive Summary
Telework is the act of working at a remote location, usually at home instead of travelling to and
from an office. Due to extended Teleworking, it is helpful for most of the employers to reach a
large number of employees by allowing them to functions their works from home in response to
the coronavirus threat. Telework is also considered as a valuable tool that strengthens work
proximity and more efficiency by enabling remote workers to stay productive. As Teleworking is
a new experience for the employees during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, I have interviewed
the Lead Management Coordinator and the Human Resource Coordinator of C&T home care to
know how the organization has adopted Teleworking during this pandemic and how Teleworking
have impacted the productivity of the employees during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. It also
aims at identifying whether the influence is positive or negative and whether there has been a
change in the factors or not. In this report, I have also discussed about how Teleworking enables
the employees to stay more committed and obtain satisfaction while working. So, this research
will help individuals understand what are the findings from the perspective of organizational
view on how Teleworking influences Job satisfaction, Employee commitment and Productivity
of the employees during the pandemic situation.

2. Introduction
Telework means the act of working at a remote location, usually at home instead of travelling to
and from an office. Due to extended Teleworking, it is helpful for most of the employers to reach
a large number of employees by allowing them to functions their works from home in response
to the coronavirus threat. Telework is also considered as a valuable tool that strengthens work
proximity and more efficiency by enabling remote workers to stay productive. [ CITATION Bet20 \l
1033 ]

There are many reasons for which the employers provide their employees to telework depending
on the nature of their job and technology due to the pandemic circumstances. It also gives an
opportunity to the employees to reside wherever they want. It also provides a business path for
organizations to capitalize on individual skills. This article aims at analyzing the influence of
Telework on the productivity of the employees’ in the COVID-19 situation. The purpose of
the study is to find out how organizations have adopted Teleworking and how it enables the
employees to stay more committed and obtain satisfaction while working through
Teleworking. In this paper, a study was done on Compassion and Trust (C&T) Home care
company that introduced telework as a measure to face coronavirus in a crisis context.
Teleworking has been used by organization to ensure their employees safety and to provide
continuity to economic activity. It is becoming common for the organizations to offer their
employees the option to work from home for various reasons such as decreasing office rents,

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balancing work life for the employees and saving time on commuting. Therefore, teleworking
has become the only alternative for the employees. As one of the most important business factors
for organizations is the productivity of their employees, it is important to find out whether
Teleworking has an influence on productivity and whether the influence is positive or negative
and whether there has been a change in the factors or not. The main purpose is to have a broader
understanding of the connection between working from home practice and productivity of the
employees and to discover whether there has been a change in the productivity factors from
working traditionally.
The technological limitations can be a barrier to the development of the workforce such as access
to technology and incorporation of telework with the company’s strategies and the organizational
structure. They may adversely affect the social network in the work ambience and thereby create
other challenges for the managers. But Telework program can fit with the current organizational
structures, procedures and value systems may have higher chance of success. In this paper, the
methodology of this study focuses on conducting an interview from the lead management
coordinator of the company Trust and Compassion home care in order to get the information and
thus finding the results of framed objectives to derive the findings and conclusion of this study.

3. Objective of the Study

 To find out whether Teleworking has an impact on the productivity of the employees in
the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.
 To find out how organizations have adopted telework and how it enables the employees
to stay more committed and obtain job satisfaction through Teleworking.
 To identify the factors that are positively or negatively influencing the productivity of the
employees who are teleworking.
 To identify the relationship between job commitment and satisfaction during the adoption
of teleworking.

4. Methodology
The study has been conducted based on exploratory research design that involves both primary
and secondary data. The primary data is collected on the basis of few interviews of Lead
Management Coordinator of C&T home care over the phone. The data was collected during
January when employees in that particular organizations were instructed to work from home. The
interview was conducted for measuring the individual factors associated with our study variables
such as Job performance, Job satisfaction, Employee commitment and Employee productivity.
So, this study examined the relationship between Telecommuting and its influence on Job
performance, employee commitment, job satisfaction as well as the productivity of the
employees. The secondary data has also been used for the purpose of data collection. Different

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articles, documents, books and the website information has been extensively used to identify
how organizations have adopted telework and how it enables the employees to stay more
committed and obtain job satisfaction through Teleworking and also to find out whether
Teleworking has an impact on the productivity of the employees that is to define the objectives
and problems. The only two key interviews with the Lead Management Coordinator and Human
Resource Coordinator have been conducted and it has been recorded and restated. As a source of
data collection some academic articles are used. The method design for data analysis of the
content is the thematic analysis in order to compare determining the factors of the employee’s
productivity when the work from home and how these factors have changed overtime. Moreover,
the organization helped me a lot to get the relevant information. Additionally, due to some
confidential resolutions it was difficult to get some data. The data have been collected from the
available secondary source and it was confirmed by the interview. Then the data was organized
according to the content of the report. The data is collected from the sources and the findings of
the study has been emerged by reading the transcribed data. Some secondary literature was also
used to authenticate the interview results. Finally, the findings of this paper have been put under
the research objectives and framed into a conceptual framework.

5. Literature Review
The term “Teleworking" is a flexible work arrangement that helps the employees to switch their
regular working hours from office to home, client site, on the road communicating using
appropriate technology.
a) Teleworking and the Pandemic: According to the article published by the World
Economic Forum [CITATION Wor21 \l 1033 ] pointed out that the management should also
be clear about the transition to be made from traditional work arrangement to
teleworking. If the company is using teleworking for the first time, the organization can
look into issues such as network security and the protection of corporate information.
Moreover, several distractions from both personal and professional worlds can also affect
the work. Problems such as unequal salaries between employees working in the office
and teleworkers, employee isolation, limitation of normal interaction with the colleagues
and difficulties in organizing union activities could occur. Another problem for the
employees is the hindrance of career advancement. It is usually common for employees
remaining in the office have a higher chance to be known and get promoted quicker as
the management does not know about the interpersonal communication skills and
relationships of the employee working from home. Working from home for the
employees could also lead to less informal communication network with the colleagues.
When the employees do not have such interactions, they may feel alienated from the
colleagues and company goals and values. So, the employees and the managers should
remain focused and should engage at the moment for a meaningful teleworking culture
[ CITATION Eri01 \l 1033 ].

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 b) Teleworking and Job Satisfaction: According to some researchers Job satisfaction is an
emotional state which tends to be pleasurable and positive as a result of evaluating the
experience of one’s job. Teleworking allows more flexibility and autonomy to the
workers that in turn leads to meeting the demands of their jobs as well as their personal
life. Some researchers have identified a linear relationship between teleworking and job
satisfaction. This indicates that more job satisfaction is achieved by employees who work
through teleworking or vice versa. Some researchers have also identified that a
curvilinear relationship exists between teleworking and job satisfaction saying that
teleworking tends to increase job satisfaction but up to a specific limit. They say that after
a particular limit, job satisfaction tends to decrease.

c) Teleworking and Job Productivity: Working from home increases the employee’s
productivity, if organizations offer them the necessary support, such as enhanced
communication and the provision of support services. It is claimed that the productivity is
mainly a result of the work-life balance of the employees and flexibility of the work
hours. In a study, it was indicated that a causal relationship between teleworking with
performance and productivity. According to the authors [ CITATION Esr19 \l 1033 ]
flextime, which means flexible working arrangement increases productivity. When
teleworking is offered as a flexible work arrangement, it tends to improve performance.

d) Teleworking and Organizational Commitment : Organizations provide supportive

teleworking arrangements, the commitment of the employees towards work rise. Studies
have also found out that flexible work scheduling has positive and negative effects on
affective commitment and intent for turnover. Multiple researchers also found that
teleworking leads to employee isolation which negatively affects organizational
commitment. However, more recent research studies [ CITATION Har21 \l 1033 ]have
identified that the relationship between telework and organizational commitment was
stronger for younger workers. It also suggests that teleworking may be a tool to attract
younger talent.

6. Findings of the study

Based on the literature that has been mentioned, the study has analyzed whether Teleworking has
an impact on the productivity of the employees. One of the respondents, a lead management
coordinator was saying that “the overall productivity of the employees at C&T home care has
been declining”. It was found that during COVID-19 pandemic employees were provided the
required devices like PC by the company to work from home. So, here many new employees as
they were working from home their supervisors could not directly supervise their activities. As a
result, the productivity of the employees reduced as the communication of the employee with the

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customer base could not be directly supervised by their immediate supervisor as immediately it
was possible when employees were working from office traditionally.
But in few cases like for the women and some existing experienced employees, teleworking has
enhanced their productivity due to quieter and less stress work environment and they could
concentrate more on work staying at home as they also had family responsibilities which
provides them work flexibility.
Further, it was confirmed by the Human Resource Coordinator that during the lockdown period
in Bangladesh, the productivity of the company has also highly declined as employees had no
other way other than working from home. But as the lockdown was removed the productivity of
employees was a little better but still did not reach the productivity level prior as before the
COVID-19 period. As there are employees of this company working from the US as well. Many
of the C&T home care employees in the US have been affected by Covid-19. So, during that
time, the company initially faced high level of abseentism so the turnover was an initiative taken
by the company because due to Covid-19 as most of the employees in the US were taking leaves.
So, the company had to pay them even during the leave period. So, there was a requirement of
skilled people who can perform jobs of those US employees. The company also had in mind that
if this skill base is made available from Bangladesh even though their productivity might not be
like before but they will be able to reduce cost per employee as the salary that is to be paid to
Bangladeshi employees will be less. In C&T home care the initial starting salary of an employee
is 25000 Tk whereas the same salary that is paid to the US employee was 1 lakh taka. So, even
though the company was able to recruit employees from Bangladesh they were not as skilled as
the US employees. So, overall the productivity of the company was less than before but this
didn’t hamper the company greatly as they were able to pay the Bengali employees less
compensation.
The Human Resource Coordinator was saying that “due to the announcement of lockdown, the
company C&T home care adopted Telework by providing employees with the necessary
work equipment’s such as PC, headphone for working from home and employees could
also work at office if they wanted to make it a highly flexible work environment as
employees could choose their workplace”. As employees of C&T home care in Bangladesh
frequently needs to communicate with company customers over call and for continuing people’s
job during the COVID-19 pandemic has helped employees to work flexibly from home without
losing their jobs.
Among other companies we can see that many employees lost their job due to which we can see
that employee commitment among other existing employees also reduces. But in C&T home care
the employee commitment was prevalent as Teleworking was introduced where employees could
work from home using the equipment’s provided by their office. In C&T home care there is high
requirement of supervisors to monitor the conversation between the customer and the employee.
So, C&T home care hired more supervisors who could coordinate employee activities more

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effectively as while working from home the supervisors would not be present there and even
technical assistance was ensured from time to time by the employee’s technical team. This
ensured high level of job satisfaction among employees as the company was able to ensure that
their employees do not face any work-related issues. This was also confirmed by the Human
Resource Coordinator of the company.
The factors of Teleworking influence the productivity of the employees in C&T home care. The
productivity increases if the employees feel that their organization trusts and cares about them
and provides them with training, good project management and adequate resources to get their
job done in time. As working from home greatly depends on technology and technical
equipment, technical factors can influence the productivity too. Thus, if the employees have
access to the appropriate technology and work equipment’s, technical and logistic support, their
productivity increases.
On the contrary, lack of face-to-face communication with the colleagues may have an adverse
effect on the productivity of the organization as it becomes more difficult to access people for
help and cooperation in the absence of a team environment that may lead to delays in receiving
critical information. It even complicates the situation more in C&T home care as there is a high
level of task interdependence and the colleagues work with sequential tasks and wait for the
completion of each other’s task. This was confirmed by the Human Resource Coordinator of the
company.
The Human Resource Coordinator was also saying that “Being in the same home environment
for a relatively long time causes feeling of social and professional isolation and
disconnectedness that affects productivity negatively”.
During teleworking, if there is disruption of the internet network and having difficulty in sending
work data and information between the employees, then this also reduces the productivity of the
employees.
Some of the factors that influence the productivity of the employees depends on their personality
or circumstances in C&T home care like the flexibility aspect can be considered. If there are no
restrictions on the working hours and the employees have the freedom to determine the time and
place of work as well as if they have control over their schedule, it will have a positive influence
on the productivity. If the employees lack motivation and work discipline at home and if they
need some external pressure to be structured then their productivity will decrease drastically.
“The aspect of work-life balance also influences that influences the productivity of the
employees in C&T” which was confirmed by the Human Resource Coordinator. As teleworking
gives more freedom to the employees in C&T about their work times, they tend to spend more
time with their families that reduces family conflicts and increases job satisfaction levels, that in
turn increases their productivity. Similarly, the same factor can also decrease productivity for

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womens mostly as it might stressful for them to balance work and domestic chores with the
demands from the family members and presence of young children at home.

7. Conclusion
The objective of the study aims at identifying that Teleworking has an influence on productivity
of the employees. Some of the factors of Teleworking have positive influences on the
productivity and some other factors have negative influences. Moreover, there are some of the
factors that influence the productivity of the employees which depends on their personality,
attitudes and circumstances. The study also aims to identify how teleworking can support
employees to obtain job satisfaction, employee commitment and job productivity. Modern
innovations and technology will provide opportunities to adopt teleworking to the convenience
of the employee and enables the employee to adopt new methods of work. This paper also
reveals that employee commitment towards work through teleworking can increase the work
credit for any employee. Meanwhile, it also affects some personal events due to work at home.
There is a partial relationship between employee commitment and job satisfaction. Before
adopting the Teleworking method, an organization should strictly monitor the work environment
where the employee proceeds to optimize these facilities and the organization should also
organize some virtual workshops to reduce the work-related difficulties. This will enable the
employee to stay more committed and obtain job satisfaction through Teleworking.

8. Recommendations
An organization must take necessary steps for the successful implementation of the Teleworking
work arrangement. The organization should hire more supervisors who could efficiently
supervise and coordinate the work activities among the team members. So, this will enable to
increase the productivity of the employees as the communication with the customer base could
be supervised directly by their supervisor as immediately it was possible when employees were
working from office immediately. The organization also should look into the issues such as
network security and protection of the corporate information while teleworking as employees are
allowed to work from home, there is a risk of unauthorized access to the system and the company
data can be easily used by the competitors. The organization should also ensure to build
procedures to measure as well as evaluate the performance of the teleworkers and ensure that it
builds procedures to capture the feedback from these remote employees.

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References
Betterteam, 2020. Betterteam. [Online]
Available at: https://www.betterteam.com/what-is-telecommuting
[Accessed 27 01 2021].

Desrosiers, E. I., 2001. Telework and Work Attitudes. [Online]

Available at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=2726&context=open_access_dissertations
[Accessed 26 01 2021].

Forum, E., 2021. World Economic Forum. [Online]

Available at: https://www.weforum.org/events/the-davos-agenda-2021
[Accessed 27 01 2021].

MacDonell, H. a., 2021. Telecommuting: An Empirical Study on Job Performance, Job Satisfaction and
Employees Commitment during Pandemic Circumstances. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Abilash_Mani/publication/348115568_OPEN_ACCESS_Telecomm
uting_An_Empirical_Study_on_Job_Performance_Job_Satisfaction_and_Employees_Commitment_durin
g_Pandemic_Circumstances/links/5fef332145851553a00d5689/OPEN-ACCESS-Tele
[Accessed 26 01 2021].

Thorstensson, E., 2019. Influence of Teleworking on employees productivity. [Online]

Available at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1446903/FULLTEXT01.pdf
[Accessed 27 01 2021].

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