How did employees perceive their forced teleworking experience and what lessons can be learned for the future?

Published by Anne LAFONT (TBS PROGRAMME GRANDE ECOLE, 1988) | N° 103 - La Tribu - English Version

Between April 1 and May 10, 2020, as sudden containment measures led employees around the world to telework, a team of TBS research professors, Kevin Carillo, Head of the Information Systems Department, and Alain Klarsfeld, Head of the Work, Employment, & Health Research Laboratory, seized the opportunity of what was a real life-size telework laboratory.

CRS

Kevin Carillo
Head of the Information Systems Department

Alain Klarsfeld
Head of the Work, Employment, & Health Research Laboratory

They carried out a study on the adjustment to telework and interviewed 1,600 people on their feelings about their productivity, the level of satisfaction they got from this experience, and the way they were able to balance a professional and a personal life when forced to share the same place.

The study was able to identify factors that influence employees' adjustments to telework. The most important factors were isolation from work and were stress related to the health and economic situation. The size of the team, the dependence on other team members or the fact of having to manage a team from a distance were also obstacles to this adjustment to telework. The researchers were also able to identify factors favourable to telework, such as the quality of the environment, including the absence of noise or interruptions during work, as well as the quality of the technical and material equipment.

Less expectedly, the perceived increase in workload was also identified as a factor favouring adjustment to 'forced' telework, perhaps in that it would enhance the good productivity level of the homeworker. We saw that experience improved with time and also with a better mastery of computer tools that people were able to acquire.

From this study, we can already draw some lessons in the managerial methods to be implemented to optimise telework:

The feeling of isolation must be prevented by frequent meetings and the organisation of telephone meetings with 2 or 3 people.

Feedback should be regular to limit stress and promote communication. It is also important to provide information on the life of the company to maintain a sense of belonging and to provide the teleworker with the necessary support for problem solving and the emotional support necessary for professional balance.

This is where the right balance needs to be found to support and help without lapsing into micro-management which would be tantamount to surveillance resulting in an inability to trust "from a distance".

The company and the team manager must also be able to help in the flow of work and daily life.

From a material point of view, the quality of the equipment is another important point and finally, telework requires a permanent increase in the digital skills of employees, which must be organised.