With the increasing prevalence of remote work, understanding how it impacts employee perception, psychological safety, and job performance is critical for organisations. This study aims to investigate the relationships among these variables using a cross-sectional quantitative design and a questionnaire consisting of three scales: the Worktango employee sentiment around remote work survey, the Worktango psychological health and safety survey, and Goodman and Svyantek’s performance scale. Our sample included 857 participants, both managers and non-managers, from a large insurance company. Our first two hypotheses were confirmed using non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis tests: employee sentiment around remote work as part of hybrid work is more favourable in non-sales fields and among employees who actually work remotely more often. Moreover, we found that psychological safety moderates the relationship between employee sentiment around remote work and work performance. Specifically, we observed that the positive relationship between employee sentiment around remote work and work performance is stronger when psychological safety is high. Overall, our findings contribute to the understanding of how remote work is perceived by employees and its relationship and impact on their psychological safety and job performance. These insights can help organisations develop effective policies and practices for remote work that support their employees’ well-being and performance.
1 August 2022 in Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence
After more than two years, the Covid-19 crisis is still not over, therefore top managers and human resources professionals are investing an important amount of time in finding the right way to keep their employees safe and motivated to ensure the performance and continuity of their businesses. Being interested in this topic, we studied in two distinct moments (beginning and end of 2021) the preferences of the managers regarding the methods that could be implemented in organizations such as working totally remote, totally from the office, or hybrid work while staying healthy, motivated and performant. The method used for the two moments of our research was the investigation based on a questionnaire addressed to managers working in all departments, located in the entire country. In this article, we will present the results of the research conducted at the end of 2021 and we will compare the results in the dynamics. Essentially, the results show the fact that non-sales managers appreciate more the work at distance or hybrid work and wish to keep this facility in the long run while sales managers appreciate it less and want to work as much as possible from the office. The preference of the two categories is very much linked to their job type and their need for direct human interaction. Regardless of their preference, all managers and their teams feel motivated and involved, and on the long term, they all believe that hybrid work will lead to ensuring the motivation and performance of their teams because being from time to time in the office encourages socializing, better access to information, an option to change the environment and even to, sometimes, work easier. Listening to the voice of the employees’ remains key in taking good quality decisions.