How can the transition from office to telework be managed? The impact of tasks and workplace suitability on collaboration and work performance

Abstract

COVID-19 made evident the need for workplace digital transformation due to a rapid transition from office to remote work. Therefore, employers must make telework suitable for office workers who suddenly became permanent teleworkers. By using partial least squares path modeling, this article suggests the defining of telework tasks suitability and of telework workplace suitability by performing an empirical study with 691 employees who had experienced a rapid transition from office work to remote work during the pandemic. Both telework tasks suitability and telework workplace suitability are found to have a positive relationship with collaboration and work performance. Employers should therefore especially focus on communication technology when expecting employees work from home to improve work performance and enable collaboration to prevent them from feeling isolated. This study is the first to define telework tasks suitability and workplace suitability for enabling collaboration and improving work performance of teleworkers after an enforced transition from office working to teleworking.

Coworking spaces vs. home: Does employees' experience of the negative aspects of working from home predict their intention to telework in a coworking space?

“…When employees encounter work-life balance issues when teleworking because being at home generates family demands (e.g., taking care of children) or distractions that interfere with work, they have the option of returning to the company premises to work, if teleworking was initially their decision. In situations where telework is imposed (by the company or due to compelling circumstances) and home prove to be an unsuitable place to work (Müller et al, 2022 ), relocating telework to a coworking space can be one of the only alternatives to work in good conditions. These assumptions warrant testing in further studies.…”

“…Overall, when the right working conditions are not met, the home may be a unsuitable place to telework (Müller et al, 2022 ). The health crisis linked to COVID-19, and the changeover of a significant part of the employees to “forced” telework has highlighted that some employees had a home unsuitable for work, due to lack of equipment or unfavorable family situations (Babic et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The health crisis linked to COVID-19, and the changeover of a significant part of the employees to “forced” telework has highlighted that some employees had a home unsuitable for work, due to lack of equipment or unfavorable family situations (Babic et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). Yet, workplace suitability is determinant for a successful transition to teleworking (Wang et al, 2021 ; Müller et al, 2022 ). Apart from the consequences in terms of wellbeing at work described above, Müller et al ( 2022 ) recently demonstrated that workplace suitability is positively associated with work performance and collaboration, in the context of transition to teleworking.…”

“…Yet, workplace suitability is determinant for a successful transition to teleworking (Wang et al, 2021 ; Müller et al, 2022 ). Apart from the consequences in terms of wellbeing at work described above, Müller et al ( 2022 ) recently demonstrated that workplace suitability is positively associated with work performance and collaboration, in the context of transition to teleworking. These results highlight that the workplace plays an important role in the success of teleworking deployment.…”

Rethinking workplace collaboration – an old topic with a practical view

“…Lastly, as many of us know, remote work has seen significant increases since the beginning of the pandemic (Kowalski and Slebarska, 2022;M€ uller et al, 2022). When interviewing, the startup company and nonprofit were operating in a hybrid mode of Rethinking workplace collaboration 2-3 days in office and the large company was fully remote.…”