Challenges and opportunities of remotely working from home during Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The demand of online remote working from home significantly increased in 2020/21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This unforeseen situation has forced individuals and organisations to rapidly train employees and adopt the use of on-line working styles, seeking to maintain the same level of productivity as working from the office. The paper outlines a survey conducted amongst people working from home to identify the challenges and opportunities this change in workstyle offers. At the beginning of the pandemic, many employees faced difficulties adapting to using online tools and combining their working hours with daily routines and family commitments. However, the results show that within a short period of time the respondents had managed to develop the necessary experience and knowledge for digital working utilising tools such as collaboration platforms and video conferencing. A large proportion of respondents recognised the advantage of eliminating travelling time when working remotely from home which also has a positive impact on the environment and CO2 emissions. However, some drawbacks have been identified such as the lack of face-to-face discussion and informal meetings during working days. The Self-Determination Theory is discussed within the context of this paper and it has been found that the theory could provide an explanation of the efficient and rapid adaptation of the technology be employees.

Keywords: Conferencing; Coronavirus; Covid-19; Digital technology; Lockdown; On-line; Working from home.

Fig. 1

The self-determination theory, reproduced from Ref. [28].

Fig. 2

Percentage of respondents by work sector.

Fig. 3

Software use for communicating during remote home working.

Fig. 4

Software preference reason.

Fig. 5

Main challenges of working from home during Covid-19 for each variable.

Fig. 6

Main benefits of working from home during Covid-19 situation.