Home office as an ESG practice: benefits and humanization of work as perceived by employees

Abstract

Brazilians came across the COVID-19 health crisis in 2020 that broke with market and business standards, technologies and models, directly affecting people’s way of relating, working and living, reshaping social, cultural and economic contexts. Among these changes, remote work has never been more evident in the day-to-day lives of companies and their professionals. In this context, the question that guides this work is: what is the impact of the home office on the management of people in companies from the point of view of human resources. The objective of the work was to verify the perception of people about this mode of work, which can constitute a practice of ESG, since it contributes to the mitigation of a series of social and environmental problems of the modern world. The theoretical reference of the work is based mainly on the plural vision of ESG practices (ROMARO; SERRALVO, 2022) and on the humanization of people management (BARROS NETO, 2022; LIMONGI-FRANCE, 2012). This study is an exploratory survey, carried out by means of an online questionnaire, whose sample consisted of the response of 121 participants. The results indicate that teleworking can be a more humane way of working and a solution to numerous challenges that are being faced by organizations and society today in the environmental, social and governance aspects. As practical implications the study shows that home office adoption, widely endorsed by workers, is a way for companies to increase their employees’ motivation and commitment while contributing to building a better world for all. The originality and value of research lies in demonstrating that the benefits of good HR practices, such as home office deployment, can go beyond the internal scope of organizations.