Teleworking in Manufacturing: Dealing with the Post-Pandemic COVID-19 Challenge

Abstract

The quantity of teleworkers had already been rising in various work fields even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it was not until the pandemic that it spread to other sectors such as the industrial sector. There are still few studies looking at telework’s impact on this important sector. This article is intended to discuss: (1) the extent of teleworking in manufacturing, (2) its adjustment to the industrial sector (challenges and benefits), and (3) its prospects for the future. To this end, 31 in-depth interviews have been conducted with four Plant Managers and seven Human Resource Directors of 11 industrial companies in Burgos (Spain) and surroundings, as well as 20 of their workers. Pre-pandemic teleworking was only active in one of the enterprises and now there are workers that work remotely in 9 out of 11. All interviewees agreed that teleworking will gradually expand. The study shows concerns and challenges when it comes to communication, trust, control, and productivity. It highlights the importance of establishing clear policies on teleworking and how to deal with remuneration, expense reimbursements, and equity between teleworkers and on-site workers. Overall, industrial-sector teleworking has brought positive results in terms of productivity and job satisfaction levels, but it has also resulted in new demands on aspects such as ergonomics, negative habits (food and physical inactivity), communication, and work–life balance.

Applying IS-Enabled Telework during COVID-19 Lockdown Periods and Beyond: Insights from Employees in a Greek Banking Institution

“…• Organizational issues, including work performance (Ficapal-Cusí et al 2023;Mirowska and Bakici 2023); employee-supervisor relationship (Park et al 2023); issues with communication, trust, control, and productivity (Fontaneda et al 2023), especially in the context of banking institutions (Meyer et al 2022); the need to reform organizational processes (Yanagihara and Koga 2023); focus more on cooperation than subordination and increasing autonomy (Junça Silva and Coelho 2023;Stanciu et al 2023); need to reform organizational culture to fit the telework model while focusing on trust equality and confidentiality (Junça Silva and Coelho 2023;Mirowska and Bakici 2023;Bayazitova et al 2023); and re-structure organizational benefits policy to fit the telework model (Brandão and Ramos 2023;Fontaneda et al 2023), as well as utilize flexible working hours (Dimian et al 2023).…”

“…• The effect of telework on employees' emotional status and work-life balance, including the need to focus and alleviate issues with the social consequences of teleworking in the form of stress and/or technostress (Goñi-Legaz et al 2023;Dimian et al 2023;Gualano et al 2023), andtechno-isolation (Goñi-Legaz et al 2023); the effects of telework on the workers' social lives (Stanciu et al 2023); work intensification during telework (Rebelo et al 2024); feelings of unfairness on behalf of the employees not teleworking (Lee and Gascó-Hernandez 2023;Krajčík et al 2023;Fontaneda et al 2023); a decreased need for commuting that leads to time saved for personal life (Rebelo et al 2024); and a general preference for part-time/hybrid work model rather than full-time teleworking (Krajčík et al 2023). These effects have partly been reported as moderated by employees' demographic profile in terms of gender and age (Raišien ė et al 2023), or-in the case of banking institutions-employees' position in the organization and level of remuneration (Uford et al 2023), as well as the level of intensity of telework imposed (Chambel et al 2023).…”

“…Employees in Slovakia and Kuwait value time flexibility, although localization flexibility is also growing in importance, with a hybrid work model evolving as the most suitable solution in line with the employees' preferences (Krajčík et al 2023). A study in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in an industrial setting has shed light on the concerns and challenges that come into effect with telework in regard to communication, trust, control, and productivity, highlighting the importance of establishing clear policies on teleworking and remuneration, expense reimbursements, equity between teleworkers and on-site workers, as well as new demands on aspects such as ergonomics, negative habits (food and physical inactivity), communication, and work-life balance (Fontaneda et al 2023). The teleworkers' gender, age, residency situation, and status as national or foreign employees, along with many other parameters, led to a fluctuation in their perceived experience of telework in the context of the pandemic (Raišien ė et al 2023).…”

Effects of teleworking on wellbeing from a gender perspective: a systematic review

“…When teleworking was initially introduced, it was generally considered as a tool for improving work-life balance of employees by offering greater flexibility and autonomy and a reduction in work-family conflict (Green and Roberts, 2010). Despite teleworking experienced significant growth in several sectors before 2019, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced many companies to adapt to a necessary and accelerating implementation of teleworking for maintaining production and employee safety (Fontaneda et al, 2023). Consequently, telework has experienced significant transformations worldwide.…”