The Pros And Cons Of Telecommuting: A Critical Analysis

Literature Review

Telecommuting is a work arrangement where the employee works outside the office, and instead, working from home, coffee shops, etc. This form of work/employment has gained popularity and received high commendations since the beginning of the internet era. Employees who applaud it claim that their best ideas always arise from working away from the impromptu meetings, colleague’s phone messages and small talks, among other forms of distractions in the work place. Another upside to telecommuting is that it boosts employees’ work-life balance. Because of telecommuting, new mothers are able to nurse their infants while keeping up with their careers. Employers have also argued that working from home boosts productivity, job satisfaction, and retention among employees (O’Leary, 2013).

Of course not all employers share this logic. Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer in 2013, ordered more than 10,000 Yahoo workers who were telecommuting to go back to the physical offices. The reasons she gave for this drastic move was that: People are more productive when seated at a desk, some of the great ideas come out of observing the office environment, and it is easier to make spontaneous chats about ideas and problems (Shulman, 2013). These are all valid advantages of working from the office, and productivity Statistics for the Industrialization period, before email and advanced technology were invented, are evidence for the high rates of productivity. (Bjoran, 2011) Also argues that working from home poses major security threats for companies. Telecommuting involves an employee carrying home with them Company information (data), and intellectual property, which face the risk of being corrupted, leaked, or lost.

Given all these reasons for, and against telecommuting, knowing the optimal employment method proves to be a challenge. Hence the need for this report. The questions that the report seeks to answer are:

1. Which category is more productive?
2. Which category expresses more job satisfaction levels?
3. Which departments are more likely to telecommute?
4. What is the nature of promotion between the two groups?

Telecommuting has continued to gain popularity as the preferred method of work. In U.S. for instance, telecommuting rose to 37% between 1995 and 2015 (Jones, 2015). These results are based on the Gallup’s annual Work and Education poll performed through telephone interviews. According to Jones, most companies have allowed their employees work from home, at least on occasional basis, e.g. twice or thrice a week, if not working remotely full time. In his article, Jones analyzed the data from Gallup’s annual Work poll and grouped telecommuters by Education, Income, and Job type. He came to the conclusion that college graduates were more likely to telecommute than non-college graduates; white collar professions were more likely to telecommute compared to blue collar, and finally, high income earners, telecommuted more than low income earners. In the measurement of productivity for the two categories of employees, a poll conducted by Gallup resulted in 58% of Americans for the idea that employees who work at home are just as productive as those that work in an office.

Data and Methodology

The data used in this analysis is a dataset retrieved from Kaggle. The data consists of 10 variables with 14,999 observations each. The variables used in this report are:

1. Work type
   • A nominal variable with two levels: i.e., whether one is a telecommuter or an in-house employee.
2. Number of projects completed.
   • A quantitative variable measuring productivity of the employees.

• Job satisfaction levels
  • A quantitative variable representing the measure of satisfaction the employees have with their jobs.

1. Department
   • A nominal variable representing the department to which the workers belong, i.e., Accounting, HR, IT, Management, Marketing, Sales, Support and Technical.
2. Promotion
   • Whether the employee has been promoted. (Nominal variable).

The hypothesis for the analyses performed are given in the next section.

For the first two hypotheses, T-Test will be used for analysis, while ANOVA will be used in the analysis for the last two hypotheses. All analysis will be performed in SPSS, at 95% confidence level.

1. Productivity between the two types of workers.

Productivity in this case is measured by the number of projects completed by an employee.

Null hypothesis (H₀): There is no difference in productivity for the two work types.

Alternate hypothesis (H_A): There is difference in productivity for the two work types.

The p-value from the above two tailed test is 0.28. This value exceeds the alpha value of 0.05. We therefore fail to reject the null hypothesis. This means that there is no significant difference in productivity between those who work from the office and those who work from home.

1. Job satisfaction between the two types of workers.

Null hypothesis (H₀): There is no difference in job satisfaction for the two work types.

Alternate hypothesis (H_A): There is difference in job satisfaction for the two work types.

The p-value from the two tailed t test is 0.0412, this value is less than the alpha value of 0.05. We therefore reject the null hypothesis, in favor of the alternate hypothesis. This means that there is a difference in job satisfaction between telecommuters and employees who work from the office. Telecommuters are more satisfied with their jobs.

1. Association between work type and departments

Null hypothesis (H₀): There is no association between work type and departments.

Alternate hypothesis (H_A): There is an association between work type and departments

A 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 314.48.

The p-value from the chi-square test above is 0.54, this value exceeds the level of significance. We therefore fail to reject the null hypothesis. This means that there is no significant relationship between the departmental area of work and telecommuting or not.

1. Association between work type and promotion

Null hypothesis (H₀): There is no association between work type and promotion.

Alternate hypothesis (H_A): There is an association between work type and promotion

A Computed only for a 2×2 table

B  0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 159.21.

The p-value from the chi-square test above is 0.297, this value exceeds the level of significance (0.05). We therefore fail to reject the null hypothesis. This means that there is no significant relationship between the promotions and telecommuting; i.e., promotion tendencies are equal for works whether they work from home, or work from the offices.

Conclusion

The results attained from the report’s analyses are in line with the reviewed articles. For starters, more than half the sample of study telecommute. This is an evidence of the continuous popularity of telecommuting. Secondly, the tests for comparison of means results in conclusion that productivity among the two groups of workers is significantly similar. This is in contradiction with Shulman’s article (Shulman, 2013). Working from home is indeed an adequate alternative. Thirdly, in unison with O’Leary’s article, working from home significantly boosts job satisfaction  (O’Leary, 2013). Telecommuters are more satisfied with their jobs, hence offer the highest chances of employee retention within a company. Last, but not least, chances of getting a promotion is similar for both categories of workers. Staying in the office 24/7 does not necessarily give an employee a higher chance of getting a promotion. One may stay in the office the entire weekend without being productive, in the same manner, an employee may have the total freedom to work from home, and fail to be productive. At the end of the day, it all comes down to how productive an employee is, and whether he/she is satisfied and committed to his/her job. Telecommuting, or not, shouldn’t be a cause of conflict in the employment arena.

References

Bjoran, K. (2011, June 17). The Risks of Telecommuting. Retrieved from Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/424327/the-risks-of-telecommuting/

Jones, J. M. (2015, August 19). In U.S., Telecommuting for Work Climbs to 37%. Retrieved from gallup: https://www.gallup.com/poll/184649/telecommuting-work-climbs.aspx

Shulman, A. (2013, March 2). Alexandra Shulman on working from home: it’s not an adequate alternative. Retrieved from thegurdian: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/mar/02/alexandra-shulman-working-from-home

O’Leary, M. B. (2013, March 15). Telecommuting Can Boost Productivity and Job Performance. Retrieved from Contrbutor: https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/03/15/telecommuting-can-boost-productivity-and-job-performance

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