COVID-19 Impact on Workforce Productivity with Work-from-Home Policy: Analysis of the Manufacturing Industry Case Solution
COVID-19 Impact on Workforce Productivity with Work-from-Home Policy: Analysis of the Manufacturing Industry
Research Problem
Employees are considered to be an important factor in contributing to increasing sustainability and supporting the progress of the company (Davidescu AA, 2020). Employees are reflected as the engine driving all the organizational activities and are critical for the growth of the organization as the company is said to perform potentially when the employees are productive and ensure the success of the organization.
Whereas workforce productivity is termed as the measurement of the output of goods and services that employees can perform in a specified set period (Ali, 2021). Workforce productivity has turned out to be a crucial factor in maintaining the strength and stability of a company’s overall business performance (Koopman, 2002).
As COVID-19 emerged and disrupted the whole world’s operations it posed an immense effect on the organizational context too. Several organizations had shut their businesses and instructed their employees to work from home. The organizations had adopted work-from-home policies during the pandemic (Alashhab, 2021). This paper will attempt to examine whether COVID-19 had impacted workforce productivity, particularly in the manufacturing sector with the work-from-home policies (WFH).
Selected Key Readings
The literature review of the research will emphasis on the following important conceptions:
Literature on COVID-19 effects and working from home, employee productivity during tough times such as recessions.
After having a literature review it is perceived that as the waves of COVID-19 rolled along people have been forced to change the way they work and live. Working from home has gained more importance than working in offices. According to 35.2% of workers worked entirely from home in the US in May 2020.
The research (Afrianty, 2022) suggests that organizations need to support their employees with effective organizational support processes and developments when engaging them in WFH as the organizational processes are ineffective to support employees during the pandemic.
Studies show that in Indonesia, working from home would prove to be beneficial to sustain job satisfaction due to the changing current atmosphere and it can be a positive sign that needed to have organizations’ attention.
Discovered that employees have reported that their work hours increased and there were major changes happened in their roles and their levels of productivity.
According to workforce productivity has a negative relationship with family work conflict and social isolation while leadership has a positive relationship with work-from-home productivity and work-from-home engagement.
Had revealed in their findings that the level of remote work was high during a pandemic and industries with highly educated and better-paid employees have been reported to have more WFH whereas employees regarded that better educated and highly paid industries have fewer productivity losses during the pandemic and firms switching to remote working believe that WFH will be common even after pandemic ends.
(Kitagawa, 2021) Had conducted unique surveys in Japan for four manufacturing firms and found that employees working from home have experienced less productivity than those who did not work from home. The poor WFH setups and difficulties in communication are causing productivity loss and the mental health of employees is also significantly affected in this scenario.
The studies suggest that the workers who increased their concentration on working from home have experienced more productivity than those who were already working from home. The paper also revealed that the work from the home policy has affected some groups of workers including women and productivity.
It is observed in the studies that the decline is related to the mental well-being of the employee too. Therefore the causal effect of productivity can be seen in the mental well-being of the employees.
The findings of revealed that most companies have shifted and forced their employees to move towards the work-from-home mode to run their offices and administration work. The companies stated that they have found the work-from-home policy significantly beneficial and are seeing the work-from-home policy as an integral business.
Thus the effects of the pandemic have been evaluated and the results show that the work from home has been proven to be an effective business process that can ensure the company’s continuity and provide employees with a work-life balance. However, if the organizations manage the work-from-home mode effectively it would be beneficial for significant economic and productivity growth...................
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