Consequences of COVID-19 on Employees in Remote Working: Challenges, Risks and Opportunities An Evidence-Based Literature Review

Prevalence and Factors Associated With Willingness to Sustain Pandemic-Induced Digital Work in the General Population and Moderating Effects of Screen Hours: Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND

The pandemic has accelerated digital work transformation, yet little is known about individuals' willingness to sustain such digital modes and its associated factors. A better understanding of this willingness and its drivers is crucial for guiding the development of future digital work infrastructure, training programs, and strategies to monitor and prevent related health issues.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to quantify the general population's willingness to sustain pandemic-induced digital work, identify its associated factors, and examine how screen time moderates these relationships.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted targeting Hong Kong residents aged ≥18 years who have increased engagement in digital work since the pandemic. Data were collected through self-reported, web-based surveys. Descriptive statistics determined prevalence rates, while structured multiphase logistic regression identified associated factors and explored the moderating effects of screen hour levels.

RESULTS

This unfunded study enrolled 1014 participants from May 2 to June 24, 2022, and completed data analysis within 3 months after data collection. A total of 391 (38.6%; 95% CI 35.6%-41.6%) participants expressed willingness to sustain digital work. Positive factors associated with this willingness included being an employee (odds ratio [OR] 3.12, 95% CI 1.59-6.45; P=.001), being health professionals (OR 3.32, 95% CI 1.49-7.82; P=.004), longer screen hours (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.03-1.15; P=.002), and higher depression levels (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.01-1.44; P=.04). Conversely, negatively associated factors included older age (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.81-0.94; P=.001), extroversion (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.51-0.86; P=.002), higher eHealth literacy (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93-0.98; P<.001), perceived greater susceptibility to COVID-19 (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.74-0.96; P=.009), residence in a high-severity COVID-19 community (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.63-0.84; P<.001), having infected individuals in the immediate social circle (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.46-0.88; P=.006), higher BMI (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.90-0.99; P=.02), feelings of being out of control (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93-0.98; P=.002), and higher fear of COVID-19 (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.98; P=.001). In addition, a moderating effect of screen hour level (high: >8 h/d; low: ≤8 h/d) influenced the association among 10 factors related to willingness to sustain pandemic-induced digital work, including age, education level, household size, needs for regular medical care, BMI, frequency of both vigorous and moderate physical activities, perceived COVID-19 severity, immediate social circle COVID-19 presence, and fear of COVID-19 (all P values for interaction <.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The substantial willingness of the general population to sustain digital work after the pandemic highlights the need for robust telework infrastructure, thorough monitoring of adverse health outcomes, and the potential to expand telehealth services among this group. The identification of factors influencing this willingness and the moderating role of screen hours inform the development of personalized strategies to enhance digital work acceptance where needed.

"That was one of my most difficult and biggest challenges": experiences, preconditions and preventive measures of health-oriented leadership in virtual teams - A qualitative study with virtual leaders

BACKGROUND

Health-oriented leadership (HoL) has a positive impact on health- and work-related outcomes of employees in face-to-face settings. Increased digitization during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to many changes and increased job demands. According to current state of research, HoL in virtual teamwork is insufficiently researched. The aim of the study is to examine the experiences of virtual leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify preconditions and preventive measures for promoting HoL.

METHOD

Using a qualitative study design, semi-structured, guide-based telephone interviews were conducted with 16 German virtual leaders between May and July 2021. The collected data were inductively analyzed and interpreted using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. Explorative analyses of differences between leaders with and without pre-pandemic experiences with virtual leadership were made.

RESULTS

Results indicated that leaders, regardless of pre-pandemic experiences with virtual leadership, faced diverse challenges in implementing HoL in virtual teamwork during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual leaders perceived personal preconditions (e.g., leaders' characteristics or behaviors), organizational preconditions (support by management or open-minded corporate culture), social preconditions (e.g., social support by team) and technical preconditions (e.g., sufficient technical equipment) as conducive to implementation of HoL. Almost all leaders with pre-pandemic experience identified a need for structural preventive measures, whereas almost all leaders without pre-pandemic experience reported a need for behavioral preventive measures in order to promote HoL in virtual teams.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that implementing HoL in virtual teamwork is challenging, complex and requires adjustments in leadership behavior. Thereby, the study provides initial empirical findings for a holistic approach to HoL implementation in virtual teams, considering beneficial multilevel preconditions. Due to a limited generalization of present results, longitudinal and interventional studies will be necessary for the analysis of causal relationships in future research. In particular, a holistic research perspective in order to understand the complex, contextual interdependencies of leadership is recommended. In practice, based on a differentiated needs analysis, structural preventive measures for a holistic organizational development as well as behavioral preventive measures for ongoing personnel development are recommended.

Effects of working from home on lifestyle behaviors and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey study

The COVID-19 outbreak has led to relevant changes in everyday life worldwide. One of these changes has been a rapid transition to and an increasing implementation of working from home (WH) modality. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of mandatory WH during the COVID-19 pandemic on lifestyle behaviors, Mediterranean diet adherence, body weight, and depression. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in the early 2022 at the National Research Council of Italy using ad hoc questions and validated scales collecting information on physical activity, sedentary behavior, hobbies/pastimes, dietary habits including adherence to the Mediterranean diet, body weight, and depression during WH compared with before WH. 748 respondents were included in the study. An increased sedentary lifetime was reported by 48% of respondents; however, the subsample of workers who previously performed moderate physical activity intensified this activity. Body weight gain during WH was self-reported in 39.9% of respondents. Mediterranean diet adherence increased (p≪0.001) during WH compared with before WH. The average level of mental health did not record an overall variation; however, the proportion of subjects with mild and moderate depression increased (p = 0.006), while workers who reported values indicative of depression before the transition declared an improvement. These findings highlight health-related impact of WH during the COVID-19 pandemic that may inform future strategies and policies to improve employees' health and well-being.

Identifying key mental health and improvement factors in hospital administrators working from home using a DEMATEL-based network analysis model

Purpose

To identify the key mental health and improvement factors in hospital administrators working from home during COVID-19 normalization prevention and control.

Methods

The survey was conducted from May to June 2023, and the practical experiences of 33 hospital administrators were collected using purposive sampling. The study examined a set of mental health factor systems. The relationship structure between the factors was constructed using the Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method. Finally, the structure was transformed using the influence weight of each factor via the DEMATEL-based Analytic Network Process.

Results

Regarding influence weight, the key mental health factors of hospital administrators are mainly "lack of coordination," "time management issues," and "work-life imbalances." The influential network relation map shows that improvements can be made by addressing "improper guidelines," "laziness due to being at home," and "job insecurity" because they are the main sources of influence. The reliability level of the results for the network structure and weight was 98.79% (i.e., the gap was 1.12% < 5%).

Conclusion

The network analysis model based on DEMATEL proposed in this study can evaluate the mental health factors of hospital administrators during the pandemic period from a multidimensional and multidirectional perspective and may help improve mental health problems and provide suggestions for hospital administrators.

Leveraging behavioral science and artificial intelligence to support mental health in the workplace: a pilot study

Introduction

Many American employers seek to alleviate employee mental health symptoms through resources like employee assistance programs (EAPs), yet these programs are often underutilized. This pilot study explores the design of a behavioral science-based email campaign targeting engagement with stress management and mental health resources via an EAP, among employees of a large home builder in the Southeastern US.

Methods

Behavioral designers created a behavioral science intervention using a multi-step design approach and evidence based behavioral strategies. For this pilot intervention, employees received either a treatment message [i.e., behavioral science message assembled and delivered via the behavioral reinforcement learning (BRL) agent] or a control message (i.e., a single generic, supportive message with a stock photo) with a call to action to utilize their EAP.

Results

A total of 773 employees received emails over the course of 1 year. Engagement was high, with an 80% email open rate. Over 170 employees (22%, 159 treatment and 14 control) clicked the CTA and logged into the EAP site at least once.

Discussion

This pilot study suggests that using behavioral science and artificial intelligence can improve employee usage of EAP, specifically with the intention of exploring mental health and stress management resources, compared to benchmark rates of 5% per year.

Job Satisfaction and Perceived Structural Support in Remote Working Conditions-The Role of a Sense of Community at Work

Changes in work assets due to the COVID-19 pandemic posed several challenges to employees' well-being, especially in the light of the changes in the work organization, such as remote working and the massive use of IT. According to the literature on the role of technologies at work, the organization's ability to support remote working is a valuable protective factor. At the same time, social distancing due to the pandemic forced employees to use a new relational asset. This, in turn, can shed new light on how the sense of connection and belonging to an organization impacts remote working experiences. This paper will test the mediational effect of structural support and sense of community at work in the link between job demands and job satisfaction in a sample of remote workers. The study involved 635 participants aged 21 to 70 (mean = 46.7, SD = 11; females = 61%). Among them, 33% had remote working experiences before the first Italian lockdown (March 2020). The research protocol included scales from the COPSOQ-III (job demands, sense of community, job satisfaction) and a questionnaire to evaluate the structural support related to the remote working asset. Results from a structural equation model showed a partial mediating effect of sense of community, but not of structural support, in the link between job demands and job satisfaction (χ2(22) = 76.918, p = 0.00, CFI = 0.966, TLI = 0.944, RMSEA = 0.063 (90% CI = 0.048-0.078, p = 0.079), SRMR = 0.044). The role of such associations for future technology-based work assets is detailed in the discussion.

Occupational Stress-Induced Consequences to Employees in the Context of Teleworking from Home: A Preliminary Study

Challenges when many people moved their jobs from the office to home because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have put stress on employees’ daily routine and professional lives. This article investigated the experience of individuals working not at the office and disclosed consequences of occupational stress such as mental and physical exhaustion, social deprivation, decreased work commitment, professional cynicism, and professional burnout. The preliminary study was based on a survey of 202 employees in Lithuania who were teleworking from home throughout the pandemic. According to the results, it can be assumed that teleworking had rather negative effects on employee wellbeing, as many teleworkers tended to suffer mental and physical exhaustion and social deprivation when working from home within pandemic. The psycho-emotional state of employees seems to be a key factor influencing the intellectual resources of an organization in a period of uncertainty.

Positioning Technostress in the JD-R Model Perspective: A Systematic Literature Review

This paper aims to describe the effects of Technostress on employees' well-being and productivity. We adopted the Job Demands Resources Model as a theoretical framework to analyze the "Technostress" phenomenon in order to clarify whether and how technology can be considered a job demand, a job resource, or part of the effects of personal resources in the workplace. The sources search and selection process was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines and regarded papers published from 2010 to 2022. Overall, the findings show that most selected papers consider ICT a job demand negatively affecting human behavior, thoughts, and attitudes. In contrast, some report that ICT acts as a job resource, thus reducing the impact of job demands and their physiological and psychological costs. Finally, a third category of studies does not consider the effects of ICT itself but gives more space to the interaction among ICT, the organizational context in which it is used, and the personal characteristics of ICT users. More specifically, the findings show how individual features and organizational procedures can shape the interpretations employees make about their ICT-related experiences at work and, consequently, their performance or well-being. Findings suggest that when ICT tools are strategically planned and used within organizations, they can enrich the employee experience at work, positively affecting the individual and the organizational level.

Addressing the COVID-19 Shock: The Potential Job Creation in China by the RCEP

In 2020, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) left around 81% of the global workforce, nearly 2.7 billion workers, affected. Employment in China was the first to be hit by COVID-19. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is expected to bring dynamism to China's employment market in an era of long COVID-19. This study aims to examine the number of sectoral jobs that the RCEP will create in China, with the number of skilled or unskilled labour employed in each sector. The exogenous shocks to the RCEP can be reflected in the number of jobs created through multipliers based on a social accounting matrix compiled from China's input-output tables in 2017, combined with the employment satellite accounts compiled. The results show that the RCEP is expected to create over 17 million potential jobs in China, with unskilled labour accounting for 10.44 million and skilled labour for 6.77 million. It is even expected that there will be job losses in the metalworking machinery sector. The contribution of this paper can serve as a reference for policies to protect vulnerable sectors, further open up trade markets and strengthen cooperation among RCEP members as important measures to address the employment impact of long COVID-19.