Grapevine

Study highlights managers' role in telework success

Amazon has announced that it will end remote work for its office staff starting in January 2025. A decision that seems to go against the current, as the increasing pace of digitalization since the recent pandemic has marked a turning point for teleworking. Prior to the 2020 health crisis, this form of working was practically unimaginable for many companies but, since then, its presence has continued to grow in importance.

According to the Adecco Employment Opportunities and Satisfaction Monitor, produced by The Adecco Group Institute, telework in Spain increased by 19% in 2023, with more than 3 million people working remotely. This is more than double the number of employees doing so in 2019, i.e., before the COVID health crisis.

Working remotely is a concept that, no matter how much it grew with the pandemic and stabilized at a higher level afterwards, has not always generated a consensus. Sometimes companies have resisted implementing teleworking, which involves a number of challenges, such as the types of jobs for which it should be used, the use of technological resources, and communication between the different members of teams.

One hurdle is the management teams, whose job it is to establish whether teleworking is a good fit with the company's operations; this strategic decision depends largely on them. A study by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) surveyed 186 people (most over the age of 45 and almost 45% of them women) from different European countries to establish the determining factors for managers in the implementation of teleworking in their companies.

The research, published in the journal Human Resources Management and Services, found that managers' opinions of teleworking can make all the difference in its implementation in organizations. The study was carried out by Josep Lladós, Prof. Antoni Meseguer, Eva Rimbau and Mar Sabadell, members of teaching and research staff at the UOC's Faculty of Economics and Business and of the Digital Business Research Group (DigiBiz). It indicates not only the key skills managers need in order to create a suitable context for teleworking, but also the aspects to be borne in mind to drive change.