Diagnostic Instrument Design: Teleworking Efficiency Index

Abstract

Purpose: To present the design of a new diagnostic tool called “Telework Efficiency Index” that is able to evaluate the performance of the telework modality for any business activity. Method: For the design of the telework efficiency index, it was necessary to reveal some current experiences of the phenomenon of telework in Argentina, carrying out a field investigation through surveys and in-depth interviews with three companies operating at national and international level, two of them belonging to the telecommunications and IT sector, and another, belonging to the tourism sector as a corporate agency. Results and conclusion: The field research carried out for the design of a new teleworking diagnostic tool, shows quite strong results of the benefits associated with the company and its workers. There is a better balance between work and family/personal activity in terms of a proportion of time spent on the order of 45% for work activities and 35% for family and personal leisure activities. í 83.33% of respondents say that the link in the ón labor relationship has improved since teleworking, and with respect to the link with their íworkñ 60% say that it has improved. In addition, 60% said they were á with teleworking, and the remaining 40% were very satisfied. Being that 50% states that the level of stress at work has decreased and has significantly improved their quality of life at the same time as their work performance. é. The biggest deficiency in 76.66% lies in the imperative need to educate and train the skills and abilities of people to perform telework optimally. The telework efficiency index represents a diagnostic tool that evaluates the performance of telework, taking as a central axis of analysis the person who exercises telework over other variables of lower incidence such as the technological infrastructure and the economic and financial aspects of organizations. Implications of research: A phenomenon of growing global trend is taken as a starting point, which emerges strongly in recent decades as a result of the great development of information and communication technologies in the productive and social field, and in particular, from the COVID-19 pandemic that has definitively consolidated telework as a new modality of work organization, which benefits all parties involved. In this framework, the design of a diagnostic tool "telework efficiency index" that evaluates the performance of telework is presented, and facilitates better strategic decisions in organizations in the new era that transits society and the productive sector. Originality/value: This study allows to present to the productive community a new diagnostic tool that evaluates the performance of telework, where the psychological and emotional aspects of the people willing to exercise telework over technological issues are placed in the center of the scene. This tool provides an original contribution of analysis to the discipline, considering telework as a disruptive methodology of work organization.