How to promote teleworkers’ job satisfaction? the Telework Quality Model and its application in small, medium, and large companies

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, telework became widely used to ensure work activities and protect employee health. However, its rapid implementation has led to little attention to its quality and increased inequalities between companies and employees. The widespread adoption of telework has also challenged HRD departments in helping employees to be satisfied with their ‘new way of working’. From the post-pandemic perspective, challenges related to high-quality telework implementation and employee’s satisfaction should be addressed. This study investigates how the Telework Quality Model core resources are related to teleworkers’ job satisfaction, involving 1192 teleworkers from large companies (LCs) and small-medium enterprises (SMEs). A multi-group structural equation model was used to test the association between TQM core resources and teleworkers’ job satisfaction. The results showed that the four core components of TQM were correlated with employee job satisfaction. Three of the four TQM resources were significantly associated with job satisfaction among both LCs and SMEs, while the functional remote workstation component was not associated with job satisfaction among SMEs. The TQM proves to be a valuable tool for HRD professionals, especially in the post-pandemic phase, when there is a need to overcome implementation limitations and develop high-quality teleworking.