Telecommuting: Working from Home and Its Effects on the Job Performance of Employees

Abstract

The current developments in technology and the fast growth of the internet bring about a change in our lifestyle. In the Philippines, there is a current rise in the number of work-from-home professions or telecommuting. Telecommuting is the term used to refer to an employee performing his/her job at a site that is not in the office or their typical workplace, which is made possible by technological connections. Companies and organizations, especially those in the field of Information Technology, are slowly starting to incorporate telecommuting and having “virtual offices” as an alternative to the usual office workplace setting. This study aims to determine whether the telecommuting setup also has benefits to working from home employee’s job performance. The data used in the study was gathered through a survey, which would determine the respondent’s demographics and their job performance rating. This study also takes into consideration social factors such as interactions with supervisors, co-workers and family members during the work from home setup to determine whether it has an influence on job performance. Individual factors such as gender and marital status will be taken into consideration as well. The statistical tests used in this study are Linear Regression, Mann-Whitney Test, Lambda as well as Spearman’s rho. The results of the study show that telecommuting gives the opposite effect to job performance and that the social and individual factors are not correlated and have weak associations with job performance.