Track: Knowledge Management

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the lives of people globally. The economy of countries as well as the mental health of human beings have deteriorated and it has also brought upon revolutionary changes. One of these significant changes has been organizations changing to remote working which developed as a result of social distancing of people. Remote working is when people perform their work from different locations, and, during the pandemic this has mainly been from home. The abrupt change to working from home was brought upon many South African employees during a period of uncertainty; there was no time for companies to prepare employees for this. As a result, the effect that remote working has had on employees in South Africa is unknown and therefore research was conducted to investigate issues pertaining to this. A survey was designed and electronically sent to participants; a sample size of 50 people was studied. Results were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS); the used of cross tabulations and chi square analysis was mainly used in the methodology. The challenges faced by employees were studied and solutions were suggested in order to overcome the challenges and maintain optimal levels of productivity. The main challenges faced by employees in South Africa included the effect of load shedding, longer working hours, the lack of resources, poor connectivity and a non-conducive home environment. Despite certain challenges, the majority of respondents stated that they would like to have a combination of a remote working and office based environment, and that remote working did not hinder productivity levels to a significant effect. Further research can be conducted with a different sample of employees, in different ages groups, as well as research done on employers.