The impact of working from home on the job embeddedness of former office workers

Abstract

In 2020, working from home became mandatory for many knowledge workers as they were instructed to work from home in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic affected employees as both an internal and external shock. This required employees to adopt the use of technologies to engage with their co-workers, make decisions and remain productive while dealing with adapting their homes to offices which in many cases were not suitable or equipped for work. The effects of these shocks, which are strongly related to turnover intention and behaviour, can be reduced by emphasising and focusing on job embeddedness of employees. Job embeddedness represents a broad collection of community and organisational influences that links with employee retention and is a predictor of intention to leave and voluntary turnover. This research study aimed to provide insights into how working from home affects the job embeddedness of former office workers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Data was collected through an online questionnaire, distributed to highly skilled knowledge workers. A total of 176 responses were received, of which 157 met the qualifying criteria. The collected data were analysed with statistical software to test the hypotheses related to job embeddedness and working from home, as well as predictors of job embeddedness. The study found that former office workers perceived an increase in job embeddedness when working from home. Particularly on the embeddedness dimensions of “fit” and “links”. The embeddedness dimension of sacrifice was found to be unchanged. Additionally, the family structure of employees who work from home was found to be a significant indicator of embeddedness.