Below is my Final Project; I decided to make a film since I wanted to use the pie charts offered by the survey. Throughout the final report, I also intended to link both main and secondary findings together. Finally, a video allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone, as I usually prefer the essay style.

My research question for this semester was centred on The Future of Work, and I focused my query on this in reference to COVID-19.

“How will the rapid adaptation of working remotely due to Covid-19 impact the Future of Work?“

Read and follow along while listening option:

This semester we had the opportunity to research within a subject topic we find interesting. So my research topic was how will the rapid adaptation of working remotely due to Covid-19 impact the future of work? Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, has had a significant impact on our daily life, as I am sure we are all aware. A huge group of workers were required to work remotely almost straight away. This is all that came to mind as I started thinking about anything important in today’s world. A massive shock that has hit everyone, especially the workforce, in some way. It is important to investigate its effects on the future of employment because technology was a critical component in allowing most businesses to survive the pandemic. I conducted secondary and primary research, with the primary study consisting of a ten-question survey.

To comply with UOW moral guidelines, only the UOW Bcm312 Cohort was informed and the survey was made public. Secondary research was conducted using the UOW library’s two main academic resources. The first was a research paper. Through a study from Air Tasker it was revealed that 1,004 full-time employees, 505 of whom worked in the United States. The findings revealed that remote workers were more productive than their office-based counterparts. Some of the figures from the survey that should be highlighted include the fact that remote employees worked an extra 1.4 days per month than in-office employees. This amounted to around 17 working days per year. The second academic source described the benefits of working from home, including the financial benefits of saving money on transportation, fuel, clothing, and food. Other advantages include the opportunity to dress comfortably and save time by not having to commute to work. This allows individuals to have more time to enjoy activities such as fitness, cooking, and other activities, so improving their overall quality of life. As you can see, these academic sources highlighted more advantages than disadvantages.

I used primary research, a survey, to learn what UOW students think to be both advantages and downsides, with the goal of discovering a spectrum of disadvantages that the project lacked. Here’s what I discovered. There was no need to travel, you could work whenever you wanted, you could interact with people wherever you wanted, you could work from a comfortable area, you could reduce workplace behaviour, and potential better mental health, according to the advantages. Distractions at home, a lack of motivation, a loss of focus, time management, a lack of personal connections with clients and co-worker connections, and the office experience were all mentioned as disadvantages. It should be emphasised that when students were asked to name one benefit and one drawback, they were also asked what they saw, and the majority saw an equal amount of both disadvantages and benefits of working from home. Now I’ll turn my attention to the other major conclusions from my survey, which received only seven responses. I had hoped to get more survey responses after posting it on Twitter, but the information gathered is still intriguing. The following are the three most intriguing discoveries. The first finding was based on replies to a question regarding how working remotely might affect your work-life balance. This conclusion implies that a growing percentage of respondents are potentially losing an adequate or healthy balance between work tasks, obligations, and lifestyle aspirations. This leads me to my second conclusion, which indicates that most respondents would prefer to work in an office setting rather than at home. This could be due to some of the previously identified drawbacks, such as a lack of motivation, a lack of focus, poor time management, and a lack of personal relationships. The final finding I’d like to discuss concerns encouraging students to consider future work careers and whether they would still be motivated in the position if they were not in an office environment and surrounded by co-workers. 57.1 percent, or four out of seven individuals, said no, indicating that they might be less driven in that situation.

To summarise these major findings, the first discovered an impact of work-life balance, the second discovered a preference for working in an office location, and the third discovered a loss of motivation when prompted to consider the future of work and careers when working from home. To sum up, I found the usage of both primary and secondary research findings to be useful in highlighting both similarities and differences when compared. This is it. The topic and study question are both important to UOW students and individuals who are already working remotely or may be in the future. As a result of the workforce’s adaptability to working remotely this year and previous year as a result of Covid-19, it’s safe to state that both employees and employers have grown to like and function in this manner.  Primary evidence, on the other hand, demonstrated an equal quantity, which was visible in the benefits. There are some drawbacks to working remotely. However, based on this data, I feel that it is important to examine both the job role and the employee preference.

References:

•LaSora, P 2011, ‘Working from Home: The Technology You’ll Need’,. GPSolo, Vol.28, no.7 , pp. 24-28, viewed 23 May 2021

•Peek, S 2020, Communication Technology and Inclusion Will Shape the Future of Remote Work’ Business News Daily Published March 18 2020, Viewed 23 May 2021

•Survey using Google forms

•Marr, B 2019 The Future Of Work: 5 Important Ways Jobs Will Change In The 4th Industrial Revolution Forbes Article – Published July 15 2019, Viewed April 20 2021 

•Courtney, E., 2021. The Benefits of Working From Home Beyond the Pandemic | FlexJobs. [online] FlexJobs Job Search Tips and Blog. Available at: <https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/benefits-of-remote-work/&gt; [Accessed 15 April 2021].

•Nibusinessinfo.co.uk. n.d. Advantages and disadvantages of employees working at home | nibusinessinfo.co.uk. [online] Available at: <https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-employees-working-home&gt; [Accessed 15 April 2021].

•SANDER, L., 2019. The little-known downsides of working from home. [online] Insight. Available at: <https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/the-little-known-downsides-of-working-from-home&gt; [Accessed 15 May 2021].

•Marr, B 2019 The Future Of Work: 5 Important Ways Jobs Will Change In The 4th Industrial Revolution Forbes Article – Published July 15 2019, Viewed May 20 2021