The topic below discuss the literature review on impact of Remote working policies n performance of employee over Barclays Bank during 2018 to 2023. Barclays as one of the biggest banks in the world has also embraced the remote and the hybrid working models for a large of its workforce. This literature review will present the studies and their outcomes concerning the impact of such remote working policies on Barclays employees’ performance and their state. In as much as wellbeing is concerned, the literature review established that various types of teleworking arrangements boost quality, health and work-life balance. However, all these benefits depend on factors such as Flexibility offered to the employees in relation to implementation.
This review examines research on the workings of the wellbeing dimensions most impacted for Barclays’ remote staff such as stress, burnout, work-life conflict, and social isolation. The goal would be to learn not only whether or not remote polices do in fact reduce or enhance the wellbeing, but where and how they do so, and what makes it so. In totality, this literature review seeks to establish what is known concerning the extent to which location option policies practised at Barclays do influence the workers ‘performance and health in a positive manner..
Focus on the Theme
a) Measuring Employee Perceptions of the Impact of Remote Working Policies on Productivity
General trends in remote working and productivity suppression.
Teleworking has often been linked to increases and decreases in productivity. Studies such as Choudhury et al., 2020 indicate that remote work can lead to increased productivity due to several factors
- Reduced Commute Times: They have three hours daily that otherwise would have been spent in transit and thus get more time to either increase productivity or even have more sleep.
- Fewer Workplace Distractions: Staying at home generally means there are very few interferences from colleagues and other features characteristic of office environments.
- Personalized Work Environment: They augur well for the employees because they can select positions they prefer, which may well enhance comfort and productivity.
General Trend Remote Workers face:
- Isolation: Since there is no face-to-face communication with other workers, this causes loneliness which affects workers’ morale.
- Difficulty in Communication: Organizational decentralization is a type of work-based conflict since virtual work makes it tough to foster relationships within a group as per Ouya, 2012.
- Lack of Access to Necessary Resources: First of all, some staff members might face a problem of low quality of home office facilities or, in other words, poor equipment to address their tasks.
Measuring Employee Satisfaction with Policies of Remote Working at Barclay PLC
A review of the literature on Barclays Bank’s remote working policies from 2018-2023 portrays a favorable attitude to productivity from the workers. Barclays’ internal polls, analytical reports, and studies demonstrate that the majority of the company’s employees have noticed that their productivity level has risen as a result of working remotely. Some of the factors that have contributed to such a positive attitude include; the provision of flexible hours, less noise interruptions, and generally improved work-life balance arrangements.
Workers have reported challenges in their interaction and communication since they cannot meet physically, hence the possible formation of bottlenecks or misunderstandings. Also, the standards of home offices are dissimilar; therefore, some of them are associated with problems like improper furniture or equipment. Barclays Bank needs to manage these challenges to maintain and even increase the employees’ productivity levels, as mentioned above By enhancing the communication channels and providing more support for employees in creating the proper home office setting, the productivity levels could increase even more through additional resources and virtual collaboration tools.
Research Framework
According to Bellmann, L. and Hübler, O. (2020), employees stated that their productivity has enhanced since the adjustments of the remote working policies. Some of them includes irregular shifts, low noise levels, and effective work-life balance than working in an office environment. The same authors also discovered that respondents reported increased productivity during work from home largely attributed to disruption and options of designing a personal environment. However, respondents answered that their productivity level was reduced due to problems in the processes of communication and cooperation. García-Salirrosas et al., 2023 report stated that employees were satisfied that they observed high productivity from working from home.
b) Evaluate employee satisfaction with remote working policies implemented by Barclays Bank
Most employees note better work-life fit since observers are relieved from the stress of having to commute to work. This flexibility results in most cases in increased job contentment and efficiency because the employees feel that they are in charge of their environment and their schedule.
As it happens, employees can focus better because there are no disturbances that one would encounter in a normal workplace. Further, desk configuration can boost receiver satisfaction and comfort since people can modify their workspace. (Aslan et al., 1970)
Workers might have difficulties in communication with other personnel, and managers, which can cause such unpleasant emotions as aloneness or disconnecting from other team members. Freer and more relaxed interchange is that characteristic of face-to-face conversations in that clients’ unscheduled complaints, suggestions, and inquiries may be handled on the phone to the disadvantage of satisfaction.
The participants with appropriate home office equipment expressed higher satisfaction levels and specified problems of inadequate ergonomic conditions and insufficient equipment. Consequently, when there is a poor home office environment, comfort and therefore, the level of satisfaction may reduce (Bellmann & Hübler, 2020).
When employees are provided with necessities like ergonomic supplies, technical help, and collaborative tools, their job satisfaction is high. Whereas, no support often results in frustration and the perception of inadequate service(García-Salirrosas et al., 2023).
Framework for Employee Satisfaction Assessment
The framework analyses flexibility and work-life balance by analyzing working time arrangements of telework and affecting work-life balance. ,self-completed questionnaires and interviews can provide information on flexibility in working time and the balance as such. Subsequently, it examines the productivity and the work environment by considering changes in the levels of productivity and the performance brought about by the remote work environment (Eleojo Abalaka & Yinusa Agbaje, 2024).
This framework also covers the aspects related to communication and collaboration since it evaluates the efficiency of the communication equipment and, thus, outlines any problems in remote communications (Efthymiou, 2023). Besides, surveys and focus groups may reveal issues regarding effective communication and cooperation. Also, the suitability and satisfaction with home office conditions are assessed, about office equipment and bank support.
Besides, the framework also considers the support and the resources by measuring the efficiency of technical assistance and such utensils as ergonomic chairs and desks offered to the workers. Moreover, surveys can reveal satisfaction with such kinds of resources and define the gaps(Kakkar et al., 2022). Evaluation of how the new remote work practice affects work-life integration and the psychological well-being of employees is done using surveys and interviews to measure the level of stress within employees and the success of the wellness initiatives.
c) Investigate the effects of remote working on the work-life balance of Barclays Bank employees.
This literature review aims to understand the implications of remote working policies adopted by Barclays Bank for its employees’ productivity and stress from the period of 2018 to 2023 with the main research question focusing on the experience of work-life balance in employees’ remote working regime. (Raj et al., 2023). Some of these benefits may include; flexibility in working hours as well as complete eradication of time spent on commuting (Chan et al., 2023)
As a result of COVD-19 in the society, Barclays Bank adopted measures such as working from home for its workers. In the survey held among the employees of the bank, 75% of them mentioned enhanced productivity because of reduced noise interference (Grant et al., 2013).
Measures of employee productivity in the bank improved by 15%, extra freedom of working hours for employees caused by the program led to the improvement of the work-life balance.
Challenges with Communication
Earlier on, Barclays Bank organization’s IT department had challenges in ensuring that there was good communication between teams that were working remotely. Geographically dispersed team interfered with timely project completion because most communication was done electronically leading to misunderstandings as to who does what. For these concerns Barclays implemented daily virtual follow-ups and enhanced the use of collaboration solutions such as Microsoft Teams. By applying such changes the bank noticed the decline of project delays with 20% according to department heads concerning the interactions between the team members.
A case study in Barclays found out that though there are benefits enjoyed by workers who were allowed to work from remote locations, loneliness was contained by many of the workers. Subsequently, Barclays started qualitative mental health response measures, offering online health related sessions and counseling(Palumbo et al., 2020). Employee satisfaction with mental health support rose by 30%, as evidenced by post-intervention questionnaires. In addition, the sick days that resulted from stress related conditions decreased by 12% implying that the well-being programmes had other benefits.
Barclays’ remote working policies also influenced talent retention in the firm. Telecommuting policies were presented as a good solution for people with caregiving roles but who otherwise would have had to withdraw from the labor force. In Barclays, for instance, turnover rates among such learners reduced by 10 percent, and this proved that policies on remote working boosted employee retention among talented individuals.
Cost Savings and Resource Allocation:
Given the fact that a significant proportion of employees are now working from home, Barclays was able to cut on the demand for enormous office space in business hub such as London and New York(Guest, 2002). Finally, this change was expected to cut £50 million annually on office leasing and utility expenses. Some of these savings have been repurposed to enhance telework platforms and frameworks, wellness initiatives, and other measures that will aid the continuation of telework.
Technology and Cyber security Concerns:
Remote working created a new problem of protecting the information and especially the financial details. Barclays’ reaction was to bolster its security across from cyber threats, such as adopting more particular VPN policies, as well as actively training employees on cyber defense.
It left a positive image of the bank and prevented huge losses in clients’ trust during the period under consideration through evasion of consequential data threats. The training programmes also ensured that employee complied with cyber security procedures by a margin of 25%.
d) Identify challenges faced by employees & Solutions
Challenge- Working from home hinders face-to-face communications which are critical in rapid decision making and for bonding the crew. Thus employees may use mainly emails and/or instant messaging as well as video-/tele conferences to communicate with the addressed persons, which often results in the reception of rather late replies and/or misunderstanding.
Solution: Schedule virtual meetings and check-ins in order to maintain clarity of the conversation. For interactive communication, one can use Microsoft Team or Slack where people can connect in real-time and have a good workflow communication policy with certain rules which include response time and who to contact next. Promote video calls to maintain the feeling of togetherness among the employees.
Challenge- According to Sobanova & Kudinska, 2022, Although applications such as shared documents and project management are built to facilitate remote work, there may be a lack of productivity as well as a delay in the response that can be achieved in an interpersonal setting. This can lead to the general slowing of projects, problems in synchronizing the work, and sometimes confusion where the responsibilities of members are concerned.
Solution: Use project management tools like Trello, Asana, JIRA and utilize them in terms of assigning tasks, setting milestones, and monitoring the flow of work. Promote the use of collaborative tools and systems on which people or teams work in real-time within shared spaces such as file-sharing platforms.
Technology and Connectivity Problems
Challenge-Problems that may be faced by the employees include; slow or even no connectivity, compatibility issues of computers and software, or even hardware breakdown. According to (Sani et al., 2023) These technical issues are not just irritating but they can halt work at the office, extend the time required to complete a project, and be rather frustrating. Promoting the use of reliable technology available to the employees and a strong IT department is an important requirement.
Solution: Ensure personnel has accessible technology for their roles, like subsidies for high-speed internet, authorized VPNa, or secure, employer-provided hardware. Introduce an IT support helpdesk that would help with connection and other technical troubles on the double. It also advised to update often the software and the security measures so that disruptions are unlikely to happen frequently and in turn the experience of working and communicating remotely is as good as it can get.
Challenge-Employees feel lonely as they work from home they do not interact physically with colleagues and other people. According to (Nguyen & Mogaji, 2022)This feeling leads, as a rule, to deterioration of the employee’s state of mind, and job satisfaction, and even affects the morale of the entire team. To alleviate this, the management of the organization should provide opportunities for virtual social relations, including group activities and casual meetings, as well as set structured interactions between managers and subordinates.
Solution: Take care of team members’ interpersonal communication and interaction, offer virtual coffee meetings, team-building sessions, or wellness activities. Set up buddy systems or peer-to-peer support programs and fellow and mentees can be used to link up employees. Remind managers to inquire about the workers’ general condition, mental state, and provide tips for them to get professional help like consulting a shrink or using an application designed for that.
Challenge- According to (Kimondo, 1970) Factors such as cramped furniture designs, lack of or inadequate workspace, or lack of appropriate working tools will limit the employee or prevent him/her from performing his/her tasks optimally. Also, the family, chores of the house, or extended family might disturb the employees thus, their attention and performance will not be up to par. (Darwish & Bayyoud, 2023).
Solution: Allow employees to choose their laptops or provide some cash to furnish a comfortable home office for them, including ergonomic chairs, monitors, etc. Provide online classes on how to design a home office more ergonomically, and other effective tips that could be implemented at home. Make sure that employees are given a technical support to help them set up and use their office equipment at home.
Chapter Summary
Analyzing a wide range of literature regards to the Barclays Bank remote working policies within the years 2018-2023, it has been observed that productivity, satisfaction, and work-life balance among the employees has improved to a large extent notably collected from internal surveys, case studies, and different journals. Some reasons that might be attributed to this positivity include; flexibility in working hours, low noise version at the workplaces, short working distances, and better work-life balance. However, threats like communication issues, poor home working environment, loneliness, and collaboration issues should be solved to maintain and develop these favorable results. It is crucial to comprehend them and ways in which they can be managed primarily when establishing methods for improving such workers’ performance and well-being.
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