Fair and beneficial home-working

Three different studies will first be carried out to determine how widespread working from home is in Switzerland. The project will deliver information on the links between working-from-home rules, perceived fairness, wellbeing and performance. Using this knowledge as a basis, an intervention will be developed to assist organisations in implementing working-from-home rules that are perceived as fair while also meeting employees’ needs, and thus have a positive impact on wellbeing and performance. The intervention will consist of an e-learning tool, coaching and a team workshop, and will be tested in a fourth, quasi-experimental study.

The introduction of mandatory working from home during certain periods of the pandemic changed working life for many employees. How should things continue post-pandemic? Organisations are facing the challenge of introducing new rules for working from home. To ensure wide acceptance, it is important that the rules are perceived as fair and meet the needs of employees and employers alike.

The project will focus on the design, development and implementation of new working-from-home rules. The goal is firstly to improve our understanding of how the perceived fairness of a company’s working-from-home rules and the way they fulfil fundamental needs are linked to wellbeing and performance. Secondly, an intervention designed to assist organisations in implementing suitable working-from-home rules will be developed and tested.

The project will deliver information on the impact of working from home and how working-from-home rules should be designed to ensure teams function effectively and employees remain healthy and productive. By doing so it will help organisations provide contemporary work structures that reflect the new normal.

Firstly, the project will deliver information on how working from home is practised in Switzerland three years after the start of the pandemic. Secondly, it will investigate the key conditions that have to be met to ensure new working-from-home rules find acceptance. Thirdly, measures intended to help organisations design and implement beneficial rules will be developed and tested.

The New Normal — How to Design and Implement Work Arrangement Policies That Are Fair and Satisfy Employees’ Needs

The publications of the project can be found in the SNSF Data Portal.