Exploring attitudes of employees towards telecommuting adoption in a banking firm in South Africa.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Telecommuting or telework is the future of work, as it provides an alternative to traditional work done at the office which involves travelling to and from an office. Telecommuting can either be employer- or employee-initiated. Employer-initiated telecommuting is motivated by the need for the employer to reduce costs related to running offices. Employee-initiated telecommuting is driven by the desire by employees to reduce the time taken to commute to and from the office and benefit by using time to do work and balance work and life demands. South Africa is ranked as one of the countries in the world with the worst traffic jams. Employees who are required to work from an office have to travel using public transport or their own transport, such as a car, motorbike, etc. and traffic is one of the challenges that employees face. The main aim of this study was to understand telecommuting in banking, with specific attention being paid to the lengths First National Bank (FNB) business employees are willing to go to influence the adoption of telecommuting. A literature review was conducted to get an understanding of the problem and the research approach. A positivist research paradigm was chosen as a research paradigm for this study and a quantitative research methodology was used. The sampling method used was simple random sampling, where FNB employees in the business segment were selected. An electronic survey questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants. The results predicted their willingness and readiness to telecommute, however they also highlighted the barriers to telecommuting, namely the lack of a telecommuting policy, low levels of trust, insufficient access controls, high data costs, slow broadband speeds, and companies not adapting to new ways of managing millennial workforce. In order to address the issues identified, FNB should implement a telecommuting policy, create training and awareness programmes for all employees, foster accountability and a trust culture, and develop a telecommuter support structure in order to implement or increase telecommuting adoption. Keywords: telecommuting, telework, employer-initiated, employee-initiated, productivity, traffic.