Abstract
Topic name: “The Impact of Remote Work on the IT Sector in South India (Chennai)”
Background: Remote work means working from home with the use of ICT to coordinate and collaborate with the team. It has become a popular topic among all organisations, especially in the IT sector. With technology and internet availability on the rise, organizations across the globe have adopted this employee-friendly practises. The IT companies from Chennai are mostly outside the main city and the recent water crisis occurring in the region has forced the IT companies in this region to make use of remote working.
Aims: The research aims to study the Impact of Remote Work on the IT Sector in Chennai, India from the perspective of employee and employers and to identify its value and to analyse the need for remote work around the world.
Design and Method: The research design for doing this study incorporates both quantitative & qualitative research. In quantitative research, primary data was collected through online google forms from 76 employees of three organisations in Chennai, India. For the qualitative research, a non-probability purposive sample of management level i.e. managers were chosen from the same organisations which were chosen for a quantitative method to balance the perspective of both employers and employees. Three Semi-structured interviews, a thematic approach is utilized to gain complete insight into this topic from the same organisations to obtain both the management and employee perspective of choosing remote work.
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Results: The study provided empirical evidence that remote work is mostly valued by the employees because of the benefits gained by its flexibility. It is getting promoted by many organizations because it is associated with so many benefits to the management in terms of cost, satisfaction and retention of the employees and also provides job opportunities for those who can't commute to work. Contrarily, the weakness of this remote work is mostly to the employees resulting in isolation which is also taken under consideration by the management by conducting team bonding activities. In a highly populated country like India with the rapidly growing economy with young and tech-savvy population, remote work is considered to be the best way to see the future as both sides are getting benefitted concerning self-discipline in remote working employees.
Recommendation: This study recommends to the organizations in Chennai, India from the Information technology industry to embrace the policy of allowing working from home to their employees which proves to be advantageous in the form of an increase in productivity, quality, employee satisfaction and retention.
