Perceptions of Remote Work Within the Construction Industry in the Current Pandemic Environment

Abstract

Working remotely has become increasingly popular over the past year, given organization’s need to rapidly adjust to changing conditions as a result of the Coronavirus. It allowed companies to more easily adapt to stay-at-home orders and create a safer environment for their employees. While working remotely can bring a positive impact to employees, there are also challenges to overcome for both employees and their organization. Thus, this study focused on understanding both the prevalence and implementation of remote work within the commercial Construction industry to face the personal and professional challenges resulting from the Coronavirus. This paper provides insight into companies that have implemented remote work procedures as well as the positive or negative experiences from both an employee and managerial perspective. Through descriptive statistics and an independent t-test of the study variables, the findings suggest that employees have strong positive and negative experiences with remote work whereas managers have not had an overwhelmingly positive experience. Furthermore, when comparing pre-construction and operations, employees within these two departments have statistically different views on their experience as well.