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A Comparative Study on Employees Productivity in the Pre and Post Covid Period
Dr. Sridevi K. B
1, Sudharsan K
2, ReshmaRaveendran
3, Sreejith V
4, Abinaya A
51Professor, School of Management, Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore 2Student, School of Management, Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore 3Student, School of Management, Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore 4Student, School of Management, Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore
Article History: Received: 11 January 2021; Revised: 12 February 2021; Accepted: 27 March 2021; Published
online: 10 May 2021
Abstract: In the covid pandemic every organization had a major problem in improving their employees productivity
by providing them with the correct productivity improvement programs. Every organization has their own way of improving the productivity of their employees. But in this pandemic we need the right strategy to improve the productivity of the employees. The organizations must also prepare their employees to handle same sort of any pandemic situations in the future. This study deals with the identification of various factors that improves the productivity of the employees in the pre covid. In this study we are about to measure the various factors that employees find it very useful in increasing their overall productivity and the overall satisfaction level of the employees in the pre and post covid period. Then identifying the various improvements and drawbacks faced by the various employees during the covid pandemic. There are numerous modern techniques and development programs to increase the productivity level of the employees. This study also deals with identifying the right performance improvement programs for improving the productivity level of the employees in the post covid period.
Key words: Covid, Employee productivity, Modern techniques, Improvement programs 1. Introduction
Productivity of an employee plays an important role in the growth of an organization. Hence it is essential for the organization to know about the various factors that helps in increasing the productivity of their employees. In this covid pandemic many organizations are trying to provide their employees with the right performance improvement programs to maximize their productivity of their employees. This project helps the organizations to identify the right performance programs for maximizing their employee’s productivity. During this covid pandemic many organizations are facing several in maintaining their overall productivity and are in need of latest and efficient performance improvement programs to help their employees increase their productivity level. Through this project we will be able to identify the required training programs for increasing the productivity of the employees in a particular organization. This project deals with the identification of various factors that improves the productivity of the employees in pre covid. The employees of every organization has faced various improvements and drawbacks during this covid pandemic. This project also deals with the various performance improvement programs which can be provided to the employees to improve their productivity post covid.
1.1. Drawbacks faced by employees during the covid period
This covid pandemic had a major impact in declining the overall productivity of the employees. It includes:
• The organizations were unable to provide their employees with the right safety measures. • Top level employees were not able to carry out their assigned roles due to the lack of resources. • Employees had the fear of losing their jobs due to the covid pandemic situation.
• Increased working hours with reduce pay had a major impact in decreasing the productivity level of the employees.
• Bad work life balance for female employees.
1.2. Improvements in productivity level of the employees during the covid period
• Gaining additional skills in various domains the employees were able to develop their skill set. • Employees were able to have the freedom of location independence.
• They were to able to reduce the transport and other expenses.
• Some employees were comfortable working from home and also had good family support.
2. Project description
2.1. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
In this covid pandemic many organizations are trying to provide their employees with the right performance improvement programs to maximize their productivity of their employees. Productivity of an employee plays an
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important role in the growth of an organization. Hence it is essential for the organization to know about the various factors that helps in increasing the productivity of their employees. To identify the productivity level of the employees in the pre and post covid period. This project helps the organizations to identify the right performance programs for maximizing their employee’s productivity. To Identify the right productivity improvement programs for the employees. The study result will interpret about the overall productivity of the employees in the pre and post covid and will provide us with the right improvement programs for increasing their productivity in the coming years.2.2. OBJECTIVES
i. To perform a comparative analysis of employees productivity in the pre and post covid period.
ii. To identify the various factors influencing the employees to improve their performance in their work place
in the pre covid period.
iii. To identify the various improvements and drawbacks in the productivity level of employees during covid
period.
iv. To provide the right performance improvement programs to improve the productivity level of the employees
in the post covid period.
3. Review of literature
Employees productivity is adversely caused by job stress. Increased working hours, Family issues lowers the productivity level of the employees and affects the overall productivity of the organization [10]. Poor management practices, employee job dissatisfaction, and poor human resource management are major reasons for the productivity issues of the employees [9]. Working condition, Working hours and Workload had a major impact on employee’s productivity. Reduced working hours, and Workload leads to high level of Employees productivity in an organization [8]. The major factors for improving the productivity of any organization are the postulates of Theory A are Planning, Target setting, Motivation, Work Strategies, Responsibility, Model, Monitoring & Guiding, and Accountability. Objectives, service planning, target setting for the workers , employee motivational factors, working strategies to enhance productivity, self and mutual responsibilities among individual employees and in their teams, concept of role model in banking service innovatio n, continuous monitoring and guiding strategies, and accountability of every and each employee at different organizational levels [7]. Motivation is in a position to form employees to figure hard, to pay longer and to encourage organizations to interact their employees in work to achieve a standard organizational and employee goal. Work motivation and employee performance is the main issue for today’s management and sometimes considered as useful guide for monitoring employee performance [6]. Worker participation plays a major role in t employee’s job satisfaction, employee productivity, employee commitment and that they also have an impact in overall productivity of the organization and can Naturally increasing employee participation may be a long-term process, which demands both attention from management side and initiative from the worker side [5]. Stress may be a universal element and persons from nearly every occupation need to face stress. Now a days the major reason for the drawback of the productivity of the employees is the stress. Hence the organizations are planning to have various stress management programs to meet the employee's goals and objectives. Higher level of stress is the major reason for the decrease in the worker performance within the organization [4]. The role of top management trust on their employees enhances better productivity and help to achieve their goals and objectives. The results provide empirical evidence that technology-enabled HRM supports organizations by enhancing organizational trust and productivity outcomes [3]. The evolution of Human Resources (HR), personnel administration utility of a corporation to its current helps to grow firms into dynamic, high performance organizations. The evolution of HRD with both a theoretical lens also as a practitioner’s viewpoint in mind plays a major role in determining the productivity of the organization [2]. Working environment as major impact on determining the productivity of the employees. Working environment of an office has a greater effect on productivity of the employees than the any other physical components in the office and contributes a lot to the productivity of the organization [1].
4. Research methodology
The type of research used here is descriptive as we are in need of analyzing the employee behavior and trends for improving their productivity. The sample size for the research is 155 employees from various organizations. The research methodology used for this research is census method where the data are collected through questionnaire with the help of Google forms. The collected data has been analyzed and findings are interpreted.
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5.1. Gender
The gender of the employees has its own impact on the level of satisfaction on job and adoptability capability in the covid pandemic. Hence it is included as one of the important factor for analysis. The nature of expectation and perception towards modern improvement techniques may completely differ from male to female employees. The gender of the various employees of various organizations is illustrated in Table I.
Table-I: Gender wise distribution of the respondents Gender
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid Male 91 58.7 58.7 58.7
Female 64 41.3 41.3 100.0
Total 155 100.0 100.0
Table I shows that 58.7 Per cent of the total respondents are male and 41.3 Per cent of them are female. The dominant gender here is male and hence the improvement techniques which suits the male gender are to be suggested to have a better productivity among them and for the organization.
5.2. Age
The age of the employees represents his or her experience in the particular organization and it also determines their expectations and perceptions towards modern techniques adoption. In general, the aged employees may have more experience and they may prefer a traditional improvement techniques as they are very much aged and have lot of experience. At the same time, the youngsters may be aware of modern techniques and the systematic approach and they may prefer recent modern techniques for improving their overall productivity. Hence, the age of the employees is considered as one of the important factor for analysis for the modern improvement techniques in the post covid period. In the present study, the age of the employees is confined to Below 20, 20 to 30, 30 to 40, 40 to 50 and above 50. The age among the employees is presented in Table II.
Table-II: Age wise distribution of the respondents Age
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Vali d Below 20 7 4.5 4.5 4.5 20 to 30 79 51.0 51.0 55.5 30 to 40 39 25.2 25.2 80.6 40 to 50 21 13.5 13.5 94.2 above 50 9 5.8 5.8 100.0 Total 155 100.0 100.0
From table II it is clear that the two major age group of employees fall in 20 to 30 years and 30 to 40 years. Hence it is clear that the majority of the respondents are youngsters and they would prefer modern and recent improvement techniques for increasing their productivity in the post covid pandemic and organizations must make sure they provide their employees with the right modern improvement techniques.
5.3. Job Satisfaction in pre covid period
Satisfaction level of a particular employee plays a major role in determining the productivity of the employee and hence measuring the satisfaction level of the employees in the pre covid will be very much essential to have comparative analysis between the employees productivity in the pre and post covid period.
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Job satisfaction in pre covid
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent V alid Highly Satisfied 53 34.2 34.2 34.2 Satisfied 80 51.6 51.6 85.8
Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied 14 9.0 9.0 94.8
Dissatisfied 7 4.5 4.5 99.4
Highly Dissatisfied 1 .6 .6 100.0
Total 155 100.0 100.0
Table III shows that 51.6% of the employees were satisfied and only 4.5 % were dissatisfied with their jobs in the pre covid period. Hence it is clear that the satisfaction level is high in the pre covid period and in turn the particular employees would have a better productivity.
5.4. Job Satisfaction in post covid period
Satisfaction level of a particular employee plays a major role in determining the productivity of the employee and hence measuring the satisfaction level of the employees in the pre covid will be very much essential to have comparative analysis between the employees productivity in the pre and post covid period. With this we can measure the necessary improvement programs that can be provided to improve the satisfaction level of the employees in the post covid period.
Table-IV: Satisfaction Level of the employees in the post covid period Job satisfaction during covid
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Cumulati ve percent
Valid Highly Satisfied 40 25.8 25.8 25.8
Satisfied 78 50.3 50.3 76.1
Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied 24 15.5 15.5 91.6
Dissatisfied 13 8.4 8.4 100.0
Total 155 100.0 100.0
Table IV shows that 50.3 % of the employees were satisfied and 8.4 % of the employees were dissatisfied with their job in the covid period and comparatively the employees were less satisfied with their respective jobs in the covid period when comparing with the pre covid period.
5.5. Educational qualification
The level of education provides more awareness on digital transformation to the employees and their knowledge in the modern improvement techniques. The educated employees may have more awareness and exposure on these modern techniques to a very great extent. Hence, the education may have its impact on the various improvement techniques. So, the level of education is included as one of the major factor of analysis in the present study. It is confined to The level of education among the various employees is shown in Table V.
Table- V: Educational qualifications of the various employees
Qualification Frequency Percentage
High School 4 2.6
Bachelor's Degree 101 65.2
Master's Degree 48 31.0
Phd or higher 2 1.3
Total 155 100.0
Table V shows that 2.6 percent of the employees have finished high school followed by 65.2 percent of bachelor's degrees followed by 31 percent finishing their master's and finally 1.3 percent of the employees have
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done Phd or higher degrees. Hence the majority of the employees have done only bachelor's degree and hence providing them with techniques that suits their level of qualification is important. Providing them with advanced techniques will be difficult for them to get adopted.5.6. Various preferred improvement techniques by the Employees
Once the various satisfaction levels and demographic details are analyzed it is necessary to provide the employees with the right performance improvement programs to increase their productivity in the post covid period. As the main aim of the study is to suggest the employees with the right improvement programs this is included as one of the important factor in the analysis.
Table- VI: Various improvement programs for the employees
Improvement Programs Frequency Percentage
Digital Transformation, Up skilling with latest technologies, Hands on Trainings, Stress management programs
66 42.6
Digital Transformation 12 7.7
Hands on Trainings, Stress management programs 4 2.6
Hands on Trainings 7 4.5
Stress management programs 17 11.0
Up skilling with latest technologies, Stress management programs 14 9.0 Digital Transformation, Stress management programs, Better Working
environment, Eliminating non-essential tasks
15 9.7
Better Working environment 12 7.7
Eliminating non-essential tasks, Digital Transformation, Proper knowledge about Artificial Intelligence
3 1.9
Up skilling with latest technologies 2 1.3
Better motivation from top level management 3 1.9
Total 155 100.0
Table VI shows the various improvement programs preferred by the employees of various organizations and it shows that 42.6 percent of the employees have preferred Digital Transformation, Up skilling with latest technologies, Hands on Trainings, Stress management programs which is found to be the highest among all the suggested combinations of the various improvement programs provided. Hence keeping into account the age, gender, educational qualifications the various improvement programs for improving the productivity of the employees in the post covid period are found and suggested.
5.7 Work experience and Company wise satisfaction during covid period
Null hypothesis (H0): There is no significant difference between the years of experience and the training helps
to build career and knowledge.
Table- VII: One way ANOVA analysis
ANOVA
Company satisfaction during covid
Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 4.502 4 1.126
1.374 .246
Within Groups 122.917 150 .819
Total 127.419 154
Table VII shows that the significance value (p) is 0.246 which is greater than 0.05. Therefore null hypothesis is accepted, H0 is accepted. There is no significant difference between work experience and the company satisfaction during covid
6. Disscusions
i. Productivity level of the employees has been dropped in the covid period due to the dissatisfaction of the job by the employees. Hence the organizations can provide their employees with suitable motivational programs, availability of resources and good working environment.
ii. Most of the employees have completed till bachelor's degree hence improvement programs suitable of their qualifications must be provided to enhance their productivity in the post covid period.
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will be very much comfortable moving towards a digitalized world.iv. The improvement programs such as Digital Transformation, Up skilling with latest technologies, Hands on Trainings, Stress management programs will help the employees in having a better productivity in the post covid period.
7. Conclusion
This study is done mainly to have comparative analysis on the productivity of the employees in the pre and post covid periods and then measuring the various needs and improvement programs that can be suggested to the various employees to increase their productivity in the post covid pandemic. As productivity of an employee is very much important in increasing the productivity of the particular organization. It is very much important to provide them with the right improvement programs.
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