PROJECT 2 PRIMARY SOURCE DATA REPORT REMOTE WORKING CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HOA SEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGES AND CULTURE PROJECT 2: PRIMARY SOURCE DATA REPORT REMOTE WORKING: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuong Members: Le Thi Thuy Doan 2191694 Nguyen Ngoc Phuong Trinh 2198114 Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh 2195502 Nguyen Thanh Hieu 2198783 Vo Hong Trinh 2191217 Ho Chi Minh City – July, 2022 ACKNOWLEDGE First and foremost, we would like to thank our mentor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuong, from the bottom of our hearts, who was with us, supported us to the fullest, providing guidance, and the valuable information she taught enabled our team to complete this primary project successfully We are quite fortunate to have such a passionate faculty member who guided us through the completion of this research paper She offered us valuable feedback as well as ways of implementing the accuracy and completeness of the content Aside from that, we would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to Hoa Sen University for providing us with the opportunity to experiment with these beneficial topics and apply the knowledge gained from this project to our future employment We are also truly thankful to the school for providing us with guidance and solid knowledge during our time there.  Finally, without the participation and cooperation of all team members, this project would be incomplete We are grateful and sincerely appreciate the effort that everyone put in and contributed to creating a comprehensive study i ABSTRACT In the current Covid-19 time, working remotely is no longer strange for each of us Besides the benefits that it brings such as more flexible hours and work, it also has its disadvantages So, our team decided to analyze the challenges of remote working and come up with a solution to those challenges The purpose of this paper is to delve deeper into the definition of remote work and its challenges by means of data collection, questionnaire survey, and data analysis Besides, we also use supporting materials such as Google Scholar, ProQuest, Sci-hub, and other resources Through 179 people surveyed, we received many answers about the challenges that remote workers face, especially the impacts on themselves such as creating bad habits, changing the working environment, and difficulty for leaders to manage employees working remotely, etc However, there are also a few people who believe that working remotely brings them positive results while working We then recommend solutions that are offered in two directions: for individuals and companies ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGE .i ABSTRACT .ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii TABLE OF CHARTS .v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.2 Aims of the study project .1 1.3 Research questions .2 1.4 Organization of the study project .2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of terms .4 2.2 Theoretical Framework .4 2.3 Conceptual Framework .6 2.3.1 Information of Challenges 2.3.1.1 Communication 2.3.1.2 Making the Technology Work .6 2.3.1.3 Getting Information .6 2.3.1.4 Balancing Work/Life Demands .7 2.3.1.5 2.3.2 Organizing Time .7 Information of Solutions 2.3.2.1 Supervisors 2.3.2.2 Colleagues .8 2.3.2.3 Work-life balance 2.3.2.4 Requirement 2.3.3 Summary CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 10 3.1 Introduction 10 3.2 Data Collection 10 3.2.1 3.3 Surveys/ Questionnaires Data analysis .11 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 12 4.1 Participants 12 4.1.1 Individual 4.1.2 Age 4.1.3 Occupation 4.2 Challenges 13 4.2.1 Individual 4.2.2 4.3 Leadership and management Discussion 15 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SOLUTIONS 18 5.1 Solutions .18 5.1.1 Individuals 5.1.2 Leadership and management REFERENCES vi APPENDIX .ix TABLE OF CHARTS Chart 1: Challenges from employees 13 Chart 2: Challenges from the surrounding environment 13 Chart 3: Difficulty from employers 14 Chart 4: Solutions for Individual .17 Chart 5: Organization's Solutions 18 Pie 1: The percentage of remote employees CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The term of ‘Remote working’ has been well-known as the trends in the world Especially, after COVID-19 pandemic time, ‘Remote working’ continually becomes one of the effective working ways of global employees It allows employees to work in every space which they like and actively choose time to start working According to an article about future of remote working of Forbes (2020), an approximate 70% of workplaces are predicted that would be switched into working remotely Working remotely benefit employees from working time to workspace That could be a main reason of ‘Remote working’ being the working trend in the world In spite of many offline workplaces opening up post COVID-19 pandemic, employees tend to stay at home and start working online Especially in Vietnam, due to appearance of movement restriction rules at the beginning of the quarantine, Vietnamese employees force to work-from-home, a type of remote working Then, currently employees are getting used to and ready to work remotely because of the advantages it takes such as less consuming time or increasing flexibility No matter how effective remote working is, during the working time, not only the Vietnamese remote employees but also remote employees from all countries have to face with tons of challenges affecting to their psycho, working performance, and may affect directly to their organization or company Recognizing the current appearance of challenges between individual or organization and remote working is number one aim of this study project 1.2 Aims of the study project The aims of the study project are: (1) investigate challenges which remote employees face with while working remotely (2) find out the best solutions for each challenges above By gathering information from employees working remotely to know the difficulty remote employees faces with, this study explores the challenges which prevent employees working remotely from getting a great performance and the demur which hesitates employees who want to switch into working remotely From these challenges, this study also finds out the best solutions to assist the remote employees partly improve their remote working experience and feel easier when working remotely by overcoming these challenges 1.3 Research questions What are the challenges that employees face with while working remotely? Working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic is a huge business turning point Therefore, both businesses and employees in the company will face new challenges Through our team's survey, remote employees will have different challenges depending on the employee's job Challenges while working remotely will bring an objective view and a lot of empathy and understanding of the company What are the suggest solutions for remote employees and organization? Recognizing the challenges which remote employees face with could be a main proof to define how difficulty people working remotely face with Besides that, these challenges can help remote employees finding out the best solutions for decreasing the affects difficulty they face with and partly assist them retrieve better performance while working as remote employees 1.4 Organization of the study project The structure of the study project is separated into five main particular parts The background information and research questions providing the overview information and emphasized aspects of Remote working is mentioned in the Chapter – Introduction In additional, the definitions of relative terms and summarizing of some relative information of challenges and solutions from previous studies of another researchers is contained on Chapter – Literature review Moreover, in Chapter – Methodology, a way how data are gathered, and way of analyzing data is also showed Following that, all the results from surveying illustrated in words and charts, and discussion part are comprehended in Chapter – Finds and Discussion Finally, the recommendations about giving solutions for remote working challenges and conclusion of this study project are stayed at Chapter – Recommendations and Conclusion 5.1.2 Leadership and management In terms of the company, providing full equipment to staff accounted for more than half of the actions taken by our team (53.6%) In contrast to previous years, the trend of remote work has increased As a result, with employees working remotely, the advantages that they receive must shift more dynamically The company should have regulations that are appropriate for each business's economics, but still provide necessary equipment for individuals so that remote employees are motivated and delighted with their current jobs Additionally, maintain connectivity (49.2%) and regular meetings (42.5%) This is also a result that demonstrates that people who have worked remotely in the past and who are currently working want the company to create enhancements that help them be more productive Nothing Have a communicating platform Complicate monthly employees Support employees' finance Have workshops to improve employees' skills Have monthly meetings Ensure connection (Use Cloud computing) Support employees with devices 20 40 Chart 5: Organization's Solutions 5.1 5.2 Conclusion 60 80 100 120 In the today’s world, remote working is more popular than it was However, there are variety of difficulties coming from individual, surrounding environment, leadership, and management They can create individual prevention from having good performance in their business or generating motivation In term of individual, remote employees start to have bad habits such as staying up late, smoking, overworking, or absorbing too much caffeine It is one of the main reasons that brings workers about unexpected negative health status In additional, not having clear working plans is also believed that impedes remote employee’ performance It makes remote employee get lost and not know what job or subject they would next or keep them working and working without taking a rest However, these problems can be easily solved The remote employee and remote workers should spend a little time on scheduling what they in this day to have short- or long-term plans for their current business Thus, managing again their biological time is necessary to protect them from risk of being sick or being incapable of having an excellent result Last but not least, they have to take their time to communicate with the others to widen their own networks and help them full of motivation and destressing during the time of working remotely Besides that, surrounding environment is pointed as a remote working’s barrier When working as remote employees, environment is not as sustainable and professional as environment in main offices or company This problem can be come from the noise of their workplace, disturbance from surrounding people or unsuitable music at coffee shop where remote employee work However, they can find and work in the workplace which is more peaceful and motivated than the previous place, and likewise they can actively change the music helping them concentrate on working Finally, organizations or companies can face with some particular challenges such as lack of trust or difficult managing when their employees switch into remote working Without have face-to-face meeting or poor management skill from leadership that make these challenges more serious That is the reason why having monthly or weekly face-to-face meeting or having rapid and sustainable communication platform is necessary Besides that, companies or organizations need to support their remote employee with working devices such as laptop or necessary equipment of specific fields Thus, after quarters of year, employers should have some a meeting to point out things which are not good and complicate person who has a perfect performance That work can develop communication and motivation of employees who working remotely REFERENCES Ahmad N Al- Rfou (2021) Remote Working Environment in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic Retrieved from 10.18488/journal.1006.2021.112.95.103 Akuoko, P B., V Aggrey, and J Dokbila Mengba (2021) Mothering with a Career during a Pandemic: The Case of the Ghanaian Woman Gender, Work & Organization 28 (S2): 277–288 Alessandra, M., S Martucci, and L K C Manzo (2021) The Pandemic and the Academic Mothers: Present Hardships and Future Perspectives European Societies 23 (sup1): S82–94 Aronen, M (2017) Remote Working and It’s Management: Attitudes and Perceptions of Future Workforce Carter, M (2017) Basic Guide to Program Evaluation (Including Many Additional Resources) Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation, 5td Ed Retrieved from https://managementhelp.org/evaluation/program-evaluationguide.htm#anchor1585345 on April 28, 2022 Cartoline Castrillon (2020) This is the Future of Remote Work in 2021 Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2021/12/27/thisis-the-future-of-remote-work-in-2021/?sh=3d9d3c511e1d on June 6, 2022 GIGI, G.S & J, SANGEETHA (2020) Impact of remote working on employees in IT industry Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government Vol 26, No 2, 538-544 Grant, C A., Wallace, L M., & Spurgeon, P C (2013) An exploration of the psychological factors affecting remote e‐worker’s job effectiveness, well ‐being and work‐life balance Employee Relations, 35(5), 527–546 vi Hox, J J., & Boeije, H R (2005) Data collection, primary vs secondary Encyclopedia of social measurement, 1(1), 593-599 Retrieved from http://joophox.net/publist/ESM_DCOL05.pdf on April 27,2022 Ibert, J., Baumard, P., Donada, C., & Xuereb, J M (2001) Data collection and managing the data source RA Thiétart (éds.), Doing management research, a comprehensive guide, Thousand Oaks, Sage Publication, 289-329 Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781849208970.n9 on April 27,2022 Kimberly L Oliver (1998) A Journey into Narrative Analysis: A Methodology for Discovering Meanings Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 17, 244259 Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1123/jtpe.17.2.244 on May 9, 2022 Limoncelli, T A (2020) Five Nonobvious Remote Work Techniques Queue, 18(3), 29–38 Margrethe H Olson (1983) Remote office work: changing work patterns in space and time Commun ACM 26, (March 1983), 182–187 Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/358061.358068 Mathers, N., Fox, N., & Hunn, A (2007) Surveys and Questionnaires Trent RDSU, 1-51 Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nick-Fox/publication/270684903_Surveys_ and_Questionnaires/links/5b38a877aca2720785fe0620/Surveys-andQuestionnaires.pdf on April 30, 2022 McAlpine, L (2016) Why might you use narrative methodology? A story about narrative. Eesti Haridusteaduste Ajakiri Estonian Journal of Education, 4(1), 3257 Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.12697/eha.2016.4.1.02b on May 9, 2022 Nickson, D., & Siddons, S (2012). Remote working Routledge Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4324/9780080474168 vii Pattnaik, L., & Jena, L K (2020) Mindfulness, remote engagement and employee morale: conceptual analysis to address the “new normal.” International Journal of Organizational Analysis, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print) Rudnicka, A.; Newbold, JW.; Cook, D.; Cecchinato, ME.; Gould,.S; Cox, AL.; (2020) Eworklife: developing effective strategies for remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic Shough, S., Yates, D (2002) The Advantages Of An E-Mail Survey The Journal of Applied Business Research, Volume 18, Number Retrieved on April 30, 2022 Wagh, S (2021) Public Health Research Guide: Primary & Secondary Data Definitions Retrieved from https://researchguides.ben.edu/c.php? g=282050&p=4036581 on April 27,2022 Davies, A (2021) COVID-19 and ICT-Supported Remote Working: Opportunities for Rural Economies World, 2(1), 139–152 Flores, M F (2019) Understanding the challenges of remote working and its impact to workers. International Journal of Business Marketing and Management (IJBMM), 4(11), 40-44 viii APPENDIX Questionnaires Demographic (Nhân học) Gender (Giới tính) A Male (Nam) B Female (Nữ) C Other (Khác) Age (Tuổi) A 18-24 B 25-30 C 30-35 D Other (Khác) Education level (Trình độ học vấn) A Bachelor's Degree or equivalent (Đại học) B Master's Degree (Thạc sĩ) C Doctor's Degree (Tiến sĩ) D High school's Degree or equivalent (Trung học) E Other (Khác) Occupation (Nghề nghiệp) Marital Status (Tình trạng nhân) A Single (Độc thân) B Married (Đã kết hôn) ix Background Information (Thông tin bản) Your main office is located at (Trụ sở làm việc anh/chị đặt tại) A The South (Miền Nam) B The North (Miền Bắc) C Central region (Miền Trung) D Other (Khác) Have you ever heard the phrase "Remote Working" ever? (Anh/chị nghe qua cụm từ “Làm việc từ xa” chưa?) A I've heard of it (Đã nghe qua) B Never (Chưa bao giờ) Have you ever worked remotely? (Anh/chị làm việc từ xa chưa?) A Currently working (Hiện làm) B Used to (Đã từng) C Never heard of it (Chưa nghe đến) Do you feel that working remotely is effective? (Anh/chị cảm thấy làm việc từ xa có đem lại hiệu khơng?) Very Very effective inefficient Obstacles of “Remote working” (Trở ngại “Làm việc từ xa”) Working remotely makes you more likely to: (Làm việc từ xa khiến anh/chị có xu hướng:) A Feeling lonely (Cảm thấy cô đơn) B Loss of motivation (Mất động lực) x C Loss of concentration due to external influences (Mất tập trung tác động từ bên ngoài) D Having habits that are harmful to health (sleeping late, drinking a lot of coffee, working too hard ) (Có thói quen có hại cho sức khỏe (ngủ trễ, uống nhiều cà phê, làm việc sức…) E Not being effective at work (Không đạt hiệu công việc) F Do not divide time for each job (Không phân chia thời gian cho công việc) G Other (Khác) When working remotely, the surrounding environment affects you: (Khi làm việc từ xa, môi trường xung quanh tác động đến anh.chị) A Distractions from the outside environment (sounds from vehicles, bad music ) (Sự xao nhãng đến từ môi trường bên ngồi (âm từ xe cộ, nhạc khơng hay…) B Unstable network connection (Đường truyền mạng không ổn định) C Intermittent transmission (Message drift, message waiting for a response (text-time) ) (Thông tin truyền tải không liên tục (tin nhắn bị trôi, tin nhắn chờ phản hồi…) D Incomplete transmission information (Thông tin truyền tải không đầy đủ) E Lack of mechanical equipment (computers, support equipment ) (Thiếu thiết bị máy móc (máy tính, thiết bị hỗ trợ…) F Financing is limited (Tài bị giới hạn) G Other (Khác) Obstacles from companies and organizations: (Trở ngại từ phía cơng ty tổ chức) A Lack of trust (Thiếu tin tưởng) B Difficulty in personnel management (Khó khăn việc quản lý nhân sự) xi C Appears a recurring support amount (Xuất thêm khoản tiền hỗ trợ định kỳ) D Hard to have face-to-face meetings between employees (Khó có buổi họp trực tuyến nhân viên) E Other (Khác) Solutions to the above obstacles (Giải pháp cho trở ngại trên) For myself (Đối với thân) A Take time to interact with friends and colleagues (Dành thời gian để tương tác với bạn bè đồng nghiệp) B Choose places that are quiet and give yourself the inspiration to work (Lựa chọn nơi yên tĩnh mang đến cho thân cảm hứng để làm việc) C Re-managing biological time (Quản lý lại thời gian sinh học) D Develop a way to check daily work (Xây dựng cách thức kiểm tra công việc ngày) E Set short-term and long-term goals for yourself (Đặt mục tiêu ngắn hạn dài hạn cho thân) F Allocate appropriate time for each job (Phân chia thời gian phù hợp cho công việc) G Other (Khác) For the company (Đối với công ty) A Support staff with full equipment (Hỗ trợ nhân viên đầy đủ trang thiết bị) B Ensure connectivity (Using cloud computing) (Đảm bảo khả kết nối (Sử dụng điện toán đám mây) C Hold monthly meetings (Tổ chức họp hàng tháng) D Organize workshops to improve working skills (Tổ chức buổi workshop để nâng cao kỹ làm việc) xii E Support employees financially and mentally (Hỗ trợ nhân viên tài tinh thần) F Establish a company-wide communication platform (Thiết lập tảng giao tiếp tồn cơng ty) G Monthly employee bonus (Khen thưởng nhân viên hàng tháng) H Other (Khác) Experience of participants After gathering information from questionnaires which is about the remote working experience, the phrase of “Remote working” is familiar by group of employees The employees who used working remotely account for the major of responders, nearly 50% Besides that, the numbers of employees who are currently working remotely and employees who never works as remote workers are nearly the same, respectively 20,7% and 29,6% 30% 50% 21% Used to work Currently working Never working Pie 1: The percentage of remote employees Development process After our team grasped the basic information of project 2, we started to develop it step by step and in the process, we have annotated what we did during the project and during a meeting with our instructor xiii In the first week, we met with the instructor to discuss the content and implementation of the project, and here are the notes we had after finishing the discussion: Topic: Remote Employees in HCM city - Challenges and Solutions Outline Chapter 1: Introduction Generalize the topic and show why choosing this topic Background/ topic introduction Give the background of remote employees around the world -> narrow it to HCM city (Not the definition) Aims of the study project So the reasons why choosing Challenges and Solutions Research questions Show the major questions for these remote employees in HCM city Organization of the study Show how the study is organized Chapter 2: Literature review The definition of each term: What is remote working? Show the proof that online working is the tool of remote working 1-3 sentences about the definition of remote employees: show that this is the specific kind of employee xiv What are the pros and cons of remote working? Show a little bit about these pros & cons like the hook to the challenges What does “challenges'' mean? => show the definition of challenges of remote employees *After gaining info from others, show the ideas of each person in the team Questionnaire form (3 parts) Demographic (Sex, Age, working field, Working time, about remote employees definition, they like this kind of working) About Challenges of remote working About Solutions for challenges mentioned Chapter 3: Methodology Why we choose an interview? and survey? (Through questionnaire) => these are suitable for our research and make sure information be reliable Introduction A little bit about the primary source collection Procedure: This subsection explains how the study was conducted, e.g when the information was collected, where, and by whom Data collection What techniques are we choosing? - Interviewing and survey in HCM Why we choose these techniques? xv Data analysis How to analyze data collected from interviews and surveys Chapter 4: Findings and discussion Gathering the information from the responders, and analyzing it for Challenges and Solutions Chapter 5: Recommendations Repeat solutions from people survey => solutions of whole members of the group References After the 7th week meeting, we noted the project completion timelines: Week 10: Complete chapter and chapter Week 12: Complete chapter and chapter Week 13: Check Turnitin Week 14: Edit Week 15: Submission and presentation In the 13th week after the meeting with the instructor, we made a note of the parts that needed to be added as well as the parts that needed to be edited in the project paper: Chapter 1: Edit Chapter 2: Part 2.2, Writing a theoretical framework xvi Appendix: A complete survey in English and Vietnamese, analysis of unanalyzed contents, notes that have been worked together, and pictures as group photos Edit reference and intext citation Unify objects, add a Table of chart xvii ... 30, 20 22 Wagh, S (20 21) Public Health Research Guide: Primary & Secondary Data Definitions Retrieved from https://researchguides.ben.edu/c.php? g =28 2050&p=4036581 on April 27 ,20 22 Davies, A (20 21)... Work in 20 21 Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon /20 21/ 12/ 27/thisis-the-future-of -remote- work-in -20 21/?sh=3d9d3c511e1d on June 6, 20 22 GIGI, G.S & J, SANGEETHA (20 20) Impact... .6 2. 3.1.4 Balancing Work/Life Demands .7 2. 3.1.5 2. 3 .2 Organizing Time .7 Information of Solutions 2. 3 .2. 1 Supervisors 2. 3 .2. 2 Colleagues .8 2. 3 .2. 3