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The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Telework Status

Received: 9 May 2022     Accepted: 26 May 2022     Published: 31 May 2022
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Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking has become more widely used due to the necessity of maintaining employment and production while observing social-distancing mandates. Consequently, both employers and health professionals have become more interested in exploring the effects that teleworking has on employees. Workplace health climate is one measure that employers may use to assess employees’ perceptions of workplace support for their health and well-being. Additionally, workplace health climate has been shown to impact employees’ health behaviors and health outcomes. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to determine the relationship between workplace health climate and the frequency of teleworking. The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing a survey consisting of 16 items. Respondents consisted of 1618 employees of a public university in the United States. Differences in workplace health climate scores based on telework frequency, age, and sex were analyzed for statistical significance. A Kruskal-Wallis test revealed a significant relationship between telework status and organizational support, supervisor support, and total workplace health climate scores. Additionally, there was a significant difference between the mean supervisor and peer support scores between age groups. There were no significant differences in workplace health climate scores between male and female employees. The findings from this study support existing literature that suggests remote working can be beneficial to employee health and well-being. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the relationship between workplace health climate and teleworking.

Published in American Journal of Health Research (Volume 10, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajhr.20221003.14
Page(s) 76-82
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Telework, Workplace Health Climate, COVID-19, Organizational Support, Employee Wellness

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Alyssa Lowry, Brittany Acors, Lana Kheir, Dev Bhojwani, Victor Tringali. (2022). The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Telework Status. American Journal of Health Research, 10(3), 76-82. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20221003.14

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    ACS Style

    Alyssa Lowry; Brittany Acors; Lana Kheir; Dev Bhojwani; Victor Tringali. The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Telework Status. Am. J. Health Res. 2022, 10(3), 76-82. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20221003.14

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    AMA Style

    Alyssa Lowry, Brittany Acors, Lana Kheir, Dev Bhojwani, Victor Tringali. The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Telework Status. Am J Health Res. 2022;10(3):76-82. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20221003.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajhr.20221003.14,
      author = {Alyssa Lowry and Brittany Acors and Lana Kheir and Dev Bhojwani and Victor Tringali},
      title = {The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Telework Status},
      journal = {American Journal of Health Research},
      volume = {10},
      number = {3},
      pages = {76-82},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajhr.20221003.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20221003.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajhr.20221003.14},
      abstract = {During the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking has become more widely used due to the necessity of maintaining employment and production while observing social-distancing mandates. Consequently, both employers and health professionals have become more interested in exploring the effects that teleworking has on employees. Workplace health climate is one measure that employers may use to assess employees’ perceptions of workplace support for their health and well-being. Additionally, workplace health climate has been shown to impact employees’ health behaviors and health outcomes. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to determine the relationship between workplace health climate and the frequency of teleworking. The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing a survey consisting of 16 items. Respondents consisted of 1618 employees of a public university in the United States. Differences in workplace health climate scores based on telework frequency, age, and sex were analyzed for statistical significance. A Kruskal-Wallis test revealed a significant relationship between telework status and organizational support, supervisor support, and total workplace health climate scores. Additionally, there was a significant difference between the mean supervisor and peer support scores between age groups. There were no significant differences in workplace health climate scores between male and female employees. The findings from this study support existing literature that suggests remote working can be beneficial to employee health and well-being. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the relationship between workplace health climate and teleworking.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    AU  - Lana Kheir
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    AB  - During the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking has become more widely used due to the necessity of maintaining employment and production while observing social-distancing mandates. Consequently, both employers and health professionals have become more interested in exploring the effects that teleworking has on employees. Workplace health climate is one measure that employers may use to assess employees’ perceptions of workplace support for their health and well-being. Additionally, workplace health climate has been shown to impact employees’ health behaviors and health outcomes. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to determine the relationship between workplace health climate and the frequency of teleworking. The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing a survey consisting of 16 items. Respondents consisted of 1618 employees of a public university in the United States. Differences in workplace health climate scores based on telework frequency, age, and sex were analyzed for statistical significance. A Kruskal-Wallis test revealed a significant relationship between telework status and organizational support, supervisor support, and total workplace health climate scores. Additionally, there was a significant difference between the mean supervisor and peer support scores between age groups. There were no significant differences in workplace health climate scores between male and female employees. The findings from this study support existing literature that suggests remote working can be beneficial to employee health and well-being. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the relationship between workplace health climate and teleworking.
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Author Information
  • Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

  • Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

  • Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

  • Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

  • Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

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