Effects of new ways of working on work hours and work location, health and job-related outcomes

ABSTRACT

New ways of working (NWW) is a type of work organization that is characterized by temporal and spatial flexibility, often combined with extensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and performance-based management. In a three-wave intervention study, we examined the effects of NWW on both the organization of work (changes in control over time and place of work; working hours and work location; and other key job characteristics), and on employees’ outcomes (work–nonwork balance; health and well-being; and job-related outcomes). We applied a quasi-experimental design within a large Dutch financial company (N = 2,912). We studied an intervention group (n = 2,391) and made comparisons with a reference group (n = 521). There were three study waves: (i) one/two months before, and (ii) 4 months and (iii) 10 months after implementation of NWW. Repeated measures analyses of covariance (involving 361 participants from the intervention group and 80 participants from the reference group) showed a large and significant shift from hours worked at the office to hours worked at home after implementation of NWW. Accordingly, commuting time was reduced. Employees remained working on week days and during day time. Psychosocial work-characteristics, work–nonwork balance, stress, fatigue, and job-related outcomes remained favourable and largely unaffected, but the health score in the intervention group decreased (medium effect). These findings suggest that the implementation of NWW does not necessarily lead to changes in psychosocial work characteristics, well-being or job-related outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Work-home interference
• boundaryless work
• well-being
• work-nonwork balance
• flexible work
• intervention

Acknowledgements

We thank SNS Reaal (the organization under study), all members of its ‘NWW team’, and all respondents for enabling this study. We thank C. Ziebertz and J. Wilkenloh for their assistance in data collection.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw; proj.nr. 208010003). Additional funding was provided by SNS Reaal for conducting additional NWW measures and for providing feedback to the company.