How coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic thought concern affects employees’ work performance: evidence from real time survey

Abstract

The pandemic of COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented global social and economic crisis, with governments triggering numerous interventions across geographic regions. In this paper, we exhibit evidence of real-time survey of the Middle East discovering the effects of this crisis. We attempt to examine the moderating effect of coronavirus thought concern on employees’ work performance. We used geographically responders survey from Saudi Arabia and Yemen and document variety in the level of tasks workers may perform from home. The approach applied in this study may be considered as a basic contribution for model thinking about how conceivable it is to work from home. The model utilizes to evaluate the effect of the pandemic, or structure policies are focused at reviving the economy. Results indicated the feeling about job is the most significant variable that determine worker performance. This is further supported by the significant association between the psychological state of mind and work performance. These implied that psychological feelings are significant in determining worker performance. Employees’ work performance measure may promote and maintain the psychological feeling and work performance in businesses during the epidemic. This association between the feeling about job, fear and COVID-19 thought concern may imitate enhanced awareness about COVID-19 amongst workers. Our findings support the suggestion of the needs of large investments in order to push the economic wheel in all sectors, assure the flexibility of the economy and generate sustainable jobs.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• coronavirus
• COVID-19
• worker performance
• job satisfaction
• work motivation
• reviving the economy

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

The present study was conducted to examine the vulnerability of workers to job loss from COVID-19 crisis using a real-time survey. We highlight the plight of the service sector workers and some differences in the government involvement during the pandemic in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Findings are a better fit for a specialized audience interested in labour economics, MENA region. The valuation of the impact of COVID-19 thought concern on employees’ work performance will be useful for governments to not only adjust their budget spending but also to allow them to better regulate their labour markets and managing among employees and companies and the loss in employee–employer-specific human capital to observe labour market’s health. Government interventions accompanied with a steady and dependable investment strategy (e.g., what Saudi government did) are critical to the confidence of businesses and employees in times of vagueness. It promotes entrepreneurship renewal that can help companies plan their future investments and employees to make proper decisions

2. Introduction

In the effort to save humanity, government acts have overwhelmingly affected livelihoods, with huge job losses through all industries around the world. Governments making decisions to impose complete or partial lockdowns, henceforth closing down their economies machine, have caused a sharp reduction in GDP. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused one of the extreme worldwide crises since the outbreak of the Spanish flu. The governments around the world jostle to adjust to the prevalence of the COVID-19; it is progressively evidenced that both the health and economic ramifications affected specific ventures and segment groups excessively. Service workers especially are at extraordinary danger of either work misfortune or being requested to work under duress and, in some cases, dangerous conditions. Huge quantities of service workers are being laid off as eateries and stores are downsized and closed. The loss of income for these workers and their families can be overwhelming (Chaganti et al., 2020).

In this context, Williams’ (2021) study concentrated upon the inferences of the COVID-19 for firms and employees working undeclared in the tourism industry. Where there was temporary closing of many industries, including tourism sector, in reply to COVID-19 has caused governments (e.g., Saudi government and others world-wide) offering short-term financial funding to the employees and firms impacted. But, this is merely offered to offset the loss of declared revenue by firms, workers and the self-employed. Companies, workers and the self-employed working in the undeclared economy will not obtain such funding. In Europe, this influences 1 in 28 of all European people who play a part in undeclared job, 17% of whom work in the tourism industry, meaning that 1 in 165 of all European citizens undertake undeclared work in the tourism sector. Definitely, 1 in 640 of all European people depend exclusively on undeclared jobs in the tourism sector for their revenue. These are more probable to be females, younger persons, those in single-individual households, manual employees and those with a kid below 10 years old.

For instance, as organizations closed, administration workers across New England face unthinkable problems. Working from home is infrequently an alternative because of the nature of these occupations (Chaganti et al., 2020). Telecommuting has gotten broad since limits to manage COVID-19 were presented in numerous nations around the globe. This has implied a principle change for workers and businesses. Some have thought that it was a positive encounter. Others have battled to change to new work patterns and conditions. As lockdown measures are rather loose in some countries, homeworking is relied upon to keep making it the “new normal” for some (Kinman et al., 2020). It is important that workers and employers cooperate to guarantee fruitful homeworking. Telecommuting may diminish social contact and yet must be accessible to certain individuals centred in employments connected to higher socioeconomic status (Saadat et al., 2020).

While numerous companies have reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizational practices have likewise added to the intensification of the crisis. For instance, the ongoing movements in value distribution for investors and top executives just as the move to legally binding business have raised the problematic nature of employment for many individuals (Bapuji et al., 2020). Moreover, the crisis is yet unfolding and replies to it are developing. However, it is evident now that this is an extraordinary crisis that will leave an influence for years to come in the similar way as like the crises we have in the past.

In facing the crisis, the parttime labours, contract employees, and delivery partners rapidly found themselves jobless as firms tried to decrease expenses. Correspondingly, a modification in return practices to bid more direct return and less indirect return intended that a big number of workers were enforced to go to job as they were incapable to get compensated leave. While the costs of these performances to societies and firms are gaining credit, the existing crisis highpoints the societal results of employ and return practices of companies (Bapuji et al., 2020).

Adams-Prassl et al. (2020b) introduced ongoing review proof from the UK, Germany, and the US, demonstrating that the work showcases the significant contrast effects of COVID-19 across nations. Workers in Germany, which has an engrained short-timeframe work system, are considerably less inclined to be influenced by the crisis. Inside nations, the effects are profoundly inconsistent and fuel the current imbalances. Workers in options job plans and in works that just share little undertakings are bound to have diminished their hours, lost their works and endured reductions in revenue. Less sophisticated workers and ladies are increasingly affected by the crisis.

As of late, the COVID-19 occurrence has made serious interruptions to worker supply in many nations around the globe, bringing entire economies to a standstill (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020b). Because of measures that limit society’s capacity to carry out their works, many families and households are now enduring huge and prompt misfortunes as far as income and employment are concerned. Getting a superior comprehension of the effects of COVID-19 crisis is critical for scheming policy replies that focus on those people who have been generally affected by the crisis. The objectives of this research are to determine the effects of COVID-19 on workers’ emotions, work motivation, workers’ attitude, work performance and the role of employee personal background on the feasible impact of COVID-19 on their work performance.

From other side, despite the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on income and employment loss around the globe, Dang et al. (2021) said that barely any formal paper is on household-finance and future economic prospects in pauper nations. They found that having a job is positively and solidly related with healthier finance and more revenue and savings, in addition to more hopefulness about the economy flexibility. The outcomes based on their beforehand valuation of the pandemic’s harmful influences, exceptionally on person prospects of their economy and own finance, can offer beneficial inputs for policy-makers in scheming numerous economic-policies. They suggested that these policies should be designed made to help diverse population groups, e.g., vulnerable employees or females, to increase their effects.

We examine the vulnerability of workers to job loss from COVID-19 crisis using a real-time survey that covers two countries and highlights the plight of the service sector workers, as well as some differences in the government involvement during the pandemic in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Overall, however, the findings are a better fit for specialized audience interested in labour economics, MENA region. These results are in line with the World Bank (2021) research, which discussed the Global Economic Prospects, June 2020, including MENA countries.

In this context, in order to explained the representing the geographical area of the research. Geographical closeness can affect the cultural and social profile of countries because political power and similar historical influences can have similar effects on cultural formation and business empowerment in the same regions. While the effects of proximity and a religion shared by many nations in the area lead to similarities in many aspects of society, different cultural traits are also recognized when properly examined (Kabasakal et al., 2012). On the other hand, in reality, values heterogeneity thrives not merely between nations but also within nations. Nevertheless, the reasons for this heterogeneity is less strong (Ralston et al., 2012). According to the World Bank, 2020 the position in big MENA economies is weighed heavily by the COVID-19, while reasonable inflation in fractions of the area lets a space for extra monetary easing. Oil traders are dependent on tourism and are susceptible to additional deterioration in tourist and world-wide disturbances. The capability for a real reply by health-systems differs extensively, making some big economies in MENA not ready for an increase of infection-rates. Conflict risks in unstable economies have not decreased. Accordingly, we discuss the question will rise here to which extent our sample represented in the MENA region? The answer is our sample represent those countries with similar circumstances and conditions.

To achieve our goals in providing evidence of the effect of Coronavirus Pandemic on employees’ work performance in different occupations and industries, we employ one survey data that were collected during the month of (late) June and (the whole of) July in the Saudi Arabia and Yemen. We analyse the data using multiple linear regression model using “Robust regress” in Stata.

This study is very important as it goes to discover the effect of coronavirus pandemic on employees’ work performance in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. After we determine these effects, we will be able to use the implications of this study to deal with workers emotion, to increase work motivation, improves workers’ attitude and works performed. Finally, knowing the role of employees’ personal background on the feasible impact of COVID-19 on their work performance will be useful in responding to it.

The rest of this article is organized as follow. Section two is literature review section, three is Research design and section four deliberate on the implication and conclusion.

3. Literature Review

Van Steenbergen and Ellemers (2009) outcomes suggested that corporations run for a “committed work force” should adapt their activities to the results they want to achieve. Once striving at affecting specific behavioural outcomes, e.g., enhancing work performance, corporations must address specific forms of work commitment, while directorial commitment is further related when organizational turnover reduction is the core apprehension. Corporations should be alert that high levels of commitment are not by definition preferable. They have concentrated on employees’ commitment to different dimensions of the work instead of assessing general organizational commitment, and have established the added value of this method for the prediction of specific employee behaviours, including objective job performance over time. Therefore, the examination of the moderating effect of coronavirus thought concern on employees’ work performance thus represents a significant contribution to the commitment literature that can be of broad use in further research and organizational practices.

Due to the pandemic of COVID-19 development, corporations started to suffer from the absence of raw materials, products etc it also suffers from the absence of human-resources. Outcomes of a study indicate that the regular time from the onset of symptoms to discharge was 22 days (Zhou et al., 2020). Consequently, when sick, workers had to be absent from job for at least 21 days, and adding recovery time-much longer. Furthermore, employees who did not get the virous but had proven interaction with an infection individual were absorbed to a separation roughly from 7 to 14 days. Thus, numerous nations reduced contact between people in an attempt to deliberate infection. In spite of the reasons for the absenteeism from work, for businesspersons it designated a damage of productive volume, with no a reduction in the costs of employment (Baldwin & Di Mauro, 2020).

Furthermore, various corporations chosen to apply distant work procedures to safe their employees and implement the social-distancing regulations. Tolerating employees to work from home meaningfully changed the method of performing business. Going more in the social-distancing rules, many countries governments have banned working in several industries, shutdown the borders and transportation, which directly reduced productivity (Baldwin & Weder Di Mauro, 2020). Though, this deterioration in employment with no a reduction in the costs of employment the financial liquidity of numerous companies has been vulnerable for that reason lots firms have limited cash reserves, which is particularly true for medium and small corporations (Wei, 2020).

In a complex and compact nations worldwide, COVID-19 impacts have exceeded mortality. With all things in mind, governments around the globe were preparing the alternative work paths, package assistance to continue their economic survival. We have seen serious closures of companies and organisation around the globe. This reduced consumption and halted production.

Generally speaking, it has upset the supply chain, which affected organizations all over the world. Because of this scourge, many people will perhaps lose their jobs in the few coming months. We heard continuously very disturbing news on organizations shutting down their facilities causing layoffs, which affects the workers future. Customers are changing their consumer behaviour, which has affected orders for products in large and small stores in general. Financial markets around the globe also recorded sharp declined and unpredictability at comparable levels, worse than during 2008–2009 crisis. Fernandes (2020) examines the economic effect of the COVID-19 crisis across sectors, and nations. Author described the financial frequencies through which economic action will be affected. Besides, the asymmetric outcomes across nations and sectors, it additionally estimated the possible worldwide financial costs of COVID-19 under various situations.

Chaganti et al. (2020) estimated that there were nearly 2 million services centres in New England, with around one of every five workers in the area involved in service organisation were closed. The pandemic can possibly intensify existing disparities. Current strategy reactions, specifically the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act (18 March 2020) and Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Acts (27 March 2020)”, may mitigate a portion of these impacts. However more is needed to empower impartial recuperation from this (Chaganti et al., 2020).

The impacts of COVID-19 epidemic are not restricted to health, yet in addition, majorly affect the economic and social welfare (Bhuiyan et al., 2020). Developing and less developed nations are apparently encountering more extreme crises than developed nations, with numerous small and medium-sized organizations being upset and even bankrupt (Fernandes, 2020). People’s mental wellness are at risk to be breakable (Lin, 2020). Sahoo et al. (2020) reported a portion of the mental outcomes has occurred in India including self-hurt due to COVID-19 deception. In addition, influences on mental health can likewise happened but there is absence of precise data (Rajkumar, 2020; Sahoo et al., 2020; Tandon, 2020).

Likewise, pandemic-related limitations (e.g., spatial separating, segregation, home isolate, and so on.) is affecting on economic maintainability and prosperity, which may actuate psychological mediators. For example, stress, dread, outrage, disturbance, dissatisfaction, blame, weakness, dejection, and apprehension has become a common phenomenon (Bhuiyan et al., 2020; Mukhtar, 2020). Exclusive of early economic mediations, such emotional health issues can encourage self-destructive behaviours among certain people (Arafat & Al Mamun, 2019; Bhuiyan et al., 2020) on the grounds that economic recession, joblessness, and poverty are firmly connected with serious mental comorbidities, for example, suicidal practices (Bhuiyan et al., 2020; Oyesanya et al., 2015)

3.1. COVID-19 and Performance Evaluation

Should evaluation on the impact be postponed as we are still in the middle of COVID-19 crisis? No. the truth is, there are more significant now than any other time before, according to Rhiannon Staples (2020),¹ big number of workers are losing real time reaction and an absence of instant contact with a manager rises the need for corporations to place these kinds of method rather than to push them to occur organically (VOZZA, 2020).

Affording to a Joblist (2019) study, almost 60% of workers giving inspiring feedback all the time . At the point when a group is far off, it tends to be more difficult to precisely measure action and results. Yet, that doesn’t mean customary feedback is less significant. Regardless of whether it is in an official evaluation or a straightforward week by week or month to month assessment with their chief, workers need more feedback on their performance (Joblist, 2019).

Appraisals were simpler before COVID-19 to be conveyed to the grounds with multiple occasions teams in a similar work environment. Be that as it may, collaborations are not as noticeable when there are set over any online platform or email (VOZZA, 2020). Therefore, managers must adopt a progressively deliberate strategy to accumulate data and interface with workers. Once accumulated, feedback have to bear in mind: If a worker has been required to work distantly but cannot do their full job distantly, that must be takin in consideration. Moreover, if an employee has faced extenuating circumstances outside of work, such as a family member with COVID-19, how can that be tackled? Preferably, workers and executives must have these discussions about setting and its influence on prospects afore a performance assessment executed hence that the assessment is based on the utmost updated prospects (VOZZA, 2020).

The performance assessment process guarantees that businesses are sound and cares about the future of their workers, (Debora Roland),² Performance reviews are a great time to take a deep breath, see where you have been, and assess where you are going. Employees need assurances, and with so many employees being terminated, it is slightly of a frightening world. Employees who still have works are expected to work actually hard and that should be recognised in an official manner (VOZZA, 2020).

Throughout this crisis, all of us are working under some degree of included pressure or even coercion. When persons are in a stress state, they do not act normally. Old-style performance management is to be expected to disassemble your staff in usual times will probably do far worse harm in unmoral time (Tamra Chandler).³ On the off chance that your company is directing conventional performance evaluation, as in defining yearly objectives and regular more than once per year sit-downs, you may need to reconsider the objective of your performance evaluation. Before you escape with performance estimation, ask yourself: Measurement for what reason? Often, we use measurements to notify approach to increases pay, advancement etc., and “Are these actions still on the table? What are the requirement to recognise to make reliable choices? It is fairly likely that the urgencies and needs have reformed, thus the relevance of annual objectives, set pre-COVID-19, is doubtful, what we wants currently is clarity (VOZZA, 2020).

According to the World Bank, 2020, in reply to COVID-19, the governments have introduced financial stability and business sector aid measures, counting measures to support lending to SMEs as in Saudi Arabia did. Growth in many oil-exporting countries will be severely constrained by further political restricts in oil production. In Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies, lower oil prices, lifted ambiguity related with further possible spikes in COVID-19, and household-wide effects of primary budget adjustments (such as a value-added tax rise, wage restriction) should significantly impact the non-oil activity.

Escalation in oil-exporting countries is likely to recovery in 2021, as the epidemic decreases and investment recovery, counting large investments in infrastructure for the GCC countries. Long-term modification programs, the current relaxation of restrictions on foreign investment, and enhanced regulatory environments are likewise expected to support the recovery, including rebounds from negative worldwide spill-overs and lowly confidence.

In many GCC economies including Saudi Arabia, the packages have similarly given alleviation particularly for SMEs. With the increasing impact of the oil price crash on financial positions in the MENA region, various aid schemes have led to financial reallocations in Saudi Arabia. Although stock-to-use ratios for utmost grains are near record high levels, food safety concerns in the wake of the pandemic have “excessive” purchases such as Saudi Arabia for wheat (World Bank, 2021).

According to Gentilini et al. (2020), KSA labour Markets got several activation measures as solutions to mitigates COVID-19 consequences for instant, “The Saudi Human Resources Development Fund” stated the distribution of SR2B to aid the private sector by 100,000 job-seekers. In addition to SR800M as a training support track to help 100,000 recipients and SR1.5B has been assigned to enhance 100,000 new job opportunities in the program.

Furthermore, MHRSD on 6 April 2020 published an order to control contractual association between employer and worker. When the employer got the government subsidy, closure the employee’s contract is unlawful. Then a new phrase 41 was therefore inserted to the applying rule of the labour regulation. Moreover, MHRSD has allowable a temp advantage from the off-labor-market expatriates’ services throughout the “Ajeer” gateway as an option to employing from overseas to safeguard employees during from losing their aids or terminated. Further, “wage protection system (WPS)” was hanging during pandemic to guarantee that companies can log on to government services. In this context, instead of dismissing the Saudi labours’ agreement, an employer remained permitted to submit an application for the “General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI)” and appeal a 60% of the wage listed in GOSI for his labours as monthly compensation payment for three months, monthly max of 9000 riyals and a total of 9 billion riyals. These reforms withdrawn from 1 October 2020 with the exclusion of a few industries (airlines) getting paid 30% to 50% of monthly wage of a Saudi worker whom his salary ranges SAR 4,000-SR10,000 for a period of 2 months (World Bank, 2020).

In Yemen the 8th payment cycle project was launched on 27 June 2020 under the name of “Yemen Emergency Cash Transfer (ECT)”. Throughout this payment sequence, humanitarian funding was offered for a onetime top-up to the recipient amount to assistance beneficiaries survive with the COVID-19 world-wide pandemic. The refill expanse was roughly 45 per cent of the beneficiaries’ three-monthly base amount. As of 22 July 2020, 1.418 million people had their aids with this top-up, which correspond to about 89 per cent of all cash recipients. Regarding the Labour Markets dose not got any activation measures as the salaries had been not paid since 2015 due to the current crisis country go through (Gentilini et al., 2020).

On other hand, in Saudi Arabia, oil industry scratches expanded the reduction in the oil sector but was counterbalance by a sustained revival in the non-oil sector. High frequency data recommend the improvement has earned momentum. Moreover, an immediate payment system has been introduced, assurances and tolerance measures have been expanded, and working instructions for expatriates come loose (Gentilini et al., 2020; World Bank, 2021, June 2020).

According to the World Bank, 2021, the international GDP is anticipated to escalation 4 per cent in 2021 based on appropriate organisation of the pandemic and active vaccination to reduce the blowout of COVID-19 in numerous countries beside the cooperative stance of financial policy. In this regard, GDP in Saudi Arabia is likely to raise by 2.4 per cent and 3.3 per cent in 2022, signifying positive pandemic incidents, beginning a new government investment program and higher oil prices, funded over the independent wealth fund, equal 5% of GDP per year throughout the next 5 years. Countries influenced by war, e.g., Yemen have several of the worst labour force participation and gender gaps in education, crafting gender-specific facility of chances vital in encouraging average and long-term growth in this economies (Bakken & Buhaug, 2021; World Bank and German Development Cooperation, 2020). Separately, random tried outbreaks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities underline security fears in the region and risks of a flow in tensions.

Regarding Yemen, according to the World Bank, 2021, more resurgence of COVID-19 outbreaks or delayed vaccination rollouts are substantial hazards. Additional severe outbreaks in large regional economies could impose intraregional spill-over consequences, even if smaller economies do not experience large outbreaks. For example, Republic of Yemen is oil importers country depend profoundly on remittances of workers in the GCC. The socioeconomic effects of the outbreak, counting expanding unemployment and poverty, whitethorn more increase social conflict and complex damages in delicate economies. Local political and geopolitical tensions continue to pose a risk to development and undermine further trade integration (World Bank, 2020). The level of political ambiguity is high in many economies in the MENA region such as the Republic of Yemen. Ceasefire arrangements in Yemen provide a chance to further recover security in the region and reduce the increase in food insecurity at the national level. In the long run, failure to advance political solidity will be harmful to development.

4. Research methodology

Undoubtedly, there are many examination strategies or procedures to lead research qualitatively and quantitatively as the most widely recognized research philosophies. For favouring or opposing theories and for leading correlational research, researchers appear to concur that quantitative methodology is most appropriate for this purpose (Cooper et al., 2003). The current study is grounded on theories testing, and in this way correlational investigation comprises a significant area in this exploration, and is the reason quantitative research design was picked in this research.

It is eminent that the research design is fundamentally the research structure indicating the primary examination parts including measures, tests, information assortment techniques and investigation that cooperate to address and resolve the exploration questions (Creswell et al., 2007). It ought to be noticed that the choice is viewed as one of the most significant advance in any research work (Marczyk & DeMatteo, 2005). As argued before, the choice of this particular plan is grounded on hypothetical considerations.

4.1. Developing Hypothesis

This section describes the hypotheses tested in this study. As a hypothesis is “a good guess” at the best respond to a question, depended on the most reliable facts available and a guess that will be examined (Popper, 1959). Likewise, a hypothesis is defined as a “testable proposition about the relationship between two or more events or concepts” (Saunders et al., 2012, p. 593). In this context, work performance always refers to the act of performing duties and roles which is measured as the maximum expected value that a worker dose over a standard time (Motowidlo & Kell, 2012). To increase a firm’s income and efficacy, management should boost the workers’ performance as it is expected that if work output of employees boosts their commitment and satisfaction also will increase (Nwachukwu, 2006). The work performance level depends on how successful HR techniques are, in order to succeed in increasing worker commitment, it can also be helpful for psychology to enhance human performance in organizations (Al‐Ahmadi, 2009). Carmeli (2003) said that workers with a good intelligence level can adjust their feelings in terms of maintaining a healthy mental collaboration as the job performance plays a significant role in the accomplishment of corporation performance (Wang et al., 2015).

Vijayan (2017) said that the core of work success depends on the work concerns and values of the corporation on which worker is utmost respected. Accordingly, management should scout methods to build a positive workplace for workers to promote their ability which in turns can boost their satisfaction, productivity, motivation and job performance (Azar & Shafighi, 2013). Commonly, employees’ performance is measured through a set of task-related aspects and predicted acts (Motowidlo & Kell, 2012). Therefore, employers need to value their employees and acknowledge high-performing employees who contribute to organizational productivity so as to maintain and attract senior employees’ efficiency and satisfaction. As a good-performance worker seek high levels of organizational outcomes involving efficiency, productivity and performance (Bharadwaj, 2005).

Earlier studies shown that commitment to additional specific hub than the organization, as a whole is suitable to predict precise worker behaviours. From an applied viewpoint Van Steenbergen and Ellemers (2009) recommended that institutes struggling for a “committed work force” should tailor their activities to the consequences they want to attend. Kniffin et al. (2020) study acknowledges the unequal influences that COVID-19 may have on workers depending on individual differences, demographic and relevant institutional rules.

The hypotheses of this study relate to the variables associated with the effect of COVID-19 on workers emotion, works motivation, workers attitude, works performance and to determine the role of employees’ personal background on the feasible impact of COVID 19 on their work performance. The understanding obtained from literature reviewed was very helpful in developing the hypotheses of this study. Based on the discussions by earlier studies and the presumptions core self-evaluation theory, this research plans to examine the relationship of interested variables as follows: the dependent variable of the study, which is work performance assessed by five key items in the study questionnaire. Concerning feeling about COVID-19 as a moderating variable evaluated by items questions. Furthermore, independent variables calculated as follows: First variable is employee history (respondents background) measured by six items. The second variable is job motivation assessed by six items. The next component is family engagement (works and family) assessed by three items. Regarding job satisfaction variable and feeling about job (FAJ) each one of them measured by six and five items respectively. Finally, psychological state of mind, variable assessed by two items Based on previous studies discussed above mentioned we tried to discover the direct relationship and indirect-moderating relationship between variables by hypothesizing of 12 hypotheses in alternative form as it appears in research framework.

4.2. Research Instrument and Survey Design

In this section we offer more detail on how we extract the information by designing the study survey as follows: Respondents’ background: In all countries we gather detailed info on respondents’ contemporary work arrangements. We askedt respondents to report some demographics info such as: Gender, Age (in years) Marital Status, Organizational tenure (in years), Level of education and Current Employment. Wide range of feeling about COVID-19: We ask respondents to report about their feeling. Although in the past few weeks, governments are gradually easing (COVID-9) restrictions around the world. We want to know whether still, some people often to experience a wide range of feelings, dreams, thoughts and reactions about the coronavirus (COVID-9) event (Mgammal & Al-Matari, 2021).

FAJ: We ask respondents to report information about their job. Some jobs are more interesting and satisfying than others. We want to know how you feel about your job. Works’ performance: We ask respondents to report on their feelings and the most applicable way that employees deal with their job by some statements. Work motivation: We ask respondents to report info about employees’ feelings during the past few weeks by some statements. Works and family: We ask respondents to report info on how employees work responsibilities interfere with family activities. Job satisfaction: We ask respondents to report info on how employees’ thoughts and how they spend work time (Mgammal & Al-Matari, 2021).

Psychological state of mind: We ask respondents about challenge definition. In this questionnaire, we defined challenge appraisal “as a challenging circumstance that although potentially stressful that you think you can overcome. These circumstances can help you meet your work goals and/or be motivating”. On the other hand, we defined hindrance circumstance “as something that interferes with your work and can stand in the way of you being able to achieve your goals. These circumstances seem almost as a road block, impossible to overcome”. We want to know how employees defined challenge appraisal and hindrance circumstance (Mgammal & Al-Matari, 2021).

4.3. Measurements of Variables

The study’s dependent variable is work performance measured by four main questions in study questionnaire, which are fundamentally giving us information about: Finish job on time, get others to help in the job, use work time to discuss non-work matter and thinking of leaving job. Regarding feeling about COVID-19 as moderating variable measured by five questions in study questionnaire, which are fundamentally giving us information about: Dream, Perception, Feeling, Thought and Reaction of employees (Mgammal & Al-Matari, 2021).

Moreover, independent variables measured as follows: First variable is employee background (respondents background) measured by six questions, giving us information about: Gender, Age, Marital status, Qualification/professional, Position and Current employment. The second variable is work motivation measured by seven questions, giving us information about: energized, Lightheaded, Cheerful, emotionally stable, bothered, downhearted, tired, worn out and exhausted. The next variable is family commitment (works and family) measured by three questions, giving us information about: personal matters, leaving work station for family matters and family matters distract responsibility (Mgammal & Al-Matari, 2021).

Further, we have job satisfaction variable (FAJ) measured by five questions, giving us information about: well satisfied, enthusiastic, unpleasant, enjoyment and bored. Finally, psychological state of mind, (works performance) variable measured by four questions, giving us information about: feel as a fundamental worker, daydreaming, last minute person and feel disappointed (Mgammal & Al-Matari, 2021).

4.4. Collection and Sampling

The geographical context of the study is two Arabic countries the Yemen and Saudi Arabia in Middle East, with a timeframe during the month of (late) June and (the whole of) July 2020. The survey contains eight sections (A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H), in some sections, we used a seven- and six-point Likert scale to offer different answer options for respondents to choose. In these sections a seven- and six-point scale is the most correct and simpler to use for respondents and gives a better indication of a respondent’s assessment. In this context, we used a five-point Likert scale in other sections which is relatively easier for respondents understand. We used a four-point Likert scale in some sections to get specific responses. As in this certain case of COVID −19 the opinion of respondents in these sections of the questionnaire is important so the four-point scale is the most ideal way to get it (Chang, 1994).

We collected a survey data on a geographically samples of people. A mixture of purposive and snowball techniques facilitated to choose the respondents via Email (People from different sectors whom have jobs and their email are available for us were exactly selected to receive the email). After forming the questionnaire in English and Arabic with applied the suitable techniques and earlier to the formal survey, a pilot examination with 20 Academic residents from both countries was conducted to confirm the logical reliability, wording, meaning, and suitability of each question. Then we distributed 950 questionnaires through email due to the current circumstances as one time of survey data during June 1 and 30 July 2020 after Arabic world started to initiate the strict regionwide social distancing rules to cover the outbreak of COVID-19, targeting people from different sectors whom have job.

The data is only collected at one point of time (June/July 2020) we know that there is no counterfactual for “no COVID” but everyone by this point were had not adapted their behaviour or thinking to some degree, due to the effects of the increases in number of cases or workplace unstable policies at that particular time. This is particularly relevant when you’re thinking about how COVID has affected worker productivity, as this is can be used as a baseline where everything is “abnormal”.

Furthermore, COVID thought-concern as measured in the paper is quite endogenous to the person some people are going to be more concerned than others regardless of the objective risk. This is a little difficult issue to overcome and we addressed in the questionnaire. Responds to the concerns about endogeneity the questionnaire when request, along with further details as to how the variables were created.

Google model was utilised as the stage for holding the questionnaire. The survey was conducted over a public online survey utilising an appropriate sampling method (Table 1 offer a comparable sample of the latest studies that employ online survey approaches). No inducements for respondents were offered, and their anonymity was assured. In this article, we offer suggestions from actual time-surveys handled in two Arabic countries the Yemen and Saudi Arabia. After data cleansing a total of 307 respondents were voluntary to participate in the survey as final sample. The original items of the Questionnaire were generated from the results of literature reviews according to previous study towards COVID-19 (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020a; Bartik et al., 2020; Fowler, 2013; Huynh, 2020) and the explanation about COVID-19 informed in the WHO’s website (World Health Organization, 2019).

Table 1. A comparable sample of the latest studies that employ online survey approaches

Study	Findings
Barrafrem et al. (2020)	“29% of British respondents and 7% of Swedish respondents believed that the economic situation of their household will be a lot worse in the future than it is now. More respondents anticipated that the national and global economic situation would be worse in the future than it is now; 61.4% and 62.0% in the U.K. and 36.2% and 47.0% in Sweden respectively.”
Brown et al. (2020)	“Parental support and perceived control over the COVID-19 pandemic were significantly and negatively associated with perceived stress. Perceived control over the epidemic were significantly and negatively associated with abuse potential. Loss of employment or income and an incapability to deliver for their family was the most salient stressor.”
Gesser-Edelsburg et al. (2020)	“found a significant divergence in the personal risk perceptions between age-groups, a significant positive-correlation between general risk awareness and attitude toward crisis-management, a significant positive-correlation between general risk awareness and economic threat perception, a significant positive correlation between attitudes toward crisis-management and compliance with behaviour guidelines, and a significant divergence between participants who attributed the most credibility to divergence information sources and their attitudes toward crisis-management.”
Lippens et al. (2021)	“21.1% of the respondents are afraid of losing job because of the COVID-19. 13.7% apprehension that this will even be the case before the end of the year. Women express a more pronounced apprehension of job-loss and a negative influence on their careers while men are quite more concerned about attractive vacancies number. Employees with a tertiary education express less worry to miss out on a promotion.”
Dang et al. (2021)	“holding a job is robustly and confidently related with better-finance and more income and savings, more optimism about the resilience of the economy; those with permanent job shrinks to have less job worries and better assessments for the economy. People with good health tend to have more positive assessments for their present and future-finance mixed evidence for those with higher educational levels.”

The research adopted a descriptive cross-sectional online survey design to assess the dependent variable of the study, which is work performance assessed by five key questions in the study questionnaire, which essentially offer us information about: finish job on time, get others to help in the job, use work time to address non-work issues and think about leaving job. Concerning feeling about COVID-19 as a moderating variable evaluated by nine questions in the study questionnaire that give us basic information about: employees’ visions, expectations, emotions, thoughts and reactions.

Furthermore, independent variables calculated as follows: First variable is employee history (respondents background) measured by six questions, giving us information on: gender, age, marital status, skill/professional, job and current jobs. The second variable is job motivation assessed by six questions, giving us information about: energized, lightheaded, optimistic, emotionally stable, disturbed, downhearted, tired, stressed out and drained. The next component is family engagement (works and family) assessed by three questions, providing us with details on: personal matters, leaving the workstation for family matters and distracting responsibility from family matters.

Regarding job satisfaction variable and FAJ each one of them measured by six and five questions respectively, giving us information about: well-satisfied, excited, negative, enjoyment and bored. Finally, psychological state of mind, variable assessed by two questions, giving us information about: feeling as a fundamental worker, daydreaming, last-minute individual and feeling frustrated.

5. Research Analysis

5.1. Descriptive

The descriptive statistics of the variables are reported in Table 2. The current study provides a panel data analysis of 307 questionnaires administered during June and July 2020. Table 2 presents the summary statistics of the complete 307 questionnaires observations. Work performance (WPR) were measured by five items in the questionnaire; Likert Scale varied from 1 to 4, with a mean of 2.71%. COVID-19 thought concern (COVID) measured by nine items in the questionnaire; Likert Scale ranging from 1 = Strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree, with a mean of 3.09%. Employees’ background (BG) was measured by six items in the questionnaire, varied from as low mean of 1.094463% in Q1 to 38.01303% in Q2 and FAJ measured by six items in the questionnaire measured by five items in the questionnaire; Likert Scale ranging from 1 to 7, a mean of 4.46%. Work motivation (WMIT) and Job satisfaction (JSIT) measured by six items, Likert Scale ranging from 1 to 8 and 1 to 6, with a mean of 5.04% and 2.72%, respectively. Finally, psychological state of mind (PsySMIND) and Family commitment (FCMIT) were measured by two and three items in the questionnaire, respectively. Likert Scale ranged from 1 to 4 and 1 to 6, with a mean of 2.83% and 3.03%.

Table 2. Summary statistics

Variables	Obs	Mean	Std. Dev.	Min	Max	Pr(Skewness)	Pr(Kurtosis)	adj chi2(2)	Prob>chi2
WPR	307	2.712704	0.5468282	1	4	0.0424	0.0494	7.55	0.0229
COVID	307	3.09772	0.9290262	1	5	0.8564	0.0001	12.71	0.0017
BGQ1	307	1.094463	0.2929486	1	2	-	-	-	-
BGQ2	307	38.01303	7.008852	10	60	-	-	-	-
BGQ3	307	1.156352	.3726566	1	3	-	-	-	-
BGQ4	307	11.52932	7.900161	0	40	-	-	-	-
BGQ5	307	2.312704	1.016177	1	4	-	-	-	-
BGQ6	307	1.19544	.3971862	1	2	-	-	-	-
FAJ	307	4.460586	1.000315	1	7	0.0967	0.7543	2.87	0.2378
WMIT	307	5.046254	0.9988608	1	8	0.0018	0.0007	17.70	0.0001
JSIT	307	2.720955	1.015379	1	6	0.0000	0.1644	19.08	0.0001
PsySMIND	307	2.837134	0.7171036	1	4	0.3984	0.2509	2.04	0.3599
FCMIT	307	3.036916	1.130506	1	6	0.0079	0.8885	6.82	0.0330
COVID_BG	307	28.24205	10.45267	9.833	68.96	0.0000	0.0009	35.87	0.0000
COVID_FAJ	307	13.89092	5.574636	3.667	35	0.0001	0.2752	15.05	0.0005
COVID_WMIT	307	15.89779	6.530569	4.445	42	0.0000	0.0045	26.47	0.0000
COVID_JSIT	307	8.742008	4.793685	1.167	30	0.0000	0.0000	49.40	0.0000
COVID_PsyS~D	307	9.082338	4.228041	1	20	0.0001	0.4250	14.33	0.0008
COVID_FCMIT	307	9.693509	5.147219	1.4259	30	0.0000	0.0027	31.79	0.0000
Where: WPR = Work performance, COVID = COVID-19 thought Concern, BG = Employees background, FAJ = Feeling about job, WMIT = Work motivation, JSIT = Job satisfaction, PsySMIND = Psychological state of mind, FCMIT = Family commitment.

5.2. Correlation Analysis

Table 3 reflected the partial and semi-partial correlations of dependent variable WPR. Moreover, the Pearson and Spearman correlations are generally utilised to verify for multicollinearity. Table 4 demonstrates the data Pearson correlation matrix, signifying that there is no high correlation score amongst the investigated variables. Correlation provided only information pertaining to the level of significance; thus, data indicates only to the significant relationships. We besides utilized the variance inflation factor (VIF) test, which indicated no evidence of multicollinearity amongst our main variables.

Table 3. Partial and semi-partial correlations of WPR with

	Partial	Semi-partial	Partial	Semi-partial	Significance
Variable	Corr.	Corr.	Corr.٨2	Corr.٨2	Value
COVID	−0.1243	−0.1048	0.0155	0.0110	0.0374
BGQ1	−0.0798	−0.0670	0.0064	0.0045	0.1820
BGQ2	−0.1047	−0.0884	0.0110	0.0078	0.0798
BGQ3	−0.1389	−0.1172	0.0193	0.0137	0.0198
BGQ4	0.0064	0.0059	0.0001	0.0000	0.9147
BGQ5	−0.0408	−0.0343	0.0017	0.0012	0.4956
Q6	−0.0571	−0.0478	0.0033	0.0023	0.3400
FAJ	0.0496	0.0415	0.0025	0.0017	0.4073
WMIT	0.0214	0.0179	0.0005	0.0003	0.7213
JSIT	0.0899	0.0755	0.0081	0.0057	0.1326
PsySMIND	0.0820	0.0689	0.0068	0.0048	0.1705
FCMIT	0.0374	0.0314	0.0014	0.0010	0.5320
COVID-FAJ	0.0099	0.0083	0.0001	0.0001	0.8691
COVID WMIT	0.0144	0.0120	0.0002	0.0001	0.8102
COVID_JSIT	−0.0323	−0.0270	0.0010	0.0007	0.5895
COVID_Psy~D	−0.0183	−0.0154	0.0003	0.0002	0.7605
COVID-FCMIT	−0.0148	−0.0125	0.0002	0.0002	0.8043
COVID_BGQ1	0.0899	0.0754	0.0081	0.0057	0.1329
COVID_BGQ2	0.0899	0.0758	0.0081	0.0057	0.1328
COVID_BGQ3	0.1141	0.0959	0.0130	0.0092	0.0561
COVID_BGQ4	−0.0126	−0.0111	0.0002	0.0001	0.8333
COVID_BGQ5	0.0519	0.0436	0.0027	0.0019	0.3859
COVID_BGQ6	0.0452	0.0378	0.0020	0.0014	0.4504

Table 4. COVID-19 Thought Concern and Work Performance Regression

Robust Regression		Number of Obs = 307, F (14,292) = 963.13 Prob > F = 0.0000
Variables	Model 1						Model 2
DV = WPR	Coef.	Std. Err.	t	P > t	[95% Conf.	Interval]	Coef.	Std. Err.	t	P > t	[95% Conf.	Interval]
COVID	0.0339451	0.0317975	1.07	0.287*	(0.029)	0.097	(0.1979428)	0.0617346	(3.21)	0.002***	(0.319)	(0.076)
BGQ1	0.0291164	0.0883469	0.33	0.742	(0.145)	0.203	(0.0653022)	0.0563935	(1.16)	0.248*	(0.176)	0.046
BGQ2	0.0045448	0.0051557	(0.88)	0.379	(0.015)	0.006	0.0127533	0.0030915	4.13	0.000***	0.007	0.019
BGQ3	(0.1535320)	0.0731092	(2.10)	0.037**	(0.297)	(0.010)	(0.1395677)	0.0454200	(3.07)	0.002***	(0.229)	(0.050)
BGQ4	(0.0009209)	0.0043982	(0.21)	0.834	(0.010)	0.008	(0.0156082)	0.0024812	(6.29)	0.000***	(0.020)	(0.011)
BGQ5	0.0197351	0.0268711	0.73	0.463	(0.033)	0.073	0.0703910	0.0158016	4.45	0.000***	0.039	0.101
BGQ6	(0.0182061)	0.0655248	(0.28)	0.781	(0.147)	0.111	(0.0815396)	0.0365161	(2.23)	0.026**	(0.153)	(0.010)
FAJ	0.1104552	0.0270299	4.09	0.000***	0.057	0.164	0.1609792	0.0149531	10.77	0.000***	0.132	0.190
WMIT	0.0181605	0.0289808	0.63	0.531	(0.039)	0.075	0.0376890	0.0154109	2.45	0.015***	0.007	0.068
JSIT	0.1069127	0.0324358	3.30	0.001***	0.043	0.171	0.0649483	0.0192745	3.37	0.001***	0.027	0.103
PsySMIND	0.1468706	0.0414643	3.54	0.000***	0.065	0.228	0.1672271	0.0211178	7.92	0.000***	0.126	0.209
FCMIT	0.0996144	0.0291933	3.41	0.001***	0.042	0.157	0.1046216	0.0175315	5.97	0.000***	0.070	0.139
COVID_FAJ	-	-	-	-	-	-	(0.0516803)	0.0046150	(11.20)	0.000***	(0.061)	(0.043)
COVID_WMIT	-	-	-	-	-	-	(0.0074932)	0.0046158	(1.62)	0.106*	(0.017)	0.002
COVID_JSIT	-	-	-	-	-	-	(0.0194399)	0.0058788	(3.31)	0.001***	(0.031)	(0.008)
COVID_PsySMIND	-	-	-	-	-	-	(0.0516112)	0.0064540	(8.00)	0.000***	(0.064)	(0.039)
COVID_FCMIT	-	-	-	-	-	-	(0.0334965)	0.0055392	(6.05)	0.000***	(0.044)	(0.023)
COVID_BGQ1	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.0106719	0.0180686	0.59	0.555	(0.025)	0.046
COVID_BGQ2	-	-	-	-	-	-	(0.0041543)	0.0010543	(3.94)	0.000***	(0.006)	(0.002)
COVID_BGQ3	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.0433468	0.0139222	3.11	0.002***	0.016	0.071
COVID_BGQ4	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.0046260	0.0007921	5.84	0.000***	0.003	0.006
COVID_BGQ5	-	-	-	-	-	-	(0.0245273)	0.0050965	(4.81)	0.000***	(0.035)	(0.014)
COVID_BGQ6	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.0223042	0.0112430	1.98	0.048**	0.000	0.044
_cons	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.7300507	0.1892123	3.86	0.000***	0.358	1.103
WPR = Work performance, COVID = COVID-19 thought Concern, BG = Employees’ background (measured by Q1 to Q6), FAJ = Feeling about job, WMIT = Work motivation, JSIT = Job satisfaction, PsySMIND = Psychological state of mind, FCMIT = Family commitment.

reports significance test that has a direct and indirect influence along with how large is the measurement of the exogenous variable influence towards the endogenous variable. This is to discover how Coronavirus Pandemic affects employees’ WPR through COVID-19 thought concern (COVID) as a moderating variable that needs a direct and indirect impact test. Impact test is done by using Robust Regression. The significance test value of the variables were as follows: It was discovered that all the direct relationship between independent variables are significant with the dependent variable—WPR. The effect of COVID-19 thought concern was found to be negatively significant on WPR, while the rest of the effects on WPR were significantly positive.

On the interactions between variables, we found that all interactions between variables namely: (COVID thought concern on the FAJ (COVID_FAJ), COVID thought concern on the Work motivation (COVID_WMIT), COVID thought concern on the Job satisfaction (COVID_JSIT), COVID thought concern on the psychological state of mind (COVID_PsySMIND) and COVID thought concern on Family commitment (COVID_FCMIT) showed negative significant with WPR. Moreover, only four of the above five variables are highly negative significant whereas the reactions of COVID thought concern on WMIT was less significantly negative.

Background variable were regressed without aggregated questions, and the results indicated that employees’ BG (BGQ 2 and 5 were significant with positive coefficients of 0.0127533 and 0.070391 respectively. On the other hand, we find employees’ BGQ 1,3,4 and 6 were having negative significant coefficient of −0.0653022, −0.1395677, −0.0156082 and −0.0815396 respectively.

The findings also shows that Employees BG interactions with the COVID thought concern (COVID_BGQ1) was insignificant but COVID_BGQ2 and COVID_BGQ5 are significantly negative while on the contrary the COVID_BGQ3, COVID_BGQ4 and COVID_BGQ6 relationship were positively significant with WPR. We aggregated the multiple survey questions to construct variables used in the regression analysis.

But we did not aggregate different questions on employees’ background variable (BG) to construct one measure as that is conceptually not valid. For workers’ background, we simply included each question response as a separate variable as appeared in our analysis.

5.3. Results Analysis and Discussion

Based on the results of employees’ BG, WMIT and FAJ are three important factors in WPR. “Feeling about job” is the most significant variable that determine work performance. This is further strengthened by the significant relationship between “Psychological state of mind”(PsySMIND) and WPR. These implied that psychological feelings are important in determining work performance.

Even when there is no crisis such as COVID-19 as the moderating effect, the two variables–PsySMIND and FAJ have outstandingly affected work performance. The way employees are treated at work, job security, the principle of wealth sharing between employers and employees are some of the psychological aspects that are pertinent in the relationship. These are in line with the Dang et al. (2021) research they found that having a job or job security is robustly related with better finance and more savings and revenue, along with further hopefulness about the economy flexibility.

Logically, COVID-19 thought concerns have some negative impact on work performance. Strangely, none of the variables further affected this moderating variable, including FAJ and PsySMIND. The only significant different are these two variables are showing negative relationship with WPR. It implies that COVID-19 thought concern (COVID) caused negative moderating impact of FAJ and PsySMIND on WPR. These two variables are the most sensitive among the six variables examined.

What is important from the regression analysis is that all the following independent variables significantly affect WPR: employees’ FAJ, job satisfaction (JAB), PsySMIND and FCMIT. It is interesting to note that two variables, namely employees’ BG (except Q3 have a low negative effect) and WMIT in the direct relation does not impact work performance. Contrarily, not the same patent of the relationship occurred in terms of the moderating effect of COVID-19 thought concern. As the interaction variables of items measured employees’ BG are significantly negatively with Q2 and Q5 and positively significant with Q3, Q4 and Q6 except Q1 being insignificant and WMIT also negatively significant affects work performance.

There is a need for further research to determine why workers’ background and work motivation does not highly significant affect work performance as these two factors has always been projected as important factors that will determine work performance.

The World Bank (2021) said that there are ambiguities in the predictions for growth of the worldwide economy. The worldwide GDP is anticipated to growth with 4 per cent in 2021 based on appropriate management of the pandemic and efficient vaccination to control the swelled of COVID-19 in numerous nations as well as the cooperative stance of financial policy and reducing monetary support.

Globally, households have been humped with the prospect of economic disaster that may be caused by the pandemic impact of COVID-19. No household that may claimed that they are not worry about the effect of COVID-19 on their life. The anxiety may come not only from the prospect of getting infected by it but also the general impact on their life caused by the resulting economics disaster. This thought concern surely have affected the employees’ groups worldwide.

To employers, what they will be most concerned is the work performance of their employees. They continue providing a suitable work environment to maintain and improve the work performance and productivity of their workers. They need to be aware of the significant importance of Employees feeling on job, Job satisfaction, psychological state of mind and family commitment in influencing work performance as discovered from this research. They should be told about the two variables namely employees’ BG and WMIT that does not impact work performance something that may be rather obscure. This need to be specifically research in their environment to verify them and to take further action on formulating their Human Resources policy and strategy.

Employers need to also be concerned of the factors that may affect the work performance of their workers. COVID-19 “thought concern” was examined as one possible factor that may cause a drop in Work performance in our research. True enough, the research has proven that COVID-19 thought concern had caused negative moderating impact of FAJ and PsySMIND. These two variables are the most sensitive among the six variables examined. These two factors are important factors that determine work performance.

The small coefficient factor in the moderating impact of COVID-19 thought concern may reflect the fact that it does not significantly affect the employee’s mind yet at the time of research by World Bank (2020) as all of the respondents were still fully employed and were not affected by the pandemic. They were still very confident that the situation is under control. This could reflect the organisations where these respondents were currently employed.

Nowadays, it is recognised that sustainability is crucial to game sustain-resources. Particular industries are extremely demanding in terms of human capital, and many industries (e.g., tourism, oil) seems to be on the rise in Saudi Arabia, and several phenomena have determined some trends, particularly related to recreational and cultural activities. Tourism and other industries inflict a high weight on resources at different levels of society struggle to find explanations for the problem in terms of business chances (Ramos & Drakeford, 2021). In Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the tourism industry has a large stake in these issues because it is a significant chance to take advantage of human capital and instantaneously teach people for more sustainable utilisation of resources. In KSA, the high-frequency data recommend that the improvement has earned momentum. Moreover, investment in renewable energy is a favourable strategy for generating more sustainable jobs for Saudi people and endorsing the local economic variation (Al Yousif, 2020). For example, R&D funding can be directed towards the supply of zero-carbon heat to buildings, an area which could sustain jobs into the medium to longer term (Taskforce Hydrogen, 2020). Observing beyond the instant COVID-19 crisis, the passage to a green economy offers unusual chances for growing (Stern et al., 2020), with worldwide request for environmentally friendly products and technologies set to fast rise in the coming times. While employment strength diverges by product, those economies which launch attractiveness in green production abilities will be best placed for sustainable jobs in industrial in these zones and related services (Unsworth et al., 2020).

The outcome of the research is expected to worsen as time goes by and the situation and the impact of COVID-19 on the workers group worsen. A qualitative interview with some of the respondents in the research now confessed that COVID-19 have occupied their mind lately with the growing intensity and uncertainty about the potential future impact. If another survey is conducted on the same respondents, the researchers believed that the result would be more apparent.

6. Conclusion and Remarks

Obviously, the COVID-19 crisis has affected the economy. The outcomes from our study suggested that the effects are unequal and inconsistent with most recent studies. Protecting the financial-related strength of this specific populace of service workers is important to forestall further work misfortune and potential results, including working while wiped out and spreading the virus, just as, taking on debt, which could affect the country’s economic system.

While the ongoing help bundles will take a portion of the quick strain off of service workers in Saudi Arabia, these packages have not addressed the longstanding labour market structures that have brought about dissimilar employment results. Yemen has done nothing as such due to the situation there. The view towards what’s to come is bleak with numerous workers expecting to lose their jobs throughout the future months.

We anticipated that the level of tasks employees could do athome is extraordinarily indicator of unemployment as are individual work preparations inYemen. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the government and firms have assumed some role in smoothing the stun for salaried workers and for the individuals who always work on fixed calendars.

This may not just be the increment in the portion of populace suffering difficulty right now. However, it could demonstrate significance for recovery too because of the requirement for coordinating among workers and firms and the loss in employee–employer-specific human capital. Further study into understanding which institutional components are driving these differences is of high-policy significance. The outcomes sidelight on the requirements for immediate strategy reactions that focus on those groups that are generally influenced by the crisis.

This article’s limitations are indicated as follows: we utilized a sample design from service employees as a solitary data resource; this limitation could be talked by utilizing the person’s assessment of work performance or secondary data (Bartsch et al., 2020; Podsakoff et al., 2012). Our sample contains respondents from female beside males, female presence theoretically restricted our outcomes’ generalizability to male workers vs versa. Similarly, with all of respondents living in a family home, the females in our sample could be mostly affected by the crisis due to further tension resulting from the mixture of distant work and, e.g., home schooling. Upcoming studies could thus scrutinise staffs forced into obligatory leave by lockdown measures, e.g., investigating their emotive and behavioural reactions. Additionally, examining workers in critical service industries, e.g., logistics or food retail, as in many cases, were inconvenienced with long hours of overtime would be worthy.

Our valuation of the impact of COVID-19 thought concern on employees’ work performance will be useful for governments to not only adjust their budget spending but will also allow them to better regulate their labour markets and managing among employees and companies and the loss in employee–employer-specific human capital to observe labour markets health. The government interventions accompanied with a steady and dependable investment strategy are critical to the confidence of businesses, as well as employees in times of vagueness. It promotes entrepreneurship renewal that can help companies plan their future investments and employees to make proper decisions.

Data Availability Statement:

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [Data in Brief] at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2020.106661, reference number [106,661]”.

Acknowledgements

The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at Jouf University for funding this work through research grant No (DSR2020-05-3644).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Jouf University [DSR2020-05-3644].

Notes on contributors

Mahfoudh Hussein Mgammal

Mahfoudh Hussein Mgammal is a researcher, author, supervisor in Accounting Department, College of Business, Jouf University, Saudi Arabia. His research focuses on Accounting, Management, Corporate Governance, Tax planning and Tax Disclosure. He is currently leading a project on the procedure of MENA economic healing from the COVID-19.

Ebrahim Mohammed Al-Matari

Ebrahim Al-Matari, currently an associate professor Accounting Department, College of Business, Jouf University, Saudi Arabia. Essentially, he has almost 10 years of professional experience in the accounting field. Additionally, he has participated in various conferences and has published in several SCOPUS and ISI journals.

Barjoyai Bardai

Barjoyai Bardai is a Chartered Accountant obtained his PhD in Economics modelling from University College London, University of London in 1990. He has been widely consulted in Malaysia on the effect of COVID19 on the economy and the society. His interest is on how to address the impact of COVID19 and capitalise the opportunities that emerged from the phenomenon. He is currently conducting research on charting the process of recovery from the pandemic for Malaysia.

Notes

1. An HR management platform and chief marketing officer for Hibob.

2. Vice President of human resources at the hiring and outplacement services provider CareerArc.

3. Chandler, partner and principal at the professional services firm EY.