Retaining remote workers: factors that affect virtual and hybrid workers' job retention, retaining remote workers: factors that affect virtual and hybrid workers' job retention

Many organizations were not prepared for their workforce to work remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite the challenges, most people have adapted to this new way of working “remotely.” It is expected that this work trend is here to stay, with many organizations considering whether to allow workers to work fully remotely – also known as “virtually” – or to allow some flexibility for workers to choose whether to work a few days remotely – also known as a “hybrid” work mode. The objective of this study is to use factors from Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory, Deci’s self-determination theory, and life-course fit theory to better understand their effects on virtual and hybrid workers’ job retention. The research questions are as follows: 1) Is there a relationship between pay, promotion, supervision, fringe benefits, life-course fit, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and need for relatedness and job retention for virtual and hybrid workers? 2) Is the relationship of each factor with job retention moderated by job level (operational/specialist workers vs. managerial workers) and virtual intensity (virtual workers vs. hybrid workers)? Using the structural equation model (SEM), the results indicate that none of the motivator-hygiene factors – pay, promotion, supervision, and fringe benefits – significantly contribute to virtual and hybrid workers’ job retention. On the other hand, there is a significant relationship between life-course fit and job retention, which signifies that work/life interruption and family arrangements have a significant impact on virtual and hybrid workers’ job retention. There are also significant relationships between both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and job retention for virtual and hybrid workers, hence, to retain virtual and hybrid workers, organizations and managers must keep workers motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically. The interaction effect of “job level” as a moderating variable shows that the relationship between pay, promotion, fringe benefits, extrinsic motivation, and need for relatedness and job retention is more negative for managerial-level workers than for operational/specialist-level workers; and only life-course fit is more positively related to managers and above. The interaction effect of “virtual intensity” as a moderating variable shows that the relationship between pay and supervision and job retention is more positive for virtual workers than for hybrid workers, whereas the relationship between fringe benefits, life-course fit, and extrinsic motivation and job retention is more negative for virtual workers than for hybrid workers.

在新冠疫情（COVID-19 pandemic）爆发前，许多组织并未为员工远程办公做好准备，但尽管面临挑战，大多数人已适应了这种‘远程’办公的新方式。预计这一工作趋势将持续存在，许多组织正考虑是否允许员工完全远程办公——也称为‘虚拟’办公——或是给予员工一定灵活性，让其选择部分天数远程办公，即‘混合’工作模式。本研究旨在结合赫兹伯格的激励-保健理论（Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory）、德西的自我决定理论（Deci’s self-determination theory）及生命历程适配理论（life-course fit theory）中的因素，深入理解它们对虚拟及混合工作者留职意向的影响。研究问题如下：1）薪酬、晋升、监督、福利、生命历程适配、内在动机、外在动机及关联需求与虚拟及混合工作者的留职意向是否存在关联？2）工作层级（操作/专业人员 vs 管理人员）及虚拟强度（虚拟工作者 vs 混合工作者）是否会调节各因素与留职意向的关系？通过结构方程模型（structural equation model, SEM）分析，结果显示：激励-保健因素（薪酬、晋升、监督、福利）对虚拟及混合工作者的留职意向无显著贡献；而生命历程适配与留职意向存在显著关联，表明工作-生活干扰与家庭安排对其具有重要影响；内在动机与外在动机也与留职意向显著相关，因此组织及管理者需同时维持员工的内在与外在激励。调节变量‘工作层级’的交互效应显示：薪酬、晋升、福利、外在动机及关联需求与留职意向的关系对管理层员工而言更为负面；仅生命历程适配与留职意向的关系对管理层及以上员工更为积极。调节变量‘虚拟强度’的交互效应显示：薪酬与监督与留职意向的关系对虚拟工作者更为积极，而福利、生命历程适配及外在动机与留职意向的关系对虚拟工作者更为负面。