Remote Work Efficacy: A Quantitative Analysis of Administrative Staff Performance in Ciudad Juárez's Industrial Sector Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the current landscape, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a sudden shift towards remote work practices, influencing up to 30% of Latin America's populace [1]. As delineated by Guzman [2], the concept of a home office transitions work activities to a domicile or alternate location beyond the traditional workplace, leveraging information and communication technologies (ICT) as a conduit for achieving corporate objectives.

In Ciudad Juárez, the maquiladora industry serves as a pivotal employment generator. As reported by the Panel of Economic and Competitiveness Indicators, the city hosts 326 such establishments, collectively offering approximately 335,030 employment opportunities [3].

The advent of the COVID-19 health crisis towards the end of 2019 imposed a considerable challenge on companies to devise effective strategies enabling their administrative workforce to maintain productivity. With limited alternatives, the adoption of home office practices emerged as a primary solution, offering potential mitigation of contagion risk while sustaining productivity.

Coenen and Kok [4] posits that the implementation of home office practices yields beneficial ramifications for an organization's structure, influencing diverse aspects such as environmental impact, workforce training, and proactive schedule flexibility. Nonetheless, alternative perspectives highlight potential drawbacks to this work modality.

Performance appraisal, as defined, is a process that gauges the distinct characteristics and behaviors associated with work activities to ascertain the extent of employee productivity [5]. The analysis of this variable forms a crucial underpinning for measuring corporate productivity.

The objective of this research is to discern the benefits and associations that arise from implementing remote work practices among administrative employees. Specifically, it aims to determine if the adoption of a home office setup enhances work performance among administrative employees in maquiladoras in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

The research was carried out in Ciudad Juárez Chihuahua, with the population of interest being administrative workers of maquiladora companies in Ciudad Juárez. Through a correlational investigation, with a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional and descriptive research approach in the independent variable home office and dependent work performance, in a period from August 2021 to May 2022. The piloting of the questionnaire applied to fifteen people obtained a reliability in Cronbach's Alpha of 0.821, which according to Hernandez et al. [14] is adequate for calibrating the measuring instrument.

After that, the formal application of the survey was carried out through Google forms, applying a questionnaire to 273 administrators selected by the type of non-probabilistic sample, where 2 sociodemographic questions, 5 questions referring to the home office, 10 to job performance were included. Within the inclusion criteria, the people had to be maquiladora administrators who, at least on some occasion during the COVID-19 pandemic, had been working at home or in a place other than the office.

The statistical analyzes that were executed were frequencies, percentages. After that, two groups were made, 50 administrative staff who were working at home and 50 in the workplace, applying cross tables with a Person's chi-square statistical analysis to determine if there is an association between working at home or in the office with better performance. labor, the statistics were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) version 26 program.

This study shows that the home office has benefits in work performance because administrative employees better manage their time in carrying out activities, which benefits organizations in reaching their established goals. Likewise, a significant association was found between gender and the workplace, that is, whether being a man or a woman influences the performance of working from home. Significance was shown that being at home increases the use of electronic devices.

The research carried out shows that the majority of the subjects surveyed (81.3%) are still working from home. Almost two years after the pandemic, people have improvised to adapt and carry out their work in the most efficient way possible. According to data from the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE), remote work increased by 45% in large organizations, however, at the national level it only represents 12% of companies [15].

According to the international labour organization, one of the most important concerns of administrators who lead work teams in teleworking mode is team performance, meeting commitments with customers and suppliers [10]. Likewise, organizations have found a reduction in costs and workers comfort in not moving to a place to carry out their activities. When analysing the percentage of administrative staff by gender and place of work, a significant association (p<0.045) is shown, where women perform more work in the home office (58%) than men (42%), showing that males prefer or send the company to work, 62% well above the female (31%). This is possibly due to the fact that women preferred to work at home to take care of their children, since at the time of the pandemic schools and day care centres remained closed. Which is supported by various studies where they mention that females (70.3%) have a greater burden of domestic work and childcare than males (21.9%) [16, 17].

The respondents agreed that the workspace was adequate (41.8%) to carry out their work activities from home. In another investigation, it coincides with what Montaudon et al. [18] argues, 74.4% of the participants claimed to have a designated space for work in their homes. However, when segmenting the two home office (36%) and work centre (52%) groups, a significance of p<0.005 was identified, which means that in the offices there is better space, more suitable for carrying out activities. Mosier and Robertson [19], indicate that the abrupt changes have affected workers because they do not have an ergonomic office, which can trigger health problems.

Information technologies are a fundamental part for the development of remote activities, the participating administrators mention that the frequency of using a computer (50.5%) or cell phone (35.9%) is very frequent to communicate with the work team. Montaudon et al. [18] affirmed in his study that, in Mexico, 91.5% of households have at least one computer of their own. The same coincided in the cross tables where an association is demonstrated (p<0.003) which indicates greater use of technological devices at home (60%) than in the workplace (34%), while for the use of cell phones it is indistinct to be in the office or at home (p>0.051).

Direct communication is very important for individuals; in this study, 31.9% commented that they prefer to interact with their peers. Showing a significant relationship of p>0.016, which means people who are remote (38.85%), if they would like to interact with their colleagues physically, they may like to work remotely, but as other research indicates, virtual meetings can be unproductive and inefficient when ramped up for no specific purpose [20]. Therefore, it is important to consider that any action taken must have an objective purpose in the worker's job performance and the objectives of the organization.

The questions asked for the evaluation of work performance show that people are committed to being productive, using the necessary technology to be as efficient as possible, they mentioned using email, chat and social networks with a high frequency (37%) as well as videoconferences (34%) to keep in touch with the work team. When analyzed by group, those who work in the company and remotely do not show a significant trend in the use of chat (p>0.230) or videoconferences (p>0.052), that is, they can be just as efficient using these tools to communicate regardless of workplace. Gao and Hitt [21], affirms and supports what was mentioned before, since it expresses that the workers who are committed to the organization are the best for teleworking.

The workers said that they adapted easily (46.2%), regardless of being at work or at home (p>0.057), this speaks of flexibility and adaptation, a situation that developed with the phenomenon of the pandemic, where the many inhabitants they had to strategize, innovate, and be resilient to change so unexpected that they left no other choice.

Continuing with the performance evaluation, the workers were asked if they managed their time better from home or in the office, where (44%) said they totally agreed that, in the workplace, marking an association of p<0.017. This is possibly due to the fact that in homes there is distraction from living with other people, noise, childcare, lack of technological skills, excessive supervision by bosses, unstable network connection, etc. [22].

Physical activation (0.054%) and complying with activities on time (0.721%) similarly, no significant difference was found in however, it is argued that they exercise rarely (56%-30) and comply with the assigned activities agree that if 84% office and 86% home. And finally, the respondents who work from home said they have a fixed schedule to do their work (84%), unlike those who are in the organization (48.8%) with an association of p<0.001. Other studies affirm that being at home generates excess work, estimating that per day they add three more hours of work; Davis and Green [23] and others agree with this study, arguing that home workers manage the organization of their work time and tend to do their work at the times that are feasible for them [24]. Likewise, it can be argued that the results found contribute and coincide with Campbell's theory, since integrating the home office in organizations contributes to job performance and at the same time achieving the goals set by the organization.