Conjoint Analysis based Predictive Analytics to study the employee attitude towards virtual and digital work practices in IoT work environments

Covid-19 has been one of the most disruptive pandemics to date. Among the other aspects of disruption, it also disrupted the way people work in organizations. Many of the organizations surrendered their offices for good. However, there are many ill effects of these unconventional work practices also. This research study aims to explore the perception of the employees towards the adoption of Virtual and flexible work practices. The study uses a conjoint analysis approach on different possible Work Practice Profiles, that specify the nature of work (Virtual, offline, or hybrid), nature of work schedule (flexible, or fixed), nature of ownership (individual, or team), and length of working hours (8.5 hours, or 9.5 hours or 10.5 hours). The study finds that the number of working hours is the most important criterion for the employees followed by mode of work, responsibility, and work schedule.

I. Introduction

The Covid pandemic forced employees and employers to consider work-from-home options to ensure business continuity. The employees were also given flexible work hours to take care of household needs also as per their convenience. There are many positive benefits that Virtual working and flexible working hours offer to employees.