Flexible Working and IT employees’ Job Satisfaction Before and During COVID-19

Abstract

The study examines the effect of five job satisfaction antecedents before and during COVID-19 among a group of IT employees. The examined antecedents are pay and promotion, work nature, work atmosphere and colleagues, job performance and flexible working, which has a central place in the study. The empirical data is collected through a quantitative research, based on a questionnaire executed consecutively in 2019 and 2021 with 126 and 149 participants respectively. Results show that flexible working positively affects job satisfaction. Factors pay and promotion and work nature show a strong positive impact on employees’ satisfaction, while the influence of work atmosphere and colleagues is insignificant. In both surveys, job performance has a negative impact on job satisfaction.  The research results introduce flexible working as a less studied satisfaction facet and can be used by technological companies for reducing turnover rates and finding new ways to keep their employees. Job satisfaction has been researched for almost a century, but flexible working has not received sufficient attention. The main contribution of the present work is the introduction of this concept as an important satisfaction facet for IT employees and measuring its influence before and during the pandemic.