How Remote Work Policy Influences Job Interview Behaviors Policies after COVID-19

How Remote Work Policy Influences Job Interview Behaviors Policies after COVID-19
Student Full Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Full Name
Professor Full Name
Due Date
Abstract
After the epidemic, many companies changed their work policies due to its impact and started using telecommuting. However, was this shift in work policy also reflected in their interviews during hiring? In other words, did the remote work policy affect the company's hiring strategy? Previous research has found that in the aftermath of the epidemic, most recruiters and candidates became exceedingly pessimistic about the new form of hiring, and recruiters became more interested in bringing on board people who could inspire their peers. Although there is evidence from many studies that remote work has changed the way companies work, few industry-wide and non-questionnaire surveys have been conducted. In this study, I collected all interview questions from 26 industry-representative companies in the S&P 500 from glassdoor and hypothesized that teleworking impacts a company's hiring strategy. By analyzing the text of interview questions in three industry categories and four industry categories across the board, I examined changes in the standardized values of word frequency/day for several keywords over time. After implementing the teleworking policy, the results show that companies in the traditional and financial industries significantly reduced the word frequency of some interview questions related to offline work. In addition, there was a significant increase in the content of interview questions related to collaboration for the Internet industry. I conclude that this shift in work policies has indeed influenced companies' choices of hiring strategies, with group collaboration and leadership becoming more important measures from a broad perspective. The downsizing of workplaces presents several challenges, one of which is the possibility of adverse effects on worker health and long-term creativity. However, these risks could be reduced if businesses and individuals were encouraged to invest in the physical and managerial capabilities necessary to engage in telework.
Keywords Words: Job market; Interview; Natural Language Parsing.
How Remote Work Policy Influences Job Interview Behaviors Policies after COVID-19
Introduction
As of early April 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic has infected more than 498 million people worldwide, resulting in more than 6,000,000 deaths (JHU, 2020). While governments are currently preoccupied with managing short-term impacts such as embargo policies and planning, the long-term economic and social effects are likely to be severe. As a corollary, it will also directly impact individual career experiences, opportunities, and short- and long-term trajectories (Akkermans et al., 2020; Vijayan et al., 2020). For example, healthcare and other frontline workers work 24/7 to provide relevant and specialized support services. In contrast, other workers are forced to work from home and need to adapt to online and virtual work arrangements (Donovan, 2019). Measuring the impact of the pandemic on the job market is another crucial question (Vijayan et al., 2020).
First, Akkermans et al. (2020) argue that we need to judge whether Covid-19 is an occupational shock, in other words, whether Covid-19 really impacts the job market as a whole, and then characterize the shock on a macro level. Between January and March of 2020, governments worldwide compelled businesses to close and impose full-time telework for their employees as Covid-19 infections spread. Companies and individuals alike were scrambling to meet these deadlines because there was little lead time to prepare. This was intended to be a short-term fix, but it has been ongoing for months now. If an activity may be completed from a distance, consider several criteria. Those who can work from home during a pandemic will be determined by the number of jobs that allow remote work. This will help to keep the virus from spreading to the general public. It was recently researched whether or not people in countries with varying degrees of economic development had the opportunity to work from home. The availability of high-speed internet and the chance of owning a personal computer were essential variables in these studies. According to the available data, economic growth is linked to a rise in the number of jobs that can be done at home. Workers in industries such as information and communications technology (IT), finance, insurance, and public administration are more likely to work from home in countries that rely on manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and tourism than in countries where ICT accounts for most employment opportunities. Around a quarter of European workers can now work from home because of strict government regulations. When the pandemic struck hardest, telework was used to its fullest extent in countries that had already been employing it extensively before the outbreak. A majority of Finnish workers can now do their jobs from home. Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark, and workers from Ireland and Austria, Italy, and Sweden were offered the ability to work from home. A minor percentage cut workers' hours in these countries. Employees in Europe who had never worked from home before began doing so at 24%.
Fifty-six percent of employees had previously worked from home at some point in their careers. Thanks to advances in technology and techniques, there has been a massive increase in the quantity of work done remotely. All across the world, governments have tried similar tactics to induce businesses to adopt teleworking to reduce the number of workers who commute into big cities and therefore contribute to physical distance. However, only 13 percent of Japanese workers were able to work from home in March of 2020 because of the widespread use of the Hanko stamp, a personal seal used on office paperwork, contracts, applications, and even memos, in place of signatures for any item requiring acknowledgment of authorship instead of a signal. In addition, when schools and other care facilities are closed, it is harder for parents and other caregivers to find jobs that allow them to do so from home. Twenty-six percent of people who work from home as a physical distance measurement is in families with children under the age of twelve, and another ten percent are in households with children aged twelve to seventeen, according to the most current Eurofound report. Many of these professionals struggle to strike a healthy work-life balance as they try to juggle the demands of their personal and professional lives.
A career shock can be defined as a disruptive and unusual event caused, at least to some extent, by factors beyond the control of the individual in focus and triggering a thoughtful process of reflection about one's career (Akkermans, Seibert, and Mol, 2018). Individuals with reflective solid, communicative, and behavioral career skills were able to make good use of that career shock, for example, by obtaining an unexpected promotion. (Blokker et al., 2019) For instance, in Anne Donovan's (2019) interview, where she interviewed numerous employees at PWC and analyzed their questionnaires, it was stated that many employees at PWC felt the freedom and comfort of flexible/remote working. On the other hand, Kilgour et al. in their 2019 study, identified a concept of online teaching thresholds for higher education faculty and conducted questionnaires with numerous university educators. Many reflective journal entries were also collected, and it was concluded that academics who are more accustomed to and comfortable with non-online classrooms would feel uneasy about working remotely. In addition to this, the authors suggest that the threshold approach can be used to better monitor faculty adaptation to distance learning. In this regard, I hope that my research will also successfully develop a threshold-like system that can be used to describe a company's recruitment strategy better. In summary, the impact of pandemic shocks on the respective career outcomes is complex. It may be positive in the short term, while the answer is unclear in the long time since we cannot observe it (Akkermans et al., 2020).
And then, after the qualitative issues are resolved, we need to conduct a data-based analysis of such shocks to determine the specific effects of this impact. Although, research has shown that employees who experience novel and significant adverse workplace events are more likely to engage in improvisational behaviors such as taking advantage of opportunities and thinking outside the box (Chen et al., 2020). However, Vijayan et al. (2021) conducted a dynamic analysis of the impact of covid on the hiring process. They collected questionnaires and analyzed data from successfully employed students, students waiting for employment, employment officers, and company human resource managers. The results indicated that after a complete change in recruitment methods, the sentiment of all people towards recruitment was not very positive, and many did not have a known, planned strategy for future recruitment. The authors also suggest suggestions for future research, suggesting that the questionnaire be extended to a global audience rather than limited to Kerala (India) and that the authors would like to interview more HR personnel in companies. There is some overlap with my research population.
At the same time, Covid-19 has impacted post-employment status, and Caligiuri et al. (2020) found many lessons to be learned at the international level in the HR field. While research suggests that anxiety states promote a natural desire to belong, the Covid-19 pandemic provides an ideal time to foster cross-cultural team cohesion for already familiar multinational global teams. This includes flexible work arrangements and more organizations encouraging or requiring employees to work from home (Gartner, 2020). Because this shift is involuntary, has lasted a long time, and needs the entire family to stay at home, employees are more likely to experience increased work hours and work-life conflict. This shift is significant for globally mobile employees who now find themselves working from home during a pandemic. The boundaries between work and home may need to be renegotiated and reorganized.
At the same time, for those who did not have strong working relationships before the crisis, working at a distance and managing through virtual communication media makes it difficult to maintain (and even more difficult to build) strong social ties and networks (Hansen & Lovas, 2004). Accordingly, due to the different prevention requirements in different regions, multinational leaders adapted to the demands of the situation by wearing masks in public during the Covid-19 pandemic or following other local public health recommendations that impacted organizational operations. They acknowledged that they understood, appreciated, and were willing to be willing comply with the norms of the situation. In some cases (but not all), adapting to situational examples will allow leaders to persuade, instill confidence, and influence those whose value systems promote certain behavioral expectations (Caligiuri et al., 2020).
Therefore, Zimmermann et al. (2011) found that job advertisements and assessment centers should incorporate requirements for remote work, not only for managers but also for technical staff, to attract and select employees who see them as part of their professional identity.
However, it is also noteworthy that it is difficult to find studies related to the occupational impact of the epidemic that incorporates the application of machine learning models. And the methodology of a large number of research papers is to provide questionnaires to a large number of respondents and analyze the contents of the questionnaires.
During the Covid-19 crisis, many companies and employees were compelled to use telework methods such as work-from-home or home-office for businesses and employees to continue operating regularly. This was necessary for enterprises to continue to function smoothly. During this period, society has been subjected to forced experimentation in which different industries and businesses have been permitted to continue operating even when they have been physically separated from one another, provided that the appropriate technological and legal safeguards have been put in place. This has resulted in society being able to function more or less generally even though it is undergoing this kind of experimentation. This may have a detrimental effect on all types of businesses, irrespective of whether or not such organizations have ever let their employees engage in telework. It is essential to keep in mind that even though telework helped some companies and employees to better weather the storm, particularly for those who had utilized telework in the past, the option to use telework during this crisis was not available to everyone. As a result, it may have exacerbated the access disparities that were already present. This is something that should be kept in mind at all times. Some businesses and their employees were able to weather the storm with the help of telework, but this was not the case for everyone. For instance, during the crisis, a significant proportion of workers were employed in roles that demanded their actual presence in the workplace. These employees, who were often younger, had lesser levels of education and were situated at the lowest end of the income distribution.
Even though it is not yet obvious how this will affect total output, telework usage has been incredibly useful in preserving production throughout the crisis. People who were probably able to work from home despite the conditions of the economic crisis experienced lower productivity levels than they had before the beginning of the problem. This is something that needs to be investigated. This is because of the unusual conditions that prevailed during this period, which led to the widespread adoption of teleworking. In a recent interview, Nick Bloom, a professor at Stanford University, commented that he and his colleagues are home working alongside their kids, in unsuitable settings, with no choice and no in-office days. The loss of production that will result for companies as a direct and immediate consequence of this situation will be catastrophic. During the lockdown period, one of Japan's research institutes carried out a poll, and the results showed that employees' self-reported productivity had reduced during that time. A recent survey of recruiting managers in the United States indicated that managers are more likely to have enjoyed short-term productivity increases due to remote work than experienced productivity losses due to sheltered employment. This research supports the argument that productivity declines during the present economic crisis are not a predetermined outcome.
The current economic crisis may push more and better teleworking practices, which improve worker well-being and efficiency while also cutting the cost of doing business. This could lead to an increase in long-term productivity. There has been a rise in people using teleworking techniques in recent years. In the absence of this crisis, the process of transitioning to a new normal would have been more gradual because of the unpredictability and expenses surrounding the necessary organizational and management changes and other obstacles, such as cultural resistance or legal restrictions. This would have been the case even if there had been no crisis. This would have been the case because it was necessary to make these adjustments first. Recent evidence, which includes the following, lends credence to this viewpoint. A recent survey in the United States of America revealed that 61.9% of recruiting managers responded that they planned to make greater use of remote work in the future. Adverse outcomes, such as decreased communication among employees, can lead to lower levels of innovation or the blurring of the lines between work and personal, family, and social life, which can result in unreported hours worked and may offset any long-term productivity improvements. For example, decreased communication among employees can lead to lower levels of innovation. In addition, reduced innovation can lead to lower levels of productivity. This transition can be made somewhat less complicated with the help of policies and conversations between businesses and workers. These kinds of advertisements can encourage workers to develop teleworking habits, which are advantageous to the workers' productivity and well-being. They can assist businesses in making the necessary modifications, thereby reducing the risks connected with such adjustments and increasing the number of workers who have access to telework opportunities, which are beneficial to employee welfare.
Because it is anticipated that teleworking will become more commonly employed worldwide in the next few years, an analysis of the long-term consequences on businesses and overall productivity must be carried out. This is because it is projected that teleworking will become more commonplace employed worldwide in the next few years. GFP's next steps in the Human Side of Productivity project involve experimenting and investigating the connection between telework and the level of corporate productivity using granular datasets. This investigation aims to determine whether or not there is a correlation between the two. First, we look at the potential role that rules could play in fostering a more widespread use of efficient and welfare-improving telework in the medium to long term. Specifically, we focus on the role that regulations could play in the United States. When the immediate health crisis has passed, this will take place, and companies and employees will have a more excellent choice in selecting whether or not to participate in telework. Telework will be an option. This section summarises the information presented in Part I and Part II of the memo. Before Covid-19, it looks into how prevalent the concept of teleworking was before the global economic crisis. This inquiry aims to ascertain whether or not the method will retain its level of popularity in the wake of the financial crisis. Next, we will look at how rules could help firms and people make the most of the ever-increasing use of telework. Telework is becoming increasingly popular. The link between telework and productivity is briefly discussed, as are the obstacles that policies must overcome. Also briefly discussed are the challenges that approaches must overcome. This analysis discusses key essential measures that help enhance productivity and well-being gains from telework.
Today, with the epidemic already having an almost irreversible impact on the world job market, it is necessary to make predictions and judgments about the possible changes in the job market in the face of a completely new employment situation. Therefore, this study aims to explore the different effects that teleworking patterns have on companies' recruitment patterns.
Before conducting this study, I argued that teleworking policies can impact a company's hiring strategy and that the manner of impact should vary depending on the category of the target company (e.g., whether the target company is in a traditional or high-tech industry).
Method and Data
Data source Glassdoor
I wrote a data scraper of Glassdoor interview questions to answer this research question. There were 159,668 interview questions and interview records in the data set I collected.
Company selection
I selected 26 companies from the S&P 500 (determined by category and market capitalization) and grouped them into three categories Communication Services & high tech Industrials; Consumer Discretionary & traditional industrials; and Financials & Services. There are 8, 8, and 10 companies in these three categories. I will analyze the companies from two perspectives; different types and different companies within the same category. The names of the specific companies and the crawl sites for their interview questions can be found in the appendix. The S&P Composite 1500 and its component indices do not monitor stocks or firms with multiple share class structures. For companies in the S&P Composite 1500 that have several share classes, they have been grandfathered in and will be included in the S&P 1500 for the time being. The S&P Composite 1500 does not include companies with different share class structures. The index excludes corporations with more than one class of common stock on their balance sheet. This category includes publicly traded and privately held corporations with share class lines that are both listed and unlisted and organizations with an up-REIT organizational structure with many share class lines. To determine if a company has more than one share class, only its common shares are considered. Operating partnership (OP) units and preferred stock are not regarded as common shares when determining the structure of various share classes. The S&P Composite 1500 excludes non-S&P Composite 1500 firms that acquire S&P Composite 1500 members with separate share class structures. Any S&P Composite 1500 business that modifies its share class structure will be reviewed.
Strengths and limitations of the data
1. Because they are companies in the S&P 500, the company volume is relatively large, so these companies have a vast number of interview data, which is very conducive to analysis. Correspondingly, because these companies are larger listed companies, which also leads to them in the head position of the whole industry, their requirements for employees will also be correspondingly high. In other words, the limitation of this analysis is that we can only analyze candidates in the middle and front parts of the job market. If I had chosen small and medium-sized companies to study, I would not have had easy access to their interview date (or even no data at all), so I chose to analyze large companies.
2. According to my previous crawl and search results, Amazon had 40,000 interview questions, while Tesla had less than 5,000. This vast difference in the amount of data in the same category may lead to fewer interview questions not showing enough impact. My solutions to this are; when analyzing large categories, the word frequencies of companies with more minor data were expanded in equal proportions, and the proportions were calculated based on the total number of employees. For example, suppose the ratio of the number of employees at Tesla and the number of employees at Amazon is 15. The percentage of the amount of data for the interview questions is 120. In that case, the number of word frequencies for Tesla needs to be *4. The reason is as follows since the thing I want to analyze is the impact of employment and the number of jobs available at each company is significant, I choose to base the scale on the number of employees.
I cleared all non-English posts in the data. Before one may benefit financially from working from home, one must first be aware of how telework affects productivity and well-being. The critical role can only explain the workplace health and divine productivity coincidences that employees' satisfaction plays in accomplishing these goals. Employee happiness may be improved due to measures that enable workers to achieve an ideal degree of telecommuting (coming closer to the curve). This so-called divine coincidence could be exploited by policies to compensate for the reduced in-person encounters at any degree of telecommuting (shifting the curve upwards). Other policy issues must be addressed to achieve this goal.
Regarding the ethical nature of the data, since my crawl only crawls interview questions, not the names of the question publishers and does not involve analysis of individual interview questions, I consider my data to be ethical. The total number of data obtained was 170,000, with the following distribution intervals from before the outbreak until the outbreak, 87,000; from after the attack until the teleworking policy was implemented in most companies, 34,000; and from the beginning of the teleworking policy until now, 49,000. It is important to note that my text analysis includes both interviews and questions. Although the guidelines on the website indicate that these two items are not identical, the former represents the overall evaluation of the interview. In contrast, the latter represents the recording of individual questions in the discussion. However, after looking at many data entries, I found that not everyone filled out the entries as the site specified. This means that it is likely that people will fill in both entries with the same content/content that does not meet our requirements, for which my solution is to analyze the entire range.
There is a snippet of the crawl data in the appendix, and at the same time, I have included links to the sites I crawled. And at the same time, I attach the links to the places I crawled in the appendix.
Methods
I expect to analyze the data's word frequency and determine the importance of different words based on thei...