Effect of Flexible Work Practices During the Covid-19 Pandemic on Employee Performance in the Insurance Industry in Kenya

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on workplace relations and all firms have had to adjust their work models to ensure their employees perform optimally. Research has shown that increased flexibility among Kenyan insurance to enhance organizational performance with increased investment in digital technologies to enhance telecommuting and flexible work policy to empower employees to flex up their work hours. However, there has been limited examination of how various flexible work practices during Covid-19 impacted employee performance within the insurance industry. This study focused on solving this study gap. The research was grounded on the social exchange theory and path goal theory. A quantitative descriptive research design was adopted for the study with the 56 human resource managers for the registered insurance companies considered in the research. Structured questionnaires were adopted in the data collection with physical data collection approach implemented in the survey. The collected data was analyzed using a mix of descriptive and inferential analysis. The research focused on human resource personnel drawn from all the firms and the study obtained 48 responses representing 86% response rate. Findings showed that majority of the insurance firms 92% had adopted flexi-time work practices, 71% had applied telecommuting and 64% were using work scheduling in management of their personnel. Regression analysis revealed that that 67.9% of changes in employee performance can be explained by job sharing, telecommute, work scheduling and flextime work practices. The findings showed that flexi-time, work scheduling and job sharing had significant effect on employee performance while telecommuting did not significantly influence the performance of employees. The overall conclusions that can be draws from the research is that flexible work arrangements have positive and significant relationship with employees’ work performance. The study recommends that the insurance firms, and firms in the sector continue to implement these practices as this will improve the firms’ performance and ability to meet strategic goals. Specifically, the research calls on these firms to find the right balance of work-life balance practices that would have positive impacts on employees’ outcomes. This study avers that formalizing job sharing and flexible work schedules in company bylaws would increase its implementation and encourage firm-wide participation. The study also calls on improved mentoring and monitoring to ensure employees can co-handle some of the most complicated and specialized staff roles.