COVID-19 altered workplace dynamics, forcing companies to rapidly transition to remote work. For many individuals, remote work is here to stay in some form, whether through a hybrid in-office/work-from-home model or fully remote. In this blog, we explore how COVID-19-induced remote work changed workplace behaviors, and more importantly, how it impacted employee well-being for the better and worse.

Using the Cypris innovation dashboard, we explored innovation activity in the field of remote work, conducting a literature review among the 17,272 available research papers. Take a look at what we found.

The good

For companies, remote work comes with its savings—organizations save around $11,000 per employee per year if they allow their employees to work remotely at least 50% of the time (Global Workplace Analytics, 2021). More importantly, data shows that remote workers tend to be more satisfied with their work/life balance (Sundin, 2010). Remote work is also associated with higher organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and job-related well-being (Felstead & Henseke, 2017), as well as decreased turnover intention (Kroll & Neusch 2017). While many studies report individuals have a positive view of remote work, the key to happy employees, satisfaction, and reduced burnout when working from home is employee engagement.

Gallup (2021) defines employee engagement (EE) as individuals who are enthusiastic about, committed to, and involved in their work and workplace. According to Saks and Gruman (2014), factors proven to positively affect levels of EE within an organization include: “autonomy, feedback, development opportunities, positive workplace climate, recovery, rewards, recognition, and support”. When employees are engaged, loyalty, productivity, and their desire to go above and beyond in their organizations increase (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Lemon & Palenchar, 2018; Weideman & Hofmeyr, 2020). COVID-19, in particular, affected EE rates—Gallup reported that EE in 2020 “fluctuated more than ever before”, and that the level of EE among U.S. workers reached a new high with 40% reporting to be “very engaged” in July 2020 compared to 33% in July 2019.

The bad

Despite the extensive benefits of remote work, it’s important to acknowledge that there are some downfalls. One source found that remote work comes at the cost of work-intensification and a greater inability to switch off (Felstead & Henseke, 2017). Generally, the biggest risk of flexible work comes when no clear boundaries are in place, leading employees to feel the need to be constantly online. Depending on factors like personality type and gender, remote work can also have a negative impact.

For some, remote work increases performance and job satisfaction, while others are left feeling isolated and less productive. A 2020 study assessed how different personality types experience remote work, assessing traits like conscientiousness (being organized and thoughtful), introversion (being quiet and reserved), neuroticism (being moody and easily frustrated), openness to experience (being curious and eager to try new things), and agreeableness (being friendly and kind to others) (Ogbonnaya, 2020). Those who scored high on openness to experience felt less worried, depressed, or miserable when working remotely, while agreeable people and introverts also reported feeling less worried and depressed. Neurotic people were at a greater risk of reporting poor mental health when working remotely. Those who scored low on conscientiousness, or found it hard to plan things carefully, reported feeling worried and gloomy (Ogbonnaya, 2020).

Gender also plays a key role in how people experience remote work, which several studies conducted during COVID-19 uncovered. A 2021 study on women in IT found that women were negatively affected by remote work resulting from the pandemic, due to the struggle to balance occupational stress and family life (Subha B. et al., 2021). Other data, including reports by McKinsey, uphold this trend.

McKinsey asserts that decades of research indicate that women take on more housework and childcare than men in addition to their professional careers, leading to what sociologists deem the “second shift”. In fact, mothers were over 3x more likely to be responsible for most of the housework and caregiving during the pandemic, and 1.5x more likely to spend an additional 3 or more hours per day on housework and children (McKinsey, 2020). As a result, many mothers, particularly those with young children, considered leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers during COVID-19, primarily due to childcare responsibilities. Despite the risk of burnout, women still report a higher preference for remote work post-pandemic than men—since women feel disproportionately responsible for household chores and parenting obligations, the flexible of remote work is ideal.

Where we go from here

While remote work offers more flexibility and increases well-being for most employees, it’s important to address the risk it poses for workers across the board—burnout. Companies should take measures to increase employee engagement, mental health benefits, support for parents and caregivers, and offer more paid leave to help mitigate burnout risk. Additionally, establishing clear boundaries that protect downtime, measuring performance based on results, and encouraging employees to take time for themselves can go a long way to reduce burnout and lessen the risk of losing talent, particularly women.

To learn more about remote work research, visit cypris.ai and get started with access to the innovation dashboard for more insights.

Sources:

B., Subha, R., Madhusudhanan, and Thomas, A., 2021. An Investigation of the Impact of Occupational Stress on Mental health of remote working women IT Professionals in Urban health of remote working women IT Professionals in Urban Bangalore, India Bangalore, India. Journal of International Women's Studies, 22(6).

Felstead, A., & Henseke, G. (2017). Assessing the growth of remote working and its consequences for effort, well-being and work-life balance. New Technology, Work and Employment, 32 (3). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ntwe.12097

Gallup, I., 2021. How to Improve Employee Engagement in the Workplace. [online] Gallup.com. Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/285674/improve-employee-engagement-workplace.aspx [Accessed 17 May 2022].

Global Workplace Analytics. 2022. Latest Work-at-Home/Telecommuting/Remote Work Statistics. [online] Available at: https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics [Accessed 17 May 2022].

Kroll, C., & Nuesch, S. (2017, 2019). The effects of flexible work practices on employee attitudes: Evidence from a large-scale panel study in Germany. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(9), 1505-1525. doi:10.1080/09585192.2017.1289548

Lemon, L. L., & Palenchar, M. J. (2018). Public relations and zones of engagement: Employees’ lived experiences and the fundamental nature of employee engagement. Public Relations Review, 44(1), 142-155. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.01.002

Ogbonnaya, C., 2020. Remote working is good for mental health… but for whom and at what cost?. [online] LSE Business Review. Available at https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/04/24/remote-working-is-good-for-mental-health-but-for-whom-and-at-what-cost/ [Accessed 17 May 2022].

Pernefors, O. and Bjurenvall, S., 2021. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN A COVID-19 CONTEXT Exploring communicative displays of employee engagement among enforced remote workers. University of Gothenburg.

Saks, A. and Gruman, J., 2014. What Do We Really Know About Employee Engagement?. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 25(2), pp.155-182.

Sundin, K., 2010. Virtual Teams: Work/Life Challenges - Keeping Remote Employees Engaged. CAHRS White Papers.

FlexJobs Job Search Tips and Blog. 2022. Survey: Men & Women Experience Remote Work Differently | FlexJobs. [online] Available at: <https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/men-women-experience-remote-work-survey/> [Accessed 17 May 2022].

Weideman, M., & Hofmeyr, K. B. (2020). The influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: An exploratory study. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(2), e1-e18. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1209

“Women in the Workplace 2021.” McKinsey & Company, McKinsey & Company, 13 Apr. 2022, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace.

Wrycza, S. and Maślankowski, J., 2020. Social Media Users’ Opinions on Remote Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Thematic and Sentiment Analysis. Information Systems Management, 37(4), pp.288-297.

Virtual reality (VR) allows us to simulate real-world surroundings, and build environments that are impossible to visit in the real world—leading to endless applications for education. Research has shown VR can help engage students, improve retention, and gamify the traditional didactic teaching experience. In this blog post, we explore the research industry of VR in education at a glance, and then dive into research applications being explored today.

Market Overview

Using the Cypris innovation dashboard, we identified innovation activity in the VR market has grown over the last 5 years, with a 23.2% average growth rate. Within the vertical, there are over 625 technologies being applied within 22 different categories. The fastest-growing category is optical, specifically optical elements, systems or apparatuses, which saw a 213.33% increase in new patents filed over the past 5 years. Additionally, the industry currently has 130,917 investors, 974 research papers, and 332 organizations.

The most active top players in VR education by patent number include Samsung Electronics (20), Lincoln Global Inc. (14), Hunan Hankun Ind Co Inc. (6), Univ Korea Res & Bus Found (5), and the State Grid Corp China (5).

Research Applications

Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most fascinating recent research applications of VR for educational purposes:

1. Environmental education: Taiwan recently incorporated environmental education into its curriculum guidelines, but needed a more effective way of engaging students with the material. They used VR to increase students’ immersion in order to generate empathy toward the natural environment and encourage behaviors to protect it. When compared with students who received conventional didactic teaching and viewed an ordinary video, the students who experienced the 3D VR teaching approach presented a significant difference in terms of learning absorption. Students who took a VR-based course also exhibited greater empathy toward the survival of protected species, which generated their desire to help the animals, protect global environments, and increase their awareness of the importance of global environmental conservation. (Chiang 2021)
2. Bioscience virtual laboratory: VR approaches help train students in scientific methods and techniques that are difficult, dangerous, or expensive to perform in person. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no laboratory practicals could be performed, which brought to light an increased need for effective online teaching for laboratory courses. In this study, undergraduate students enrolled in a laboratory course used VR for their module on tissue culture techniques. The results revealed that the VR approach was highly and enthusiastically accepted by the students, and they reported authentic learning experiences that enabled them to better achieve the learning objectives. (Kaltsidis, et al. 2021)
3. Vocational education: VR technologies have been implemented to teach vocational skills, enabling participants to learn by doing and use the appropriate equipment and tools needed. One recent study proposed using a VR simulation developed for participants to learn the two-stroke engine, which is relatively uncommon in the real world. The proposed VR system has the potential to reduce the total cost involved for the training institution compared to the conventional training method, and improves safety by protecting participants from any fragile parts and hazardous chemicals. (Sholichin, et al. 2020)
4. Road safety: One study tackled teaching children how to properly focus attention in complex traffic situations, using a VR cycling simulator. The study focused on measuring observation ability and three key concepts: risk, orientation, and attention. The results revealed that eye tracking in virtual reality can be successfully utilized to evaluate interactive cognitive systems involved in navigation and the planning of actions in a traffic safety educational setting. The new teaching model was shown to be more effective in helping the children to focus their attention on the right place, orientate themselves, and behave in a safer way when cycling. (Skjermo, et al. 2022)
5. Medicinal chemistry: A prototype VR gamification option was used as an educational tool to aid the learning process and to improve the delivery of the medicinal chemistry subject to pharmacy students. Typically, students face challenges caused by difficulty constructing a mental image of the three-dimensional structure of a drug molecule from its two-dimensional presentations. This study alleviated that challenge, and served as an accessible, cost-effective, flexible, and user-friendly alternative to traditional learning. (Abuhammad, et al. 2021)
6. Psychiatric treatment: VR offers numerous possibilities of treatment directions for psychiatric patients. Most studies of VR for psychiatry have focused on virtual reality exposure therapy, a form of exposure therapy using virtual reality to create environments that provoke anxiety. Additionally, there are promising studies on using VR to treat depression and psychotic delusions. In areas with personnel shortages, VR treatments could be particularly helpful. Replicating environments to represent the experiences of patients may also offer helpful methods of psycho-education for parents, service providers, and the public. (Homen 2021)

From healthcare and bioscience, to teaching trade skills, VR’s applications for education are endless. To learn more about educational applications of VR, visit ipcypris.com and get started with access to the innovation dashboard for more insights.

If you’d like to explore recent patents filed, you can search through our global patent search engine for free here: https://ipcypris.com/patents/allrecords

Sources Cited:
1. Chiang TH-C (2021) Investigating Effects of Interactive Virtual Reality Games and Gender on Immersion, Empathy and Behavior Into Environmental Education. Front. Psychol. 12:608407

2. Source: Kaltsidis, Christos, et al. “Training Higher Education Bioscience Students with Virtual Reality Simulator.” European Journal of Alternative Education Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, 2021, https://doi.org/10.46827/ejae.v6i1.3748.

3. Sholichin, F., Suaib, N., Irawati, D., Sutiman, Solikin, M., Yudantoko, A., Yudianto, A., Adiyasa, I., Sihes, A. and Sulaiman, H., 2020. Virtual reality learning environments for vocational education: a comparative study with conventional instructional media on two-stroke engine. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 979(1), p.012015.

4. Skjermo, Jo, et al. “Evaluation of Road Safety Education Program with Virtual Reality Eye Tracking.” SN Computer Science, vol. 3, no. 2, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-022-01036-w.

5. Abuhammad, A., Falah, J., Alfalah, S., Abu-Tarboush, M., Tarawneh, R., Drikakis, D. and Charissis, V., 2021. “MedChemVR”: A Virtual Reality Game to Enhance Medicinal Chemistry Education. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 5(3), p.10.

6. Homen, Joel. “Virtual Reality Opens New Frontiers in Psychiatric Treatment and Education.” The Finnish Foundation for Psychiatric Research, 2021.

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We identified 330 articles covering NFTs in the past 30 days that fall into 8 unique categories: lawsuits, new hires, funding, acquisitions, new partnerships, new products, earnings reports, and IPOs.

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Of the 330 NFT market news articles released in the past 30 days, 73 were related to lawsuits. Additional key coverage included 71 articles focused on new hires, 48 on funding, 35 on acquisitions, and 30 on new partnerships.

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Above, is your complete list of articles focused on lawsuits from the past 30 days.

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Notably, the majority of articles we flagged came from the U.S. and Great Britain.

For market news on your industry, visit ipcypris.com to get started.

If you’d like to explore recent patents filed, search through our global patent search engine for free here: https://ipcypris.com/patents/allrecords