Teleworking and Health Care Workers: Seeking a Balance between Satisfaction on the Job and the Quality of Service Delivery

Abstract

Teleworking and flexible work options have become crucial instruments for sustaining healthcare services, but evidence remains scarce in the developing world. This paper explores how telecommuting, part-time schedule, shift work, and compressed workweek affect job satisfaction, work-life balance, and service delivery quality among 500 healthcare workers in the South-South and South-West regions of Nigeria. Materials and Methods Data were obtained through the administration of a structured, self-administered questionnaire. The Likert-scale items in Sections B through H showed internally sound consistency with Cronbach’s alpha that ranged between 0.81 and 0.88. In investigating the associations between flexible work arrangements and major workforce outcomes, the analysis adopted the use of descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and linear regression. Results show that teleworking significantly enhances job satisfaction (B = 0.41, p < 0.001), work-life integration (B = 0.47, p < 0.001), and service delivery (B = 0.39, p < 0.001). Part-time telework positively correlates with job satisfaction (r = 0.28, p < 0.001) and work-life integration (r = 0.31, p < 0.001). Shift work modestly improves job satisfaction (B = 0.22, p = 0.001) and service delivery (B = 0.16, p = 0.003), whereas compressed schedules increase service delivery (B = 0.20, p < 0.001) but reduce job satisfaction (B = -0.29, p < 0.001) and work-life integration (B = -0.24, p < 0.001). These results illustrate the balance required in the implementation of flexible work setups, as well as the significance of supportive policies and tech infrastructure in the enhancement of the performance of the healthcare workforce.