Ayla Johnston

Author: Ayla Johnston | Major: Management | Semester: Fall 2022

 Ayla Johnston is a senior at the University of Arkansas. She is a part of the Walton College of Business Honors Program, studying Management with a Human Resource Concentration with a minor in Marketing. Her mentor, Meline Schaffer, is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Management Department. Ayla is receiving funding for both the fall and spring semester. Her plan is to move back to Florida to pursue a career in Human Resources or Recruiting.

 The topic that I am pursuing for my honors thesis is The Impact of the Corporate Workspace on Employee Happiness and Turnover Rate. I am collecting data from individuals in the workforce to determine what their work delivery method is, all the places they conduct work from, how satisfied they are with their work environment, and if it will play a role on whether they will stay at the company. I decided to pursue this topic because I have always been fascinated with how the environment individuals work in can affect their overall happiness. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals are refusing to go back to a fully in-person work model. Many want to remain on a hybrid or fully remote work model, believing that they are more productive and happier with this method. This is something that I wanted to collect data on to see if there was a correlation on employee happiness and their work environment. I believe this data will be applicable to other students since many are getting ready to enter the workforce and may not realize how big of an effect their workspace has on their overall happiness. This data will give students insight on how happy individuals who have been in the workforce are with their environment and whether the delivery method plays a role.

I found my mentor because she was my professor for my ethics and corporate responsibility course. I really enjoyed the course and built a relationship with her since I knew I wanted to go into the Human Resource industry. Her knowledge has been extremely valuable in my research journey and data collection. She has helped me to realize that there are a lot of different factors that go into the “corporate workspace.” My mentor has played a huge role in crafting my Qualtrics survey and finding individuals who fall into my target participant. Another faculty member that helped me in my research is Dr. Carolyn Rodeffer (SEVI Department). She has helped me to understand Qualtrics and how to properly ask questions to participants to avoid bias. The final faculty member that has contributed to my research is Dr. Leah Smith (Marketing Department). She also helped me organize my Qualtrics survey since certain questions are asked to remote, hybrid, and in-person employees since they have different experiences in the workspace.

One of the most important factors is the delivery method: remote, hybrid, or fully in-person. Another factor, if they are not fully in-person, is where the individual works at outside of the office. Another factor that I did not initially realize is how long the individual has been in the workplace. I believe this may influence how happy they are in their work environment and what delivery method they prefer. I have also faced challenges when conducting research. I had difficulty finding participants to take my survey. I sent the survey to my network as well as my mentors’ network. I currently have 94 participants and am shooting for 100 to 150 respondents. One way I overcame this problem was posting it to my LinkedIn network. This helped increase my responses from 82 to 94. I also reached out to the Alumni Relations director for the University of Arkansas to see if I could get my survey sent out to alumni. I have not received a response but plan to send a follow up email after the holiday season to see if we could send my survey out to alumni.

Through the Honors Research Grant, I have discovered my passion for Human Resources and how it can be used to contribute to an employee’s happiness. I am continuing my research next semester. I am hoping began analyzing the data and determining the different correlations that contribute to the employee happiness. I am hoping to distribute my findings to different companies so they can use the research to determine what work delivery method would be best for their employees. I am very proud of the progress I have made so far and am excited to continue my research next semester.