Looking after your remote workforce
Flexatal workers have been working from home for many years in some cases, and so are more comfortable than most in the current COVID-19 crisis. However, whilst many may have experienced the odd day “working from home”, the new normal of 100% remote work will be a complete head shift and will require some getting used to.
In a recent survey, 82% of US tech professionals who work remotely said that they feel burnt out, with 52% saying that they end up working longer hours and 40% believing that they are expected to contribute more than those who do not work remotely. However, they did report having a better work-life balance. (DigitalOcean)
It is therefore vital to look after your remote work force. I have previously written about getting the most out of your remote team, https://lnkd.in/g9cZXwk . Primarily however, one needs to start with thinking about making their team comfortable and healthy before we start thinking about optimisation.
The new home-based office will be unfamiliar in many ways. One major impact for example is communication. As a result of working from home, the loss of interaction and connection with work colleagues (and family) can have a huge impact on mental wellbeing. Furthermore, the family group may not be used to being together 100% of the time. The stress of balancing family and work suddenly is a LOT closer to home than when you had an office to escape to! As well as this, the lack of simply moving around, albeit on the morning commute or walking out at lunch, changing eating habits and in some cases a feeling of restriction that we are all experiencing at the moment can all culminate in a potential anxiety inducing situation.
Overarching all of this, you have the financial worries of the impact of corona on the economy, the worry over keeping one’s job or in some cases finding one’s next job. Thus, it is impossible to exaggerate the stress that working from home can bring to bear on the uninitiated.
Here are some important tips that Flexatal offer from our experience of working with remote teams:
Enable and encourage connection: Take advantage of one of the many video conferencing platforms such as Teams, Skype, Zoom and create a companywide policy around usage.
Being able to see people, although on a screen, gives a feeling of connection and will compensate somewhat for the lack of contact. Encourage this platform to be used for social connection amongst team mates as well as professional; try and enable that virtual water cooler chat.
Set clear expectations on working time and outputs and actively encourage your team to take regular breaks, especially for exercise and fresh air. It is well known that exercise can actively reduce stress, and so that half an hour walk around the block can pay huge dividend. It is also important to respect your team’s personal time and not subconsciously drive an “always on” culture.
Accenture state that “Every business is a health business” both now and post Corona (tinyurl.com/yas4w8ay) We are going to be paying much more attention to health in the workplace, both physical and mental. Microsoft sets a good example: “To help our employees, we’ve started offering virtual meditation sessions they can join when they need a moment to unwind from work”.
Look for positives: Working from home will bring enormous benefits to the business and the individual if facilitated well. The ability to give a greater work life balance to your workforce undoubtedly will produce results in terms of productivity. The business can also benefit from the creation of a more agile, flexible and nimble workforce. There will be efficiencies of time and cost to be gained as happy workers are more productive!
See the current situation as a chance to “stress test” your current business practise and look for new ways of operating permanently, not just during the corona crisis. Good luck!
Flexatal provides the world’s leading technologists virtually. From one to many, we have scaled up teams for global brand names and start ups across the world. We do the testing, evaluation and selection, so you can focus on the project.
#remoteworking #mentalwellbeing