Remote Employees

With the recent shift of companies offering remote/work from home options, organizations have become more competitive when it comes to hiring top talent. However, as the pendulum swings back on this topic, the employees who have been working remotely for the first time in their careers may feel underappreciated comparatively to previously working in an office. Plus, the elephant in the room is working from home is not as sleek and glamorous as portrayed in movies and commercials. You may have limited space, pets chiming in, deliveries at the worst time, children/spouse home sick, Wi-Fi connectivity issues, etc. In fact, data shows that remote employees in general (tenured and newly) are experiencing burn out.

According to a recent?Gallup finding, there is an 8% annualized turnover rate of employees who were both thriving and engaged. Compared to 14% turnover of employees who were engaged but struggling or suffering AND 24% turnover of employees who were neither thriving nor engaged.

The solution is to examine your current employee relations practices. Be proactive and have dialog with your workforce and find ways to enhance/refresh what you are doing. Some questions you can ask include:

· How are you doing?

· What is working and what improvements can be made?

· Do you have a routine?

· Is your home office “set-up” working out or is it lacking?

· Are you in contact often enough with your manager?

· Do the communication/collaboration tools work?

· Do you feel valued or recognized?

· How do you recharge considering you can’t mingle in person with co-workers?

This may feel like extra work but remember, the cost of replacing an employee can be as much as 33% of the employee’s annual salary. Another statistic to consider is it takes an average of 9-12 months to begin an ROI on a new hire. This can be a work in progress and by showing your workforce you are aware of this and care about their wellbeing can be all someone needs to hear to know help is on the way.