Regardless of how your company may have functioned in the past – if work-from-home was a big part of your company culture or not included whatsoever – you’ve probably had to introduce remote work as a response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Maybe you and your employees even like it so much that you plan to continue having an expanded remote team and work from home policy even after the pandemic. If that’s the case, it’s important to think through the benefits and challenges, develop and implement a clear policy, and focus on how you can support your remote workforce through the transition and beyond.
The Impact of COVID-19
No matter how you thought of remote working before this year, the COVID-19 pandemic is sure to have influenced your view. What may have once been seen as a luxury and convenience very quickly became a must for the sake of public health. Our eyes were opened to both the unique challenges and the distinct advantages of remote work at a large scale.
Companies were tasked with the work of finding and implementing new systems for communication, collaboration, and security, while teams caught a rare glimpse of one another’s home lives, providing a humanity and closeness between co-workers that may not have existed before. Employees discovered the pros of working from home, including decreased commute time, more time for things like sleep and family, and increased convenience.
Put through the ultimate ringer, remote working was seen to have worked well in an emergency, and many companies like Uber, Microsoft, REI, Google, Amazon, and Spotify, to name just a few, were so impressed that they’ve since decided to use remote work as a long-term business strategy.
The Challenges of Continuing Remote Work
However, it’s worth noting that continuing to move ahead with a remote work policy – whether it be as a result of choice or necessity – is sure to come with difficulty as well as good. As offices remain closed, there are reports of employees getting work from home fatigue. Further, organisations must understand that not all employees wish to work remotely. For some workers, considerations such as work style, family life, and other circumstances make office work definitively preferable.
In order to have as much success as possible with long-term remote work, leaders must carefully consider how they will support their workforce as employees’ homes transform into offices.
How to Support Your Remote Workforce
There are many considerations to take into account when it comes to supporting remote workers. Here are just some of them.
The Home Office
First, there is the issue of physical office comfort. In order to maintain health and well-being, employees will need home access to quality, ergonomic desk furniture and accessories such as chairs, tables, keyboards, and computer mice. As there is no guarantee employees already had something like this available, organisations may consider providing employees with a stipend for purchasing the proper work from home gear.
Work from Home Technology
Further, there are issues of technology support and provision. Companies may prefer to provide computers and monitors of their own rather than allowing employees to use personal devices for reasons of security as well as quality and fairness. Questions of internet access will also arise. Does IT become responsible for home broadband? Can employers offer reimbursement for wifi bills?
Changes to Contracts
There is also the consideration of contractual terms and conditions. Working from home is a different type of agreement between employer and employee than in-office work. It’s likely that contracts will have to be adjusted to include clauses about issues such as where and when employees may work, the requirement of breaks, reimbursements of utility costs, supplying of necessary equipment, whose property that equipment will be, compliance with health, safety, and security regulations, and confidentiality.
Insurance
Another issue to consider is related to safety and liability. Will your employees home insurance cover business equipment and safety? Can you provide coverage for your employees’ home offices under your business’s insurance policy or will you have to take out new insurance policies to cover potential theft and damage to company property? What if an employee is in some way injured while working from home?
New Employees
Recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and training will also have to be adjusted to work virtually. Meetings with HR, introductions to team members and management, new employee orientation, check-ins with managers, and training on work tasks themselves will all have to be redesigned to work as smoothly as possible online.
Management
Managers who approach managing a remote team the same way as they did an in-person one will quickly learn that there is no avoiding adjusting one’s management style to these new circumstances. Remote employees require more communication, emotional support and authentic caring, clearer expectations, and more flexibility when it comes to issues like hours versus output. Managers will also have to be careful about treating employees fairly and equally.
Company Culture
Finally, there is the issue of how to maintain social ties virtually. Meeting culture will be changed and new norms will have to be established. Companies who had once prioritised trust and connection among teams and between members of the organisation will have to find new ways to facilitate, encourage, and offer activities for trust-building, team-building, and socializing. Being proactive about preventing employee’s feelings of isolation, loneliness, and burnout will be key.
Ultimately, there are no right answers to these questions and no single correct way to move forward into the new world of long-term work from home arrangements. Just as employees are adjusting and learning as the months go on, so are companies. What is sure is that it will require a healthy dose of flexibility, foresight, and commitment to making things work.