For the longest time, if we could name one thing that employees around the world wanted the most, it would havebeen“work from home”.
According to the State of Remote Work, in 2019 99% of employees that were surveyed wanted work from home at least part of the time for their careers.
COVID-19 made the secret wishes of employees around the world come true. Millions of employees all over the world were sent to their homes to enjoy remote working, while simultaneously curbing the spread of the virus in their countries.
Here you might be thinking that to date, the employees would be cherishing this long-awaited opportunity to work from home, but that is not the truth. Months into remote working, it is discovered that remote working generated loneliness among employees. Many employees are even feeling socially distant and want to get back to their workplaces.
A recent report by Blind stated that 52.9% of employees of an anonymous professional network in the US with 3.2 million verified users across organizations such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, LinkedIn, Walmart, and Google, are facing loneliness during work from home.
Not only this but according to Google’s report, just two weeks into the American’ workforce shifting to home, the keyword ‘symptoms of anxiety” hit an all-time high in Google searches.
While employees around the world are finding it hard to adjust to this new normal, millennials are struggling the most.
Millennials make up the largest percentage of the workforce, globally. Also, they are considered the loneliest generation. A London based research and analytics company, YouGov, says that every three in tenmillennials are often lonely.
So now with an extension in remote working, it is more than important for company leadersto think of ways to keep their workforce engaged and happy in remote working terms.
If you belong to the HR or any other department responsible to keep employees engagement high during the remote work, then we have some ideas to help you out with your duties:
Table of Contents
Transparent Leadership
In an exclusive interview with HR technologists, Kimberly Cassady, the chief Talent Officer at Cornerstone, says that in times of crisis, the executives and HR should set the company’s tone and what employees are expecting from them.
She further added that if enough leaders address the issues calmly and rationally, then the rest of the company would also follow a similar pattern.
She followed this by saying that transparency of leadership about their decision-making process in times of crisis creates a better environment for employees.
Therefore, if you want to work on increasing your workforces’ trust in you, then you need to build transparency in the whole functioning of the company.
Healthy Work-Life Balance
Working from home has become a nightmare more than a dream only because employees are finding it hard to keep work-life and home life separate.
Remote working, especially, when done from home, blurs the line between employees’ personal and professional life.
While it is mostly in the hands of the employees to make sure they do not mix up their home and work duties, as a company, you can help your workforce, in this matter.
As a company, you should constantly monitor the mental health of your employees. You should keep an eye on the behavioral pattern of your employees to study if they are facing anxiety and depression for not being able to manage work and life balance.
And if you are an employee who is reading this then we will guide you to first work on your mental health yourself, before expecting your company to put in the efforts.
You should always take out time for some home-based entertainment since you are not able to step out of the home. You can try having a relaxing time with cable TV services like Spectrum. Spectrum offers Spectrum TV Select Channels that provide affordable entertainment home, all the time without any interruption.
Collaboration-friendly Technology
When it comes to increasing employees’ happiness in work then this concept is closely related to how employees perceive the process of working.
During the coronavirus outbreak, there is a lot that employees have to handle on their own. For instance, even if the employees are facing internet connection issues, they are expected to fix it on their own.
Moreover, communicating with the team during work from home has become hard as well.
Keeping all of this in mind is important for companies to make sure they ensure that employees use technology that helps them complete their tasks smoothly.
Also, ensuring the use of collaboration-friendly tools will help employees staying connected with the whole workforce, remotely.
Bottom Line
It is important to adjust the organizational goals according to the time we live and so it is important to make sure the workforce is all in the right state of mind to achieve those goals.