Wow …. how quickly has working from home become our new normal? It feels like the traditional 9-5 model of our employees travelling to a central office, in a shared space, has just disappeared overnight – replaced with a new reality of working from home. As businesses, we’ve had to reset our expectations, recognise work can get done, and we can still thrive, even when our teams are not actually present!
Of course, it’s not the case for every business. You can’t do remote working if you work in manufacturing, retail or care sectors, for example. But most admin and IT based roles simply need a computer with access to files, emails and telephony. Even for some regulated industries, such as law, financial services and insurance technology, which has overcome some challenges to ensure the safeguarding and security of sensitive data through remote working, but once the IP (internet protocol) and VPN (virtual private network) is in place and working efficiently, remote working works well.
Employees on the whole have adjusted to remote working and it’s become business as usual. The added flexibility and time gained from not commuting means teams are more productive, and increasingly so as schools and nurseries return to normal. Despite all the earlier struggles, many businesses may face push back from their employees getting back to an office when the pandemic is over. So remote working is likely to become a long-term strategy for businesses. Companies, such as Facebook and Google are already stating working from home is to become a permanent part of their HR strategy and companies such as Nationwide and Barclays are considering a hybrid model – part working from an office and work from home.
So how do you adapt your business to working from home long term?
Office space
Even if we do go back to an office life it will look and feel very different to ensure our health and wellbeing in the future. Offices will have to be overhauled and redesigned to accommodate restrictions to face to face meetings, spaced out desks to respect social distancing, stripping out communal kitchen areas and other communal areas. Rather than incurring these costs, the option to work from home long term becomes more attractive. Even having a flexible rota of staff in the office at any one time with virtual services offers a huge advantage of potentially reducing expensive office rental costs.
Managing your team remotely
Good leadership will ensure your remote team feels engaged, motivated and is key to a positive workplace. One of the downsides of working from home is the feeling of isolation and detachment from the business so it’s important to communicate with your team members frequently. Use the technology and tools available to you so everyone knows what’s going on, stays connected and productive. Plan a daily check in with individual team members and, at least weekly, virtual team meetings with the whole team. Using audio and video during the check ins and virtual meetings keeps the team connected, builds trust and productivity.
Your team’s physical and mental wellbeing
The other downside of working from home is the physical strain. Our home isn’t designed the same as the office so important your team consider the ergonomic impact of our bad habits. Not sitting correctly at a desk all day can lead to long term physical problems and pain.
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- Ensure your team members have access to a good mouse, office chair, separate keyboard and monitor and that everything is set at the right height to maintain good posture.
- Provide your team with guidelines so they can do this themselves using simple guidelines
- Encourage your team to move regularly by taking regular breaks, every 30 minutes if possible, throughout the working day.
It can become harder to switch off when you work from home and the lines between home and office become blurred. Encourage your team to practice good time management and respect their work schedules, don’t contact them outside office hours and don’t expect a response when offline.
It’s important to think beyond the physical needs of your team and consider their mental and emotional wellbeing as well. Working from home has many advantages in terms of flexibility but it can start to work against you. Consider providing confidential wellbeing services for your team who maybe feeling anxious or overwhelmed and encourage your team to keep a routine to establish a feeling of normality, for example:
- Get up at the same time and perhaps replace the normal commute time with something just for yourself before you start work for the day
- Suggest your team members have a separate space in their home if possible as their office space or, if not, create working and living zones
- Plan exercise and “water cooler” moments into the diary.
- Turn off the work computer and all notifications outside of working hours
- Keep to a regular bedtime.
Whatever the future may hold, we think the traditional office environment is over and remote working is now here to stay. What do you think?
By Jivan Dempsey
Jivan Dempsey has a portfolio career as: entrepreneur, change psychologist, consultant, writer and public speaker.
She regularly writes articles and provides press expertise on psychology and human behaviour. As a consultant, Jivan supports organisations manage business change and digital transformation through people and process to deliver performance. She also supports the personal development of senior teams and executives to build self-confidence and overcome self-limiting beliefs.
