With working from home for part of the week now the norm for many as we move out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that businesses take steps to ensure it is a success.
Below are some of the key legal and practical considerations if you are a business who has adopted, or a looking to adopt a permanent hybrid working model within your organisation.
Work life balance
ONS statistics published in April 2021 revealed that “people who completed any work from home did 6.0 hours of unpaid overtime on average per week in 2020, compared with 3.6 hours for those that never work from home.”
It shouldn’t be the case that working from home means more working. However, with a flexibility in hours often working alongside a flexibility in the workplace of work, it can be more difficult for line managers to see when an employee has too much work on. Regular communication is key here and training on supervising remotely is recommended to be provided to managers.
Promotion and staff development
According to the same statistics, employees who mainly worked from home were less than half as likely to be promoted than all other employees between 2012 and 2017.
This is a scary statistic and hopefully one which is changing as a result of working practices following the pandemic.
Regular discussions regarding career progression should be had consistently with employees regardless of where they are working. You may be at risk of losing out on talent by not having these conversations or if you are not providing appropriate training and support to all employees to allow them to progress.
Recruitment
There has been much discussion regarding whether retention will become an issue for business who fail to listen to the labour market regarding widespread hybrid and flexible working demands.
In 2021 a poll of 1,000 UK workers, conducted by EY as part of its 2021 Work Reimagined Employee Survey, found that four in five wanted flexibility where they worked, and nearly half surveyed (47 per cent) said they would consider changing their jobs if flexible working wasn’t an option.
Indeed, a quick scroll through LinkedIn this week showed several recruiters stating that the ability to work flexibly is one of the first things employees are now asking for when looking for a new role.
Businesses offering hybrid working should consider how they are promoting this to new recruits. This is now clearly a key expectation in many industries and offering hybrid working is likely to open up the pool of talent into a greater geographical remit than was previously available.
On the flip side, with increased remote job opportunities available your business must consider how it stands out in the market as a great place to work for its existing staff as they may also now have more opportunities available to them.
Loneliness and mental health
According to the Campaign to End Loneliness, 45% of adults feel ‘occasionally’, ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ lonely in England.
It is key that businesses support those working from home. It is also important that managers receive training on how best to support employees working remotely, and how to keep teams connected.
It may be more difficult with a hybrid working model to see when an employee may be struggling with loneliness or otherwise with their mental health.
There are many initiatives we have seen to keep teams connected in a hybrid working environment including virtual staff rooms, mentor or buddy schemes, virtual team building events and many more.
For Employees…
For employees gunning for a promotion in the new landscape, the rules and conventions are murky at best.
A manager might feel less accessible over Zoom, or the distance may make it harder to demonstrate success. It may also feel difficult to gauge the state of the company when you’re out of the office.
But these are surmountable hurdles, according to Lindsey Rogers, leadership coach and founder of Alchemi. Remote work may be indefinite in some companies, so it’s important to embrace the digital reality and go for it.
“It’s absolutely possible to be promoted remotely,” said Rogers. “Don’t wait.”
So here are my top 10 tips to lower stress, increase productivity and make more money as a remote worker:
1. Keep a regular work schedule. To avoid getting sucked into work 24/7, it’s essential to set your work hours and stick to them. As Molleck figured out, devising a workday is essential for mental health when you’re working from home.
It also staves off burning out. In our quest to prove to employers how productive we are — sometimes to help prevent a layoff or being ignored for that promotion — it’s easy to lose track of time.
Be clear with your manager and colleagues about your work hours.
2. Put firm work/life boundaries in place. This is tricky. When you’re working from a home office, distractions are inevitable. Friends and family may call or even stop by (during your lunch, of course). Politely explain to them that even though you’re at home, you’re also at work.
3. Seriously, get out of your pj’s. As much as I love the comfort of pj’s, I really recommend taking the time to dress for work as you might on a casual Friday in the office. It shifts your mindset. I know that when I dress the part, I bring more energy to my work.
4. Get comfortable with tech tools to help you work better. You can develop digital collaboration abilities by familiarizing yourself with common tools and software used to link remote employees, including applications for sharing work files such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Box.
Videoconferencing apps that are popular include Zoom, BlueJeans, Skype and WebEx.
For sending quick messages, there are apps like Slack and Teams. And project work for teams can be done more effectively with apps such as Basecamp, Asana and Trello.
LinkedIn has free online skills training for tools like these; so do the Coursera and Udemy online platforms and the apps themselves.
5. Have a smart home office setup. It’ll avoid health woes like carpal tunnel syndrome and eyestrain. It can help you be more productive, too.
Ergonomics matters. Picking the right computer monitor or laptop, supportive chair and maybe even a laptop stand can make a huge difference.
You can avoid eyestrain by placing your desktop or laptop monitor just above eye level and an arm’s length away. Also, supplement any natural light in your home office without reducing the contrast on your computer screen.
If I am not at my desk, I always place a pillow beneath my laptop to bring it to the right level. And I place a rolled towel or pillow in the small of my back to keep me from hunching over.
To reduce tech aggravation, make sure your Wi-Fi connection is as robust as possible. That could mean shifting your router closer or moving your workstation.
6. Listen to your body. I’ve talked to many work-from-homers who complain of terrible neck pain or aching backs.
Are you, like me, guilty of sometimes sitting on your sofa, hunched over your laptop, working for hours lost in the vacuum of time? That’s a recipe for long-term physical ailments such as muscle strains, and lower back injuries. I’ve found that, in many ways, it often comes down to good posture.
7. Don’t forget to eat with an eye to nutrition. This is key. When you work from home, it’s easy to get find yourself reaching for some chips or chocolate. I keep fruit and a glass of water nearby to remind me to pay attention to nutrition.
And remember to take lunch breaks. It’s easy to roll right past meals when you don’t have a co-worker stopping by to see if you want to pop out for a quick sandwich.
8. Take a breather. Self-care is a key component to succeeding as a remote worker. So, make time during the day to take a walk with your dog or exercise or practice yoga or mindful meditation — whatever works for you.
You might read a chapter in a novel. Call a friend or family member. Turn on some music and dance around the kitchen. Refresh, reboot, re-focus.
9. Make an extra effort to communicate with your boss, co-workers and team. Frequent conversations — by phone, text, email or video chats — may be your only way to share the progress status of your projects.
Catching up with your boss through a weekly virtual or phone one-on-one can give you both a chance to stay up to date with each other. It’s subliminal and human nature by bosses to be wary when employees are out of sight, so protect yourself.
10. Deliver. The biggest stumbling block for remote workers has been the underlying issue of trust. Your manager has to know that you will produce and perform, make that boss look good and the employer successful.
Meet your deadlines and exceed expectations. Moreover, accept or volunteer for stretch assignments or to add skills.
A great remote worker eagerly takes on projects and learning without blinking — but still makes time to have a life.
Jessica Jarvis 
Leave a comment