Post-Covid Work Environment: How to Enforce Productivity In WFH Employees
The need for working from home has increased tremendously since 2020 with the coronavirus outbreak. To keep the workplace running, working from home was introduced to employees. However, it isn’t easy to attest that WFH employees are productive.
In a survey conducted by ATP, it was discovered that many employees cited productivity as one of the primary reasons they preferred working from the workplace. Others maintain that their homes do not have the required resources or space to allow them to function adequately.
About 57% of the workforce state that they never worked from home before the coronavirus outbreak, even when their job encouraged them to work remotely. As such, this recent development was welcomed with mixed feelings. Thus, while some employees attest that working from home has been beneficial, many disagree.
To this effect, 60% of employees maintain that working from home makes them feel less connected to their coworkers, and another 10% admit that it makes them unable to meet their deadlines.
These limitations affect productivity in the post-covid work environment. Hence, companies need to ease stressors and take advantage of the work flexibility working from home offers.
There are a few recommendations that businesses must adopt to encourage productivity in WFH Employees.
7 Ways to Improve Productivity in WFH Employees
1. Encourage effective communication
Unlike the onsite workplace that makes it easy for you to access employees’ desks, the remote work environment makes no provision for such a platform. However, you can use various digital solutions to achieve a productive remote work environment. In doing this, you must be sensitive to your employee’s needs and work accordingly with the feedback in communication. To maintain effective communication, you must also be ready to listen to feedback from your employees.
2. Promote wellness programs
Your WFH employees cannot work productively if you fail to provide wellness programs for them. A survey shows that 85% of employees stated that they needed support from their employers. Before the pandemic, many companies understood the importance of mental health and used various tactics such as meditation sessions and the recommendation of fitness apps, amongst others. These same programs should be used to encourage WFH employees to help them destress and feel like an essential part of the organization.
3. Organizing networking events
Working remotely collapses physical structure. If you have companies spread across different parts of the country, it may not be easy to have your employees in an everyday environment. But networking events will encourage workers to socialize within different geographical boundaries.
4. Foster professional development
WFH employees should be motivated to get professional certifications. Working remotely should not be an excuse not to get career advancement. Fortunately, there are lots of online professional certifications and training. It would help if you encouraged your employees to choose any of the movements that will give their careers a boost. As an employer, you can also expose your employees to any of these programs and, if you can, provide the resources to cover the training program. In the same vein, you can also conduct internal training for your WFH employees as this will also help them improve in various capacities.
5. Avoid hectic workload
WFH employees may feel overwhelmed with the workload if they have a lot of repetitive tasks on their plates. To avoid such a situation, you must encourage automated-driven solutions. The essence of this is to ensure the delivery of creative work and to augment their labor. Manual, repetitive tasks can stop them from being productive and affect their perception of the work environment.
6. Build connections
Many workers feel isolated in this new work reality. This is one of the reasons it is necessary to build work connections. There are different ways to create relationships with your remote employees, as this will make them feel they are not working alone. For example, this could involve still celebrating birthdays by getting everyone on video to have the same type of party you would have in an office breakroom, and having cake delivered.
7. Celebrate success
The same way you would praise an onsite employee for the efficient use of Microsoft applications is the same way you should appreciate a WFH employee setting up a PC. You don’t have to be there in person to celebrate them. An appreciative email will inform the employee that you are aware of their activities, and will go a long way towards making them feel like a productive team member.
Get the Right Support with C solutions
Working remotely is the new normal. Its advantages are numerous, but there are also disadvantages. This has introduced a lot of challenges for business owners as they struggle to address the concerns of WFH employees.
Let’s make it easier for you! Contact us at 407-536-8381 or reach us online.