Working Remotely – How to Make it Work for Your Organisation
Many businesses fear the proposition of working from home. Many employees within your company would enjoy the opportunity to telecommute. Who doesn’t want to avoid being stuck in traffic every morning and evening? But it’s not just the horrors of a rush hour car journey your employee is dreading every day they work for you. Your office environment may not be as conducive to productivity as you think.
Not everyone works well is a bustling environment like an open plan office. And others may be finding it tough to cope with the lack of natural air and light. Most businesses suffer when it comes to the number of employee sick days we’re paying for. Remote working has been shown to reduce the number of days employees take for illness.
Working from home doesn’t suit every employee. Some struggle to focus with all the distractions of home life. But many find they are considerably more productive at home because they are away from the distractions of work life. Clearly the business has a role to play in all this. And many managers are concerned that the quality of work could fall if their staff are away from their eagle eye.
So how can you make remote working work for your organisation? Set the rules. The idea is to promote flexible working, but the team still needs to be able to collaborate. Choose which apps are to be used for instant messaging. You might also choose to have a daily meeting where everyone checks in at a certain time on a video conference call. This helps everyone keep in touch and reduces that sense of isolation from the workers.
It’s important not to be too strict. Demanding that a worker stays in their home office during certain hours defeats the point of them working from home. They need the flexibility that working remotely offers them. Working from home means they can take the dog for a brisk walk or they can go and pick the kids up from school. Your home worker can prepare the evening meal between writing reports, and even catch up on the ironing while phoning a client.
The idea is to set reasonable objectives. Offer tasks that are measurable for your employee to complete. Then give them a chance to get it done at their pace in their environment. Any employee that is struggling to finish will let you know. That’s when you can intervene. Help them develop the skill set needed to be effective in any working environment. Your HR department should prepare employees for the challenges of working remotely. They should also provide support for balancing life and work.
There are so many cost benefits to allowing greater flexibility for home working. You could use smaller premises, and avoid the cost of regular sick days. Employees won’t be late for work if they’re able to work from anywhere. You’re offering improvement in their quality of life too. You’ll be able to attract the best employees from anywhere in the country. Working remotely can work for your organisation with a little preparation.
AnnualLeave is the leading employee leave management tool on the market, lifting the HR headache by cutting request processing times, monitoring staff leave trends, and maintaining company compliance all with one user-friendly, affordable self-service program. For more on how we can ease your company’s leave management demands, get in touch with one of our team via our online enquiry form or email us directly at sales@annualleave.com
