Due to the current COVID climate, many organisations have deployed a remote workforce, and many will continue to do so even after the lockdown is eased. Adjusting to change on such global scale can be a real challenge for people. Many of us have been attempting to work from home with kids around, struggling to maintain motivation and realising that our Wifi connection is not as good as we thought it was.
There’s been a lot of benefits too! Rolling out of bed in the morning and heading straight to work within a matter of minutes, all day slipper wearing, and lunchtime pilates! Life has felt much slower in so many ways, yet for many businesses (especially in the IT world) the workload has not eased.
Your wellbeing is the fundamental foundation at the heart of remaining motivated, producing excellent work, and feeling connected. We wanted to find out what our employees here at Pensar really feel about their experience of working from home – and whether or not it will be sustainable for the future.
We conducted research which highlights some interesting perspectives and ideas for positive change in the home-workplace. You might find it useful to learn from these insights and implement new strategies to promote productivity for your business too.
It’s no real surprise 88% of our employees feel positive about working from home and enjoy not having to commute every day… but what can we do to make working from home sustainable long-term?
Set-up is key
Across the board, the most common response when asked “what improvements” people would like at home, nearly everyone mentioned their working environment. With 83% of employees wishing to work from home at least some of the time post-lockdown, making sure that they are set up properly will be vital.
Not having the right equipment on hand can make working from home a frustrating experience. As many businesses are considering enabling work from home flexibility long term, it’s important to ensure that your employees have a healthy workspace.
Supplying desks, ergonomic chairs, additional monitors may feel like a a big financial decision, but it will definitely improve the productivity and motivation of your employees long term.
Tip: It was also suggested that businesses could go fully paper-free! Many people do not have access to printers at home, and we are a primarily digital world now. Bonus: we get to save the planet by using less paper and ink too!
Access
When asked what employees would suggest as improvements if they were to work from home long term, many said that “full Cloud operations” would be helpful. When your workforce is largely based remotely in various locations, it is really important to ensure that everyone can access what they need, when they need it.
Working from home, employees are often using their own devices to access everything from emails to important documents. Ensuring that everything is available no matter which device they use is crucial.
Your employees will feel more confident in their ability to work from home productively if they have assured access to everything that they need. This will ultimately result in better and more efficient service for your customers.
Our pricing calculator enables instant full access to our online pricing tool for calculating your storage and licensing costs.
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Tip: Keeping track of data and monitoring multiple devices remotely can be difficult if you don’t have the right infrastructure and policies in place. Consider which cyber-security softwares you can implement in order to keep your sensitive data safe.
Culture
Introverts might be having a great time now working from home and having some peace and quiet away from all those brainstorming office extroverts! However, even the most independent of us needs human connection. With 73% of employees stating that they miss social interaction in the office space, it’s clear that this feedback that cannot be ignored.
When you have a busy week at work, the first thing that goes from the work diary is usually team meetings and social time. It can be really hard to prioritise connecting with your team when you have deadlines to meet!
However, there are some really helpful tools that you can use to help you and your team. Using apps like Microsoft Teams, or even just a WhatsApp chat, provides an alternative platform to stay connected and touch base. We can all get bogged down with lots of emails and ‘Zoom fatigue’ so switching up platforms can be a useful way to chat.
Creating a culture where employees feel valued, and feel that they have space to have non-functional conversations will benefit everyone in the long run. You will find that employees mental wellbeing will be looked after, and that they feel valued in the workplace. Ensuring that your staff feel looked after and valued is the best tool for retention and productivity.
Tip: Could you try and recreate coffee breaks on an app like Houseparty to all play some ice breaker games? Or why not try Disco with Microsoft Teams where employees can encourage each other and give kudos for great work!
If you have any questions, concerns or just want to chat through some ideas about remote working in your business, please feel free to get in touch with us any time.
We’re passionate about ensuring that everyone has the ability to work as efficiently and productively as possible. Top notch IT services and products are the way forward for remote working, and will ultimately make everyone’s life a little bit easier.
Get in touch to find out what you can do to empower your employees today by saying hi at
Insight into challenges of WFH from our Home Working Survey