Even as the pandemic draws to an (admittedly rather slow) end, as many as 80% of employers who were forced to function with remote teams eighteen fateful months ago are debating whether to remain that way. After all, as unwelcome as a sudden remote switch was to some companies, the fact that systems are now in place makes a total office return seem like a waste of time and energy.
The question is, how can employers who have always focused on pleasing everyone manage the same as we move into a ‘real’ new normal that, in large part, has workforces divided (61% prefer full time remote solutions). Unfortunately, there is no simple solution in this respect, but there are, at least, steps that employers can take to address remote work pain points, and hopefully get more employees on side. We’re going to consider them here.
# 1 – Poor solutions
As has always been the case, job success and happiness largely come down to the supply of all the tools your employees need to do their jobs. In the instance of having remote employees, this generally means leaning on collaboration tools and seamless tech stacks. Unfortunately, with 16% of employees experiencing significant collaboration and operational setbacks even now, it’s clear that this past year and a half hasn’t been enough to ensure that every company perfects these processes. In fact, businesses who are still making do with the ad hoc solutions are quickly finding that, when faced with remote work in the long term, employees are unwilling to stick around. By comparison, companies who have perfected their remote tools are far better able to tailor a happy, willing remote workforce overall.
# 2 – The benefits battle
Benefits packages that incorporate things like paid holidays, sizable bonuses, and health insurance for business are prerequisites for securing top talent. Unfortunately, many competitive benefits packages pre-pandemic are now either obsolete or no longer applicable. For obvious reasons, this can breed discourse and opens the doors for high employee turnover, or a general lack of remote enthusiasm. To overcome this, it’s essential to not only continue offering job benefits (avoiding gig economy connotations,) but to also reassess those benefits packages with remote work in mind, reconsidering how in-work health insurance, hourly pay rates, and holiday allocations can better work for everyone in this new setup.
# 3 – Are you backing employees into a corner?
In some cases, remote reluctance comes down to the fact that employees are unhappy with the lack of choice that they’ve been left with, especially where a complete remote shift has been enforced. This is why, as many businesses are already doing, it’s important to realize that flexible work may be best, at least as a middle ground. By hiring a co-working space certain days a week, or even keeping hold onto an office if your profits comfortably stretch to it, you ensure that you’re pleasing all of the people as often as you possibly can, and isn’t that what any good manager would, and should, do?
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