With so many people working from home, employers would be wise to closely monitor employee satisfaction and experience. This serves not only to provide help with concerns, stress-related symptoms and sharply rising absenteeism, but also to improve work processes, collaboration and remote management. Working from home is here to stay, but employers urgently need to take new steps in the support they provide.
A phased learning process
Coronavirus measures suddenly forced many people to work from home. This involves a process of adjustment and learning with different phases. After employers and employees initially searched somewhat tentatively for the right approach in March and April and set up home workspaces, things turned out to be going quite well. By May, satisfaction with working from home among workers was already considerably higher than in April, as shown by this study on working from home conducted in the Netherlands. However, the needs of different employees can vary significantly. This requires a more tailored approach to facilitating working from home.
More absenteeism due to low mood and stress
Taking a closer look at the Employee Experience (EX) of people working from home provides a clearer picture of the needs and urgent challenges facing specific employees (and managers). Many employees appear to be worried, and over time this can lead to problems such as absenteeism or reduced motivation. In October, the second wave of coronavirus caused an explosive rise in sickness absence. This was not only due to symptoms of illness and precautionary quarantine while awaiting test results, but above all to the low mood and stress caused by the coronavirus crisis.
The (personal) concerns of people working from home were significant from the outset, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic. But even after the first wave of coronavirus subsided and measures were eased, around half of people remained fearful and had (financial) concerns, according to research conducted in August by international consultancy Willis Towers Watson (including in the Netherlands). Moreover, two out of three people working from home say they are still greatly affected by distractions.
Working partly from home is here to stay
How are employers and managers dealing with this? After more than six months of working (partly) from home, you would expect the initial unfamiliarity to have worn off by now. And there is no end in sight for the time being. Even after this pandemic, working from home will undoubtedly continue to play a greater role than before. Almost everyone has now had the opportunity (out of necessity) to experience what working from home is like, exactly how the tools (such as Microsoft Teams) work, and in which situations working remotely is feasible or even preferable.
It will be interesting to see what this means for working from home, efficiency and, for example, savings in travel time. This also fits seamlessly with the developments of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (industry) currently underway. In this revolution, technology, sustainability improvements and efficiency go hand in hand, fundamentally changing work and production processes. The coronavirus crisis appears to be accelerating this development.
Measuring and optimising EX for people working from home
Whatever happens, people will continue to work from home more often. This also means that support for people working from home must be further optimised, with particular attention to the tailored approach that different employees need. After the coronavirus crisis, concerns about the pandemic will naturally diminish, but the need for good support and a different approach to managing ‘remotely’ will only grow.
This makes measuring employees' experiences and needs even more important to the success of organisations. Fortunately, online technology and platforms (such as GrowPromoter) now make it very easy to measure EX, with one or a few questions at the right time. The feedback this generates is essential for further optimising working from home, ensuring that it is productive and provides a high level of job satisfaction.
Employers are expected to take this step increasingly often, both now and in the period ahead. They may also do so in conjunction with measuring the customer experience (Customer Experience). After all, how do customers rate your organisation's performance when it is increasingly delivered (partly) from home? We measure both (EX and CX) and will, of course, continue to follow these crucial developments closely.
Rogier Taylor
Director and co-founder of GrowPromoter
