Essential Work-from-home Areas to Focus on During 2nd Wave of COVID-19
As we approach what could be another wave of COVID-19 and therefore more workers doing their jobs remotely or at home, employers must not only make their safety a priority, but must also focus on the three areas of mental health, engagement and productivity. After many months of living in a pandemic world, you workers may experience quarantine fatigue with their anxiety increasing, and their engagement and productivity decreasing. These important areas go hand-in-hand and when one is affected, the other two are as well. So you need to look at the big picture when working on them individually and the remote worker productivity and safety will improve as a result.
The mental health of your remote workers
The foundation of any engaged and productive team is positive mental health that is supported and fostered by the employer. If we look at the national average Canadian worker, they spend about 2,000 hours a year doing their job. If their emotional well-being isn’t healthy, this could seriously impact obviously their happiness as well as productivity. There are steps you can take to cultivate positive mental health such as developing recognition programs, holding regular virtual team meetings, as well as providing financial support for worthy expenses such as running shoes, a meditation app or a gym membership (if they’re open).
Additionally, and this might go without saying, but it’s the employer’s responsibility to foster a work environment that is as less stressful as possible. When working from home, the line between your personal and professional life can become increasingly blurred, which can make it difficult to “turn off” and relax. To maintain your emotional and physical well-being while practicing social distancing, here are some additional tips on our previous blog article to keep your two worlds balanced.
Do you know if your workforce is engaged?
A happy remote team is an engaged and safe one. It may be challenge outside of a physical office, but it is possible to maintain strong engagement with those working at home or remotely. It can be a challenge, but employers can take simple steps to foster an enthusiastic remote team that loves, or at least enjoys, what they do. As mentioned earlier, one of the most impactful things you can do is provide recognition for even small achievements which shows staff that they are appreciated and that their hard work behind the scenes is not going unnoticed. Also, being proactive about the mental health and well-being of your staff is crucial. Ask about how they are finding their new workspace, ensure they have everything they need, and discuss motivation and energy levels. Touching base with your workforce regularly is especially important regarding a remote workforce because managers can no longer simply walk by the desk of an employee in the office to see how they are doing.
How productive is your work-from-home staff?
A major concern about the increasing numbers of at-home workers is that productivity is going to decrease. While that is possible in individual cases, there’s some evidence that says the opposite. In fact, if you are able to find work-life balance while doing your job at home, you can be happier and more productive than back at the office. While every home workspace may be different, there are a number of general steps that can be taken to improve remote worker productivity:
Create and follow a consistent work schedule.
Within that schedule, incorporate regular breaks (runs, lunch, etc).
Create a comfortable and safe home workspace with an ergonomic chair, lots of light and good ventilation.
Make sure you have a dependable project and work management system (or checklist) in place to help you reach your deadlines.
It might be difficult but try to reduce your distractions as much as possible.
You might find this silly but dress working at home as you would for the office – it puts you in a productive mindset for the day.
Coming up
Next in our COVID-19 2nd Wave Work-at-home Series, we will look at how to maintain meaningful and essential communication with remote staff and how that will benefit everyone – you won’t want to miss it.
Read part one of the series: Are you ready? How a worker safety monitoring solution can prepare you