Switching to hybrid or fully remote work could possibly be key to retaining employees in the face of the Great Resignation, but employers must support employees to be as productive as possible while working from home
There have been many attempts to explain the aspects behind the Great Resignation as the number of Americans leaving their jobs in 2022 stays high at in June 4.2 million – slightly below the record level of 4.5 million in March.
FlexJobs questionnaire of over 2,000 employees conducted earlier this 12 months revealed that 30% had thought about leaving and a quarter had quit their job in the last six months. Of those that left recently, 43% left because they couldn’t work remotely.
It’s no surprise that the pandemic has caused many people to re-evaluate what they expect from their workplace, especially since almost every knowledge employee has gotten a taste of working from home over the past two years and loves it.
Job offers remain high – they are at the same level 10.7 million in June – and many employers report problems with recruiting latest employees. The answer could also be to proceed working remotely or at least offer more alternative in the form of a hybrid solution.
While remote roles can solve a company’s employment problems, they will not help if corporations aren’t properly equipped to support productive work from home.
The well known productivity advantages of WFH could be undermined if employees are not supported and if home working policies are not created to keep employees engaged.
Employers should ask themselves how they may help their employees manage their workload, use their time most effectively, and feel motivated and engaged in remote workplaces.
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Here are five ways to increase staff productivity:
- Improve communication
Poor communication is one of the primary obstacles to a productive and well-functioning work environment. 2018 test conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that 44% of US workers blame poor communication for delays, failures and project cancellations, and 31% said it leads to low morale in the workplace.
It’s also a waste of time: dealing with an avalanche of emails or switching between different systems like Slack and Google Chat takes up worthwhile hours that will be higher spent on actually getting work done.
Employers should strive to improve communication channels wherever possible. Today, there are many project management software options available – corresponding to Basecamp and Notion – that make it easier for teams to collaborate online, regardless of where they are positioned. Some people have their very own chat service that may replace email threads and Slack.
- Eliminate unnecessary meetings
It’s not a stretch to say that almost all businesses are probably suffering from bloat. Recent questionnaire according to Dialpad found that 83% of professionals spend between 4 and 12 hours a week in meetings. This is despite their inefficiency: According to a latest study, 92% of employees find meetings expensive and unproductive tests published in the Journal of Business Research.
Additionally, for people working from home, Zoom fatigue – the mental exhaustion that comes from too many video conferences – is a real risk.
Reducing the number of meetings is an obvious solution to the problem, but it requires consensus for everyone to think: do we really want a meeting to discuss this? Could this be higher solved one other way?
Any really necessary meetings ought to be time-limited and preferably grouped into a set period each day – for example between 9:00 and 11:00, so that employees have enough time for deep, focused work in the afternoon. Some corporations have introduced days off from meetings, which are extremely popular.
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- Automate tasks
Employees are most efficient when they’ll focus on their core work without getting lost in non-urgent administrative tasks. These essential but low-value jobs can take up a good portion of the workday, leaving employees with less energy and less focus on tackling truly necessary tasks.
With this in mind, employers should consider whether or not they can introduce software to automate this work. 2021 questionnaire UiPath found that workers spend an average of 4 and a half hours a week on repetitive tasks, so automating them could allow employees to gain the equivalent of an extra afternoon per week.
- Promote delegation
What about tasks that cannot be automated? This is where delegating tasks comes in handy – a skill that is normally underutilized in many workplaces. To truly get the best out of every worker, bosses should ask themselves whether employees are delegating the whole lot they’ll and should.
It’s likely that some older employees don’t delegate enough of their work to younger members of their team, either because they feel it’s easier to do it themselves or because the time-saving profit is not significant enough. However, this is a miscalculation: even saving just quarter-hour on a task will soon translate into hours gained.
Meanwhile, other employees simply won’t have anyone to delegate less necessary tasks to. In such cases, virtual assistants – hired to work remotely on an hourly basis – could also be a useful solution.
- Introduction of coaching
Confidence in working independently has a strong correlation with worker satisfaction: Tests at Effectory found that 79% of employees who say they work independently also feel engaged in their work.
However, with too little structure in how to manage their responsibilities, employees working remotely may feel unsupported.
Unfortunately, some employers don’t seem to trust their employees to be productive while working from home, as evidenced by the rise of worker monitoring programs.
Introducing a coaching initiative in the workplace could be a solution to ensuring employees feel supported, get the feedback they need and make the most of skilled development opportunities.
More informal than traditional managers, coaches focus on helping employees develop and overcome any challenges, offering tailored support that helps them manage their workload in a way that most accurately fits them and optimize their productivity.
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There are advantages to supporting remote workers in achieving maximum productivity by helping them manage their time more effectively. Companies that implement truly helpful measures will probably be much higher able to weather the Great Resignation – and will have happier, more engaged employees as a result.