2021 rolled in with the normalization of remote work. The change has been significant with the number of employees working from home nearly doubling from 2019 to 2020 and 69% of employees working remotely during COVID’s peak. Although the highest work-from-home industries remained constant, more than 54% want to continue working from home after COVID ends.
Many people are enthusiastic about the work-from-home revolution, especially those who have found working remotely beneficial to their work. 87% of employees say they have the right tech to work with at home and 80% say they are still able to meet project deadlines on time while working remotely. Working from home helps employee wellbeing as well through increased happiness in the job and less congestion on the roads. Remote work has also allowed both employees and employers to save thousands of dollars in national and personal savings each year.
Nevertheless, there have been some growing pains from working remotely. Employers are having a harder time trusting their employees while working from home with 85% of employers doubting the candidates for leadership and 69% of managers struggling to communicate with employees remotely. Thanks to these issues of trust, micromanagement has been on the rise and making it stressful to work from home for both employees and employers. Micromanagement has caused 69% of employees to consider changing jobs, which in turn reduces employers’ salaries by 33% to replace those employees who do leave.
In order to create better trust between employers and work-from-home employees, team members need to feel valued. Ways to show this include over-communicating and encouraging self-care while at work. AI programs can also be used to help with management practices without the need to micromanage, such as arranging payrolls and providing online leave management.
With working from home quickly being adopted by many companies, creating trust without using excessive micromanagement strategies is the way to go.
Source: TrackTime24.com