It is a reality that companies, no matter their scale, sector or region, have had to face changes due to the pandemic, for example Japanese company Fujitsu, which announced in July that it was moving 80,000 employees to a remote working setup. Thus, signaling a massive change in the company's traditional corporate culture, which, by the way, is one of the largest in Japan.
Working from home during the pandemic brought some great benefits to some employees and companies in Brazil, such as less commuting, more time with pets and family, savings on items such as parking and vehicle maintenance, among other factors.
But on the other hand, it also brought some inconveniences for professionals and companies, which we can call the 'pitfalls' of remote work.
Below, we list 5 of the most common inconveniences and problems of adopting this working method and along with them, how you can solve them, if this is yours.
1 – Home Office does not work for everyone
Most large companies, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, have advocated remote work as the “ new normal ”. But this “rule” doesn’t work for everyone.
Those privileged with this type of work are normally employees in the areas of technology, engineering, finance or administrative services, facilitating the remote work process. However, some sectors and functions have not changed, except, of course, the measures and precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. Below are some examples of occupations that have not changed during the pandemic:
- Employees who rely on computers but have limited interaction with the public, such as:
- Business and finance (banking)
- Those who rely on computers and public interaction:
- Health centers and hospitals
- Those who rely heavily on computers or public interaction
- Construction
- Maintenance
- Production
- Those that do not depend on computers, but mainly on public interaction:
- Food services (markets)
- Retail
- Delivery of goods (motorcycle couriers and delivery)
These employees are on the front line in combating the spread of the virus, being exposed in the most comprehensive way possible.
Paying greater attention only to employees able to work from home is perhaps a big trap, as those unable to perform their duties at home are possibly those who may present the most difficulties and problems in carrying out their tasks.
How to solve?
Try to balance the attention and your efforts between in-person and remote employees in order to keep the tasks and needs of both sides as healthy as possible.
An interesting way to minimize problems with face-to-face workers is to automate processes with remote teams and consequently leave more 'free' time to identify possible problems with employees who remain in face-to-face work mode.
Give your team enough attention and remember that everyone is going through adaptations and removal from almost all of their usual activities, which can make the working day and tasks more mentally tiring, requiring greater attention and care for part of managers and entrepreneurs.
2 – Mental fatigue
While most home office workers face a lower risk of contracting Covid-19 at work, the shift to telecommuting also brings its own health risks. And this, in turn, translates into productivity traps.
The mental fatigue of holding remote meetings over and over again is real. Microsoft conducted a study asking 13 pairs of coworkers to complete tasks in person and remotely while connected to brainwave monitors. As a result, they discovered that collaborating online is more mentally taxing than working together in person.
In this way, it is possible to see that social bonds and collaborative techniques formed in person are not always transported to a remote environment.
How to solve?
Eliminating meetings may not be the best way to solve this problem, but facilitating processes and reducing videoconferences is certainly the first step.
tools on the market today to control tasks, eliminating the need for excessive or long meetings, even facilitating the control process for managers themselves.
Organizing each employee activity chronologically and by importance or urgency reduces the need to hold meetings and also reduces the time of each meeting, making the employee's work process more automated and productive.
3 – Unfavorable work environment
From an employee's point of view, we have to remember that those able to work from home are generally those who perform high-level cognitive work, whose tools for doing their work are their brains, their computer and the internet. Well, these people may have more difficulty concentrating in environments that are not conducive to all the cognitive effort that their work requires.
The reasons for loss of concentration and consequently low productivity may be:
- Discomfort at home office due to poor quality equipment, or slow and faulty devices
- Excessive noise and noise, due to many factors such as:
- Children in the house
- Pets
- Neighbors
- Construction
- Cell phone notifications
- Domestic chores in parallel with work
- Temptations for rest, food and customs linked to your presence at home, such as:
- Family members cooking during work
- Tasks being performed in resting places, such as sofas, beds and armchairs
- Games with children, family or pets
- Cell phones, social networks and chat applications
How to solve?
Some factors are up to the employee to maintain order and identify points that could harm their work and productivity, such as distractions, temptations related to food and procrastination, among others.
However, the minimum for a favorable work environment for a home office employee is equipment for daily use, such as chairs, tables, computers, and lighting, with sufficient quality not to make a work villain, which should be a ally.
Providing equipment that supports a healthy and comfortable working environment for employees can often reduce most productivity problems and lack of focus.
4 – Are the rules different? or are there no rules?
Not maintaining routines and rules is good initially, but it can be harmful if the employee has problems with discipline and tasks completed effectively and with quality.
People responsible for supervising tasks in person, or encouraging this process to be done more quickly, may have lost their role, or must adapt everything to remote mode.
Work rules will possibly have to be revised and, above all, presented to employees working from home. Schedules, tasks and deadlines, permissions, meetings, doubts, everything must be clear to everyone, in order to adapt to the new process, after all, there is great difficulty for companies and managers in “controlling” actions, working time, access and permissions, among many other points, when work is carried out remotely.
How to solve?
Keeping all remote access to the company's internal network controlled by employees working from home, and blocking websites outside the scope of work, is an effective way to overcome problems related to productivity and non-compliance with rules.
On the market today there are several tools for controlling internet access and also secure remote access, something really important, taking into account the growing cases of data theft and attacks on the networks of large companies around the world.
You can learn more about the topic in the Internet Access Control Guide for Companies .
Don't leave the task of maintaining the company's data security to your employees, after all, the biggest losers in this case are the managers and the employees themselves.
5 – Legislation
When it comes to remote work and legislation, Labor Reform calls working from home teleworking. This modality includes services provided outside the company's premises, which use technological tools and whose nature is not characterized as external work.
To adapt the company to this work model, the organization must transform the activity from 'in-person' to 'teleworking'.
To this end, the legislation basically determines that there must be an addendum to the employment contract, establishing all the data relating to the change of modality and responsibilities, making the method legal and plausible for implementation for employee and employer.
However, most companies do not have sufficient knowledge or professionals dedicated to verifying the data and creating such a document, leaving legislative factors at the mercy of possible labor lawsuits or problems with disoriented or malicious employees.
How to solve?
To help professionals, managers and entrepreneurs in the process of implementing home office in companies, Lumiun developed a Document Template for the Addendum to the Employment Contract for Teleworking Regime – Home Office .
The model is available for download and includes the minimum necessary information divided into clauses, which can be edited by adding or removing information relevant to the company.
Download the file and share with colleagues or companies that also need it.
We know that many companies still face problems in some part of carrying out work from home, which is why we seek relevant information daily to help improve processes.
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