Oftentimes, the same thing remote workers love about working from home is the same thing their employer loves about it: the minimal supervision required. Micromanagement is the bane of many an employee’s existence, so it’s no surprise that the flexibility remote work offers is so highly desired. But there’s an important need to strike a balance between leaving remote workers to their own devices and making sure they don’t feel neglected on the job.
RemoteWorker, an online jobs board that specialises in helping hiring managers and businesses connect with job-seeking professionals for remote work positions, is encouraging businesses to avoid this problem and providing three reasons why they should:
1. Loneliness is a huge problem for remote workers
One of the challenges of remote work is that some employees can feel isolated, working alone for hours and sometimes not leaving the house for days. This isolation can spill over into the workplace, too, and can negatively impact productivity and morale. It may be easy to just assign a remote worker a task and leave them to it, but remember that you’re still working with a person and not an emotionless AI tool. Frequent communication will go a long way in helping them to feel like part of the team and not just a machine for crunching numbers.
2. New remote staff need extra support
Emerging research is finding that some young Brits just joining the workforce prefer to work in-office for their first job. This is because of the close support that new employees tend to receive when they work in-person rather than the more hands-off approach of remote work. Employers should be mindful of this for their remote team and make extra effort to engage with new staff especially. If an employee has a hard time connecting with the company culture and their colleagues right from the start, their job satisfaction is bound to suffer — and that won’t be good for anyone.
3. Happy remote employees perform better
There are several benefits to be gained from regularly, actively engaging employees. All of those benefits related to employees generally being more satisfied with their jobs the more positive engagement they had. For instance, staff performed better, were more productive, took less time off, were less burnt out, gave better customer service and were more likely to recommend the company to new recruits.
Frequent communication, one-on-one check-in sessions and even staff or performance recognition and awards for remote team members are some simple yet effective ways businesses can stay ahead of the curve in this regard.
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About Remote Worker (UK)
Remote Worker helps to connect the UK workforce with remote or work-from-home jobs in their chosen line of work. We are affiliated with Remote Worker (US), ClickJobs, EcoCareers and Caribbean Employment Services Inc.
