Employees who work from home are increasingly feeling the need to stay on and make themselves available at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately, not being able to fulfil those requirements typically increases stress and anxiety. Fortunately, there are several ways to prevent your remote teams from working too hard.
Working remotely has a lot of benefits, the most obvious being the lack of commute. However, employees who work from home may struggle to switch off and separate their professional and personal lives.
Luckily, there is plenty you can do as an employer to encourage your teams to take a break. After all, when your teams are tired and exhausted they won't be doing their best work, the happier and healthier they are, the more productive they will be.
Globally, every organisation is facing a productivity problem. Driven partly due to our access to social media and other information, but more significantly due to a lack of investment.
In one survey, 1,989 UK office workers reported that they only work productively for around 3 hours a day, which, let's be honest, is a shocking statistic. Some employees work late to make up for lost time, but nevertheless, this isn't a healthy work habit.
The top 10 distractors employees listed included:
Making hot drinks was a surprisingly long distraction, with employees saying they would spend at least 25 minutes of the day on this activity. Unsurprisingly, checking social media took up the most time, with employees reporting they spent around 44 minutes scrolling during the working day.
When asked if they could get through the working day without these distractions, only 35% of employees said they could. So that means 65% of employees, over half, depend on these distractions to make their time at work more bearable.
It's easy to blame the employee and suggest the problem lies with them and that they need to focus and work harder. However, these issues will crop up if the working environment isn't stimulating and fulfilling. Of course, making phone calls throughout the day is unacceptable behaviour, but how many of us haven't whiled away the final 20 minutes of a Friday on a news site or checking our phones?
The drop in productivity at home has surprising consequences. According to data from a VPN provider, employees were logged into their business VPNs an extra 2 hours a day on average, with the US being as high as 3 hours per day.
Now, while this may seem like nothing to worry about — as employees are making up time, these behaviours can lead to exhaustion and burnout. In an ideal world, employees should complete their work in a reasonable amount of time and not extend their working days to fit in the missed hours.
Of course, staying online later is acceptable if an employee has agreed to work on a different schedule. For example, they may have commitments during the day, such as taking the kids to and from school.
These are the most effective methods for stopping your remote teams from burning the midnight oil.
Managers must first set their own boundaries, and the rest of the team will follow. If managers are constantly working outside of their hours and are answering emails at the weekend or while on holiday, it sets an unhealthy precedent.
When employees see senior members of staff practising what they preach, they feel they have permission to set their own boundaries. However, if implementing a switching-off policy is a drastic cultural change, some managers may take a while to adapt, so you will need to give them time.
Productivity workshops are a great way to get employees thinking about their working habits. These courses typically include methods to keep emails under control and how to avoid distractions. Perkbox includes plenty of discounts on courses covering productivity and more. Some are even perfect for hobbyists who want to learn about fiction writing, for example.
Time blocking is an efficient method of prioritising tasks to improve productivity. Knowing what we are doing at a set time in the day can reduce anxiety as we don't experience that panicked feeling of what to tackle first. If possible, checking emails at particular times of the day reduces the feeling of always having to be online and alert to answer people's queries.
Wellbeing resources range from Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to health libraries. Take Perkbox, for example, the wellbeing platform, includes on-demand HIIT classes, relaxing yoga flows, and sleep stories. Everything can be easily accessed from the app, so it doesn't matter if your team wants to work out from the gym or at home.
Many remote employees fail to take regular breaks from work as they become too familiar with working from home. However, this increases the risk of burnout and decreases productivity. We suggest sending reminders to your remote teams to encourage them to take time off when possible. This gives them a well-deserved break and ensures they stay on top of their mental wellbeing, so that they can continue to work efficiently.
Shutting down the computer at the end of the day and walking out of the office is the perfect way to separate work from home, which is what we all need to keep doing even when working remotely.
When walking out of the office and down the road isn’t possible, we struggle to switch off. With our laptops in the next room and our phones always in our pockets, we constantly feel we're still on the clock.
If employees use laptops, storing them away is helpful to break that connection to work. For desktops or bigger screens, cover with a towel or keep the screen out of sight.
You can also encourage your team to continue their commute by walking in the morning and evening or doing what they’d typically do on a bus or train. Whether that's reading a paperback or listening to a podcast.
There are some things that your employees won’t have control over no matter what. For working parents, it’ll be their kids. Children are hard to fit into a schedule, so it's understandable that employees with children will work differently.
Many parents cannot work when parenting duties kick in, and employers and colleagues alike need to be mindful of this. Workarounds include parents splitting up their day, so instead of working 9-5, they work 7-10, then 12-3, and maybe another hour in the evening.
Encourage the parents on your team to break up the day however works best for them. Help them capitalise on their time and avoid making them feel extra stressed when their kids need them. Assure them that working hours that suit their home lives means working smarter, not longer!
If employees are working overtime, ask for them to be transparent, not just with their managers but with their peers too. You could also take this as an opportunity to survey your employees about what’s working and what isn't.
Moreover, make sure you are giving recognition when recognition is due. If overtime is unavoidable, make it known how valued their extra input is and that overtime should be a rare occurrence. Additionally, if you’re receiving emails or Slack messages from employees after hours, ask why. Make it known to them that this isn’t expected, nor is it advised.
Perkbox is an all-in-one employee experience solution that cares for your employees' mental, physical, and financial health.
It includes:
When your remote employees feel supported, they are more engaged and less likely to depend on distractions throughout the day.
Issues within company culture tend to drive disengagement, so understanding what you need to improve upon will go a long way in finding a solution.
Fortunately, Perkbox can help you develop or tweak your culture strategy to get the most out of your employees.
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