A survey conducted by Statista in March 2020 stated that 73% of UK workers in the marketing sector believe they are more productive when working remotely. 68% of respondents said that they worked more hours from home, in comparison to the number of hours they worked while being in the corporate workspaces. However, only 25% believed that working from home has resulted in intrusion into their personal lives.
COVID-19: Remote working and work-life balance of UK marketers in 2020
Benefits associated with remote working are many, such as no commute, flexible schedules, lesser interruptions from colleagues, the comfort of home, among others. However, there is a short percentage of people that find it hard to keep a good work-life balance intact while working remotely.
Tips for Chief HR Leaders on Helping Workers Keep a Healthy Work-Life Balance :
a). Ensure Preventing Burnouts
Employees usually work long hours in a remote working culture compared to regular office hours. The boundaries between the home and work life blurs, and a large percentage of the workforce end up putting in more than what is needed, thus getting deprived of proper sleep and rest. It has been found out that workers, while working remotely, put in a whopping 50-75 hours in work in a week. This could certainly lead to unfortunate health adversities, mostly, burnouts.
Notably, in the times of the COVID pandemic, the majority of the workforce across industries has been put on a ‘work from home’ culture by the global hr leaders. And therefore, these are the critical times, when the best hr leaders need to take control of the situation at their respective organizations to help maintain business productivity.
b). Ensuring Designated Working Hours
Remote working can easily lead to shifting of regular working hours to completely different and new time zones. The workforce needs to keep adhering to the normal work schedule. Although, a little flexibility taken would not harm the work productivity. But how much leeway one can take in terms of working hours must be regulated by the chief human resource leaders of the respective organizations.
To conclude on the work flexibility aspect of the ‘work from home’ culture, we would say that there must be predetermined and specific periods dedicated to work, and planned breaks work much better than random breaks.
c). Constant Communication Among the Employees
Remote working can prove to be a lonely experience for many. To ensure that the employees are well-connected, and there is a continuous flow of conversations going among themselves is the responsibility of the hr leadership. Top hr leaders help the workforce keep in touch with each other by arranging varied kinds of IT solutions that assist in virtual communications, such as video conferencing software.
d). Separate Work Space Within the House
CHROs can instruct hr professionals under them to suggest employees creating a separate workspace within their homes dedicated to office work. This will help keep work and home life separated and will contribute to improving work efficiency at the same time. Besides, they will be less interrupted by the family members doing the same.
e). Wellness Promotion
Healthy employees are the most productive. That’s a proven fact no one can deny, or dismiss. While at the office, workers do make physical movements while moving around the office a few times a day, and when going for lunch and coffee breaks, besides visiting loo a couple of times. However, while working from home, the physical movements are restricted, and organically, there is less need to move when at home.
Encouraging employees to take care of their physical being is equally important for the hr managers to keep productivity in check. Ask them to take a walk, or exercise a little, during the breaks. Home workouts can also be suggested.
