The remote working trend has grown in recent years. The system of remote work has so much flexibility that most of the employees would not prefer going to the office on a regular basis. According to Zippia statistics, in the United States, 66% of employees work remotely, at least part-time. Experts also predict that by 2025, 36.2 million Americans will prefer working fully remotely.
However, most companies still believe that employees are more productive when they work from the office. They only keep a few positions open for their remote employees and they too work commonly to provide back office service solutions.
The Reasons Companies Want Employees Back in The Office
You might be curious that work-from-home culture had saved many companies during the pandemic of Covid-19. Then, why do companies want employees back in the office? Every company has different reasons. In this article, we will discuss the top five reasons for it.
Work Productivity and Prioritization
It takes a lot of dedication to work from home without being disrupted. The flexible home setup already makes employees less attentive to their job. Besides, it takes a certain amount of time to conduct coordination activities such as meetings.
In the smaller picture, remote work seems to be more productive. If you look deeper, you will find many loopholes that diminish the total productivity of work.
Company Culture Disruption
Learning from a distance often fails to show the actual culture of a company. Especially if you have new employees who begin working from home on day one. They will never understand the business culture. Cultural disruption causes problems like misunderstandings, aggressive behavior, absenteeism, etc.
Some companies thus have a hybrid working culture where some day’s employees work from home and some days from the office. Those companies with the most remote workers are already calling them back in.
Communication Difficulties
A study by Microsoft shows that 49% of managers find it difficult to trust their employee communication at home. Communication difficulty is one of the reasons behind that. For remote employees, a lack of regular physical encounters can lead to a sense of disconnection and lower employee engagement. Online communication channels like meet, zoom, email, web conferencing, etc. never satisfy the need for face-to-face interaction among employees.
Losing Work-Life Balance
Working remotely may also make it more difficult to strike the correct balance between work and personal life. Employees may work half the day and spend the other half with their families or having fun. Furthermore, despite having plenty of time left, they request leaves for a variety of reasons.
Remote Work Burnout
Nearly half of the employee’s report having burnout symptoms from working from home. The possible reason could be feeling lonely, unmotivated, anxious, depressed, etc. In an office set up, employees get to meet their coworkers. They have helping hands to support them through difficulties and get their motivation back
How to Make a Healthy Office Environment?
Despite the problems a company faces when employees work from home, many employees are not willing to get back to the office. Individuals prefer being freelancers rather than choosing to go to the office.
Creating a healthy office environment drags down employees. The shortcut to bringing employees back into the office happily is giving them a workplace that feels like home. Now, let me tell you how to create a healthy office environment.
- Showing appreciation is the first shortcut. Let your employees know that you acknowledge their good work on a regular basis. It can dramatically improve the performance of your employees regardless of where they work from.
- Take care of your employees’ mental health. Especially when they have tons of priority tasks to handle. Encourage mini breaks, entertainment sessions, and open discussions.
- You may promote a healthy work-life balance and foster a sense of community by rewarding employees for showing excellence and collaboration.
- Make sure you have well established communication channels for your employees to reach out to the management as needed.
Conclusion
Creating a healthy work environment is challenging when a company has most employees working from home. Thus, companies now want their employees back in the office to ensure maximum productivity. We recommend that you not switch remote employees directly to the office. Rather take a slow process.
Get them used to hybrid offices first, and then call them up for full-time work from the office.
