4 Minutes Read.
Yes, I know you are reading a lot these days, that how the employee productivity is increasing in Work from home setup, recently.
There are reports with concrete data facts since employee productivity is imagined to be something that can be calculated by using the values of total OUTPUT and total INPUT.
The thing is, that whatever we are hearing is from the perspective of the company. The Employee is frustrated, he wants to move out with all the health precautions, of course.
Hence, giving them Work from home, when they are unable to find any other reason to roam around, till June 2021, won’t help.
Sundar Pichai Bro, Alphabet is doing some good work, kudos. But I think your employees also want to feel assured that they are safe in the office as well. Places that can be controlled from social distancing are opening.
I am not saying that we should open the offices now, there needs to be few changes in the office arrangements as well, with more space and less occupancy, I think till October offices should be open for the employees.
This hope that soon they can go out and meet their friends and colleagues, would have given them enough strength to stay strong and held on.
Anyways, let’s see how Work from Home is not that great for the employees.
Work in Life
The biggest challenge for humans is to get back to their normal life, quarantine cannot be a new reality. *I hope.
Earlier, the issues of the professional life were in the office premises, and the home had a different vibe, but now the profession has entered into the bedroom of their employees.
The Office work is entangling with life now, yes employees are doing work at odd times, but I don’t know how many of us are doing it in the best of our spirits.
Either I want to play with my baby, or I want to do my work. Either I want to talk to my mother on crucial matters or work. Either I want to romance or work? The boundaries are getting blurred.
The sad thing is that this is happening at that time, when the employees are already trapped, in their heaven, home.
I know, being in heaven is something which we all idealize, but why did God give us legs to walk, run, sprint, jump, and dance.
If not anything, but a safer way for an employee to come to the office should be ready by September.
Security
The world is not just running on big corporate firms it runs on MSMEs too.
As per the official estimates, there are about 63.05 million micro industries, 0.33 million smalls, and about 5,000 medium enterprises in INDIA.
https://www.india-briefing.com/
Now, I am not saying that all of them are working on Video conferencing but I hope you got the point. Free video conferencing tools are like free proxies, and social media platforms are not very much safe.
In the competitive market like today’s, where the first-mover advantage is so crucial for the businesses, important meetings and ideas discussed on digital platforms are always less safe than face to face in front of the confidants.
Cybersecurity teams now have bigger headaches with an increase in the vulnerabilities in the network. Employees might be using a free Wi-Fi, or a home router with a weak password, or just their mobile network.
This poses a major threat to the digital infrastructure of the businesses.
Information is a very expensive thing not only for a person but for businesses as well.
A survey issued by the Barracuda Networks survey which includes responses from 1000 business decision-makers from the U.S, France, U.K., and Germany, revealed that 46% of the businesses have already faced a “cybersecurity Scare” since lockdown.
Also, 51% of the respondents feel that their businesses have faced increasing Phishing attacks with their workforce not properly trained in handling the remote working.
Under such imminent threats, 50% have allowed their employees to use their devices for the office work, and 40% have cut their Cybersecurity budgets to tackle COVID-19 crisis.
Bottom line? Double Trouble!
No Engagement
The corporate is focusing on individual efforts connected through digital infrastructure, people working in isolation in a world preaching wonders of Team Work.
A travel agent giant from China ‘Ctrip’ now under the umbrella of ‘trip.com’, planned to experiment with the help of the Stanford University Professor to evaluate the benefits of the Work from Home.
They saw some astounding results in calculating the employee productivity of the telecommuters with an increase in productivity and a decrease in attrition rate, the company also saved $2000 per employee from office rent.
But, still, after some time more than 50% of the telecommuters changed their mind towards the Work from Home, and 100% of the time they felt too much isolation.
Pseudo Collaboration and teamwork on digital infrastructure are like Social Media friendships. Too much content, too little compassion.
Voluntary Work from Home
It should be on the employee if he wants to come to the office or not. And, not only till this corona situation prevail but afterward too.
I am so productive, I will take the call in my car parked aside a beautiful cliff, and I will give my best in the crucial meetings, which needs me, or If I need them.
But, one morning If I wake up and feel like going to the office, it should be open for me with all the health safety infrastructure. In that case, I feel the organization can tap on the utmost potential of their employees, by giving them trust and freedom and equipping them with technology.
Flexible leaves
If we want to empower the employees in the long run, we can consider opting for a flexible leave management system. Where employees can decide on their own, that how can they assure the office deliverables while taking a much-needed break.
Leave approval workflow should be replaced by the Task Execution Planning process, through which an employee can structure, delegate, or postpone the assigned task to maintain the same level of excellence and quality deliverables.
Safe & Comfortable Office Environment
Rather than focusing on keeping the employees away for the foreseeable future, the businesses should focus on bringing their employees back to the offices in a safe and comfortable second home.
If being in home increases productivity, certainly creating a homely environment will yield good results.
Now, when the people are charged than ever before, to come out and give their best, I think the businesses should capitalize on these shared emotions in the humans, and experience another wave of higher productivity, a stable one this time, both for the employer and the employee.
I feel the focus should be on helping the employees in gaining back their mental equilibrium, which is disturbed by a long Quarantine time. And, in return, it would be the businesses that will gain the most out of it.
What do you think? Feel free to share the same.
All the Best.
~R
An Observer 