Working from Home (WHF) has become a situation many of your employees will be finding themselves in. I say finding themselves in as this was not a choice but rather a situation foisted upon them.
But it is situation we are in for the foreseeable future. So what as an employer can you do to support your employees? There is lots of help and advice out there and our team of qualified HR Professionals would be happy to help you through this. Please call us on 0800 953 4020 or e-mail us info@lmcukservices.co.uk
Things you might want to consider:
Equipment
Ensure that your workforce have the proper equipment to carry out their role at home such as the right IT, laptops, printers etc. Ensure that your employees know where they can go to seek help with any IT issues.
Confidentiality will be paramount as your staff will have access to confidential information in their home and they will need to ensure that other household members do not have access to this. If you need a bit of help with this then we have a Data Protection Officer – info@lmcukservices.co.uk who can advise.
Also be prepared to discuss with staff their working arrangements and support them where necessary. Undertaking risk assessments at people’s homes may not be feasible so you might need to have an electronic questionnaire you can send.
Working Hours
You might need to have some flexibility with this. Staff with child care issues might have to take some time off during the day and maybe work in the evening. Some people might be working too many hours which needs to be managed. Of course some people might be finding it hard to be motivated and are working fewer hours. In the office environment staff have a far better idea of the work being carried out by colleagues but at home you are second guessing what everyone else is doing.
You need to ensure that your Managers are aware that different motivation techniques may need to be used with different staff.
Don’t Assume
Don’t assume that everyone is fine and enjoys working from home. Everyone has their own worries and different levels of resilience at present. Ensure that you have informed your Managers to be aware when things might not be going well. Look out for signs- working long hours, change in behaviours, having cameras switched off in meetings (although that could be to hide last night’s dirty dishes!)
Communicate and listen to your staff. Work out the best ways of keeping in touch.
Remember the Fun Times?
As we are no longer in the office at the moment, face to face social interaction has disappeared, the quick chats whist making a coffee, catching up on what you watched on TV last night.
It is important to keep your teams motivated. There are lots of ideas around such as zoom coffee breaks, challenging team members to do so many steps a day etc.
Unfortunately there are also the more serious areas such as maybe having to support an employee with bereavement. And there will be the usual employee issues that will have to be dealt with such as disciplinary and grievance issues. And of course the increase in redundancies in the current climate.
We can help you with all of this. If you would like to find out how we can support you please ring us on 0800 953 4020 or e-mail us info@lmcukservices.co.uk.