company culture – Talent500 Blog

3 key sources of remote work stress and what companies can do to combat them

Posted on April 12, 2022 by mahidhar

Remote working has certainly changed the way we work. There’s no going back. And there shouldn’t be. There is enough evidence that not only suggests that this is a way of work that increases an organization’s output, it’s what employees seem to want. And with the high rate of turnover that companies are experiencing, it might be in their best interest to keep employees happy and productive. According to this article, just prior to the pandemic, 3.5 million people were leaving their jobs monthly, which dropped to 1.9 million in April 2020. The number for December 2020 was 3.3 million, which shows there was a substantial return of voluntary turnover.

When it comes to remote working, there has been an upward trend in the number of organizations going remote. 62% of employed US adults work part or full time from the confines of their home. According to this study, 25% of all professional jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022, and remote opportunities will continue to increase through 2023. Given that 23% of those surveyed in a recent study would take a 10% pay cut to work from home permanently, the challenge for organizations now is how to make remote work efficient.

A new report found that 40% of employees who practice remote working are experiencing high levels of stress, compared to 25% among those always working at the office. Additionally, burnout is at an all time high with more than or 69% of employees experiencing burnout symptoms while working from home, and this influx is impacting both business productivity as well as the overall health of the workforce.

Key causes of stress and what companies can do to minimize it.

1. The pressure to be ‘always on’

With how deeply technology has permeated throughout lives, blurring the line between the professional and personal aspects of employees, it becomes very hard to cut off. In the traditional office setting, despite its disadvantages, it did make room for employees to take time out through the day, and put work aside, mentally too. Coffee and lunch breaks, water-cooler chats and the like made it possible for employees to mentally switch off for a few minutes, so that they could come back to the desk feeling a little refreshed.

On average, employees have reported working three more hours per day since working remotely due to Covid-19. That 15 additional hours per week! The physical differentiator previously was a separate home and office environment – but with home becoming the office for many, it’s hard to establish these boundaries.

Companies should invest time during the onboarding process or soon after to sensitize employees to the need for having clear work schedules. When managers are able to outline basic communication and collaboration processes, and how the day-to-day routine might look, it gives employees more clarity on how they can prepare for their work, and more importantly when and how they can switch off. Another key aspect for managers is to lead by example. Encourage employees to work at home, as they would in the office.

2. Feeling the lack of support

Remote working could get lonely. In a study conducted more than a decade before the pandemic (about remote work among journalists), they found that full-time telework increased loneliness over office work by 67%. Data from the 2020 State of Remote Work report issued by Buffer showed that loneliness is the biggest struggle remote workers say they face, tied with problems of collaboration and communication.

Given that employees were already in lockdown, many of them away from family and loved ones, the pandemic was an especially difficult time in terms of employees feeling connected and supported. It wasn’t so easy to just walk over to a coworkers desk and have a quick chat. People felt isolated.

Amp up communication in the workplace. This is the number one rule for remote working to be seamless and productive. Organizations need to not only communicate to employees about changes and plans that the organization itself has but to make this more personal. Managers need to break down the barriers of hierarchies, and put in the effort to build a rapport and meaningful relationship with each employee. Clearly outlining the channels of communication will also make it easier for an employee to take the initiative and engage in conversations. And it doesn’t always need to be about work. Bonding activities strengthen the connection between team members and go a long way in making employees feel supported and valued.

3. Personal distractions

Let’s not forget that at the end of the day, many employees practicing remote working are doing so from their homes. Many employees may have responsibilities like taking care of elderly parents, taking care of the children, many are single parents, many may be battling mental health issues. It’s close to impossible to having a mindset of “leave your personal baggage at the office door” anymore. It should never have been the case in the first place. Nevertheless, an employee may struggle to manage their home and work expectations, now that the line is blurred.

What organizations can do? Encourage employees to bring their whole selves to the workplace. Acknowledge that we are all humans with good days and bad, but that with a little guidance and support, we can work through issues together. Today, more companies are seeing the value in providing employees with mental health programs and initiatives. About 53% of 256 employers surveyed by the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions reported providing special emotional and mental health programs for their workforce because of the pandemic. They are understanding that for an employee to function at their best, they need to be feeling their best.

For more information on how you can build and manage a truly global workforce, schedule a consultation with our team of experts right away.

Together, we win: 6 ideas for building culture in remote teams

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by satya

Did you know that “loneliness” and “difficulty in collaboration and communication” are two of the biggest struggles faced by remote workers? Often, the lack of human interaction leads to remote workers feeling isolated and disengaged, eventually affecting their mental health and productivity.

The solution? A robust and inclusive remote company culture. Your company culture directly impacts the enthusiasm of your workforce, and how much of their time and energy they are willing to invest in your company. Not just that, there is now a proven link between healthy company culture and employee productivity. According to a study conducted by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, happy workers are 13% more productive than their unhappy counterparts.

In co-located settings, company culture often stems from various naturally occurring triggers built upon how team members treat one another, and what is the accepted code of conduct. On the other hand, in the absence of these natural triggers, remote companies often struggle with the following challenges when it comes to building culture:

The water cooler effect

The ‘watercooler effect’ is defined as “a phenomenon occurring when employees at a workplace gather around the office water cooler and chat.” In a physical office, casual conversations and non-work banter build trust amongst employees, in effect strengthening company culture. However, in the absence of these regular conversations and social interaction, remote workers often find themselves distanced and disconnected from their team members.

Cultural differences

In colocated offices, a large part of the workforce shares a common culture. Festivals and holidays become a natural point of convergence, adding to the team’s sense of oneness and camaraderie. On the other hand, members of a distributed team hail from different cultural backgrounds and celebrate different festivals, and thus have to work harder to find common ground.

Lack of trust and empathy

Non-verbal cues like facial expression, body language, gestures, and eye contact play a huge role in any kind of communication. When a person’s nonverbal signals match with their words, it increases trust, clarity, and empathy. Team members feel connected to each other, viewing fellow colleagues as people instead of merely names on a screen. One of the biggest factors for disengagement within remote teams is the lack of trust within team members.

For distributed teams, culture must be built intentionally, and strengthened continuously. Here are some steps that every remote organisation can take to build and strengthen their work culture:

Re-emphasize core values

Ensure that the company’s core values are clearly articulated, and reiterated at regular intervals. We recommend ensuring that your company’s website clearly reflects your vision and mission statement and your core values. Remember, simply adding that you’re an equal opportunity employer in your company’s values is not enough. The same must be reflected in the composition of your workforce.

Get buy-in from the leadership

One of the best ways to earn credibility in this area is to get participation from your company’s leadership. Here’s an example: back in May 2020, when most companies were struggling with the transition to remote work, Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, sent a company-wide email telling his employees that they had the option to continue working remotely forever. This endorsement by the CEO played a huge role in helping Twitter’s employees feel safe and valued as they chose to continue working remotely. Today, we know that company culture remains an empty phrase unless it is reflected in the actions of the company’s leadership.

Create open channels of communication at all levels

In physical workplaces, interaction amongst team members is often decided by physical proximity of their cubicles. However, in a remote setting, every employee is simply a message away, whether it’s your immediate manager or the company’s CEO. Remote companies must use this advantage to form better relationships between employees that are not restricted by organisational hierarchies.

Set clear availability expectations

In a remote team, it’s easy for people to feel like they need to respond to requests immediately to show that they are staying actively engaged. However, this also leads to the problem of constant presenteeism followed by burnout. Companies need to set clear expectations with respect to time and channels of communication. Slack, email, video calls – clearly demarcate your policy with respect to synchronous and asynchronous communication. Clearly defined expectations ensure that all employees are on the same page.

Invest in your onboarding process

69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding. As a remote company, your onboarding process is your best chance to create a positive lasting impression on new employees. We recommend investing into weekly and monthly check-ins, a thoughtful welcome kit, and a company handbook with all the relevant information an employee needs to get started.

Set up a virtual water cooler (or banter channel)

Much like an actual water-cooler, where colleagues indulge in non-work banter and socialising, a virtual water cooler enables the same for distributed teams. A dedicated slack channel, a virtual game room or even an email thread – the idea is to help your workforce bond over shared interests and non-work conversations. From Gatheraround to Donut, there exist hundreds of tools to help strengthen the connection between members of distributed teams.

Remote teams work because they refuse to let barriers like physical location and time zones act as hurdles. The same also holds true for building company culture.

As a remote first organisation, we know at Talent500 that there is no fixed secret-sauce for building the perfect remote culture. As leaders begin to understand and prioritise the needs of their distributed workforce, a healthy and nurturing company culture is the natural result.

8 ways to boost employee engagement levels to new heights

Posted on January 25, 2022January 25, 2022 by surya

There is no doubt that employee engagement is critical to employee satisfaction and retention. To put this in numbers, companies that can successfully engage their employees increase their chances of retention by 87% as per studies. A happy and satisfied workforce is motivated to churn out their best, perform optimally and maintain better overall productivity, ultimately adding to company coffers.

Unfortunately, the pandemic and its restrictions have made employee engagement an uphill battle for HR departments. With little to no personal interaction and a taxing transition to the remote work environment, many companies now face a significant change in culture. While this has received positive feedback, it has led to low employee engagement in many cases. Addressing this problem is critical, and there are many tactics you can undertake.

Here is a mixed bag of long-term strategies and quick fixes you can implement to boost your company’s employee engagement.

Optimize processes to increase efficiency at work

Prior to the pandemic, a OnePoll survey found that 26% of an employee’s time in a working day is wasted doing unnecessary chores. These tasks included working with outdated processes and technology or attending unnecessary meetings that offered little to no value. The impact of such inefficiency worsened in a remote working environment. The Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report in 2020 found that engagement dropped to 20% last year. Naturally, it is safe to assume that this did no favors for an employee’s overall daily performance.

Replacing inefficient practices with optimized and time-saving ones can improve an employee’s work quality, thereby boosting morale. For instance, having an effective document management process in place can ensure that employees have one less thing to worry about, making work manageable. According to the same report, work-induced stress was also at a high, with worry amounting to 41% of the problem. Instituting provisions that minimize instances of stress and worry is sure to increase efficiency, and engagement as well.

Create open communication channels and prioritize feedback

Communication is another aspect of an employee’s workday that normally requires optimization. This not only includes HR-employee communication but also communication among colleagues. Effective comms ensure employees can complete daily tasks without any hitches. Streamlining modes of communication can further help streamline workflow, as well as the chain of command.

With more companies embracing remote or hybrid working styles, it is now essential to have desktop-less communication channels. This will help ensure:

Easy accessibility and availability of all persons involved with a given project.
Reduce friction caused by the lack of physical presence, usually known to restrict workflow.

Employees want feedback, as this helps them feel acknowledged. It simultaneously improves employee engagement as there are no gaps in the communication. Enhancing communication between management and employees seems the obvious first step in this regard. Other smart options include:

Asking managers and team leaders to schedule frequent check-ins and review sessions with their teams.
Providing additional training to ensure that a blanket-style approach isn’t employed to every employee’s need or problem.
Creating an environment that encourages open and honest conversation between employees and management.
Encouraging managers to deploy every possible communication channel to give and receive feedback.

Review and polish your onboarding process

Well begun is half done, and this applies to your company’s onboarding process as well. This is a pivotal moment where the new joinee gets a first-hand experience of the company’s culture, atmosphere, and fellow employees. If done right, it can set the correct tone for a new employee, helping them envision their career growth and personal development. So, your onboarding should lay the foundation of a working relationship that is engaging and inclusive.

A critical aspect of the onboarding experience is the office intranet. It helps new employees to know and understand your business, the processes to be followed, fellow employees, and company culture. Moreover, adding a personal space like ‘My Profile’ provides a digital space for employees to express themselves, building camaraderie. All of this guarantees a simple, effective, and seamless onboarding experience, ensuring employee engagement from the start.

Provide working flexibility to employees

Employees expect their companies to help them achieve the elusive and much-needed work-life balance. They expect employers to be empathetic enough to help them meet their personal commitments. Work-from-home flexibility and remote opportunities were proven tools that guaranteed satisfaction, and to an extent increased employee engagement. But with the pandemic and the recent shift to digital working conditions, additions must be made.

For instance, allowing your employees to choose their work timings is a good start. This shows that you care about them and their personal lives and are invested in their well-being. Optimize your processes and workflow in a manner that allows your employees freedom in choosing their timings. Showing empathy on your part will significantly boost engagement and overall productivity.

Recognize, appreciate, and reward employee efforts

When employees feel acknowledged, valued and rewarded, they are motivated to do better. However, this should not be the sole purpose of recognizing and appreciating employee efforts. Ensure that you do so solely for the quality of work and effort, highlighting their value to the company. Seeing colleagues being motivated and rewarded for their work and efforts will also boost the morale of the entire workforce. It will inspire them to work harder, ultimately improving employee engagement.

Invest in upskilling your workforce

Investing in your workforce is synonymous with investing in your business. Providing employees with opportunities, training, and education to upskill tells employees that you see potential and are ready to invest in them. Not doing so can not only harm productivity, but also affect retention and employee engagement. Helping your employees improve in the very aspects they are lacking inspires confidence, improving engagement.

Promote shared company culture and core values

Take efforts to promote a consistent culture and core values throughout the company. This ensures that every employee shares, and is part of a common culture that drives them at work. While it helps improve employee interaction and engagement, it also helps align employee goals to company purpose. A transparent and shared company culture results in a highly productive and fun working environment. Moreover, it fosters a bond of trust between managers and employees.

Undertake actionable employment satisfaction and engagement surveys

A successful employee engagement strategy is incomplete without taking honest feedback and reviews. A transparent and collaborative approach can help you build a lasting and effective engagement program. To this effect, undertake regular feedback in the form of polls, surveys, and interviews. This makes the employee a stakeholder in the betterment of the workforce, providing you with actionable data about your engagement program.

Money is not the only reason employees leave companies. Employees today want a job that caters to their well-being while treating them with respect and in an inclusive manner. A well thought-out and employee-centric engagement program can help you create a brand that attracts new talent and retains the current workforce.

As per a survey, a point increase in employee satisfaction transcends to a 1.3-point increase in customer satisfaction. So, it is in your company’s best interest to prioritize employee well-being to ensure customer happiness.

At Talent500, we help you build employee engagement solutions that feature a streamlined onboarding process, and access tools that optimize engagement. With our best-in-class benefits, managing a remote team becomes easy with us as your EOR. We leverage a host of community activities, learning and development initiatives, and many more methods to help bolster employee engagement. To know how we can help you achieve this goal, book a consultation online.

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