Contrary to what 2020 will have you believe, remote work isn’t nearly as recent of a concept as many think. It’s been here for a while and has grown by a whopping 400% over the past decade.
Internet and cloud technology has empowered employees to turn any place into their workplace. It offers data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software through the internet. This means that you could be sitting on your couch and working on your personal laptop, and your projects will be synced with your office computer in real-time.
It sounds pretty neat, but it comes with its own complications. And with more and more people working from home, it’s important for employers to take into consideration the different challenges that employees working remotely often face.
The solution to these problems is best offered as part of an employee benefits package, or “perks”. Perks play a significant role in boosting performance and morale. These are directly linked to overall employee satisfaction and retention. As per a recent survey, 78% of employees reported they’re more likely to stay with an employer because of their benefits program. Not just that 80% prefer additional perks to a handsome pay raise.
They also go a long way towards showing your employees that you care for their security, personal growth, and well-being beyond their work.
So what might these benefits be? We’ve got that covered for you.
Insurance Plan
Currently, only 34% of people in India have any kind of health insurance.
Medical bills are some of the most frightening expenses that anyone has to bear. The thought of not being able to afford appropriate healthcare for yourself or your loved ones in case of an emergency is an understandable fear to have. No person can work at their best, or have a truly healthy lifestyle if they’re carrying this stress everywhere.
Thankfully, as employers, you can offer some relief to your employees. They can opt for medical intervention when required without having to worry about finances. It’s especially important now that we’re face-to-face with a global pandemic.
It would be great to offer some level of financial security during an unprecedented time like this. Rest assured, your employees will not take it for granted. In fact, by providing health insurance, you’re demonstrating concern for your team members’ physical and mental well-being. This sets a huge culture precedent for your company.
While health insurance is cited as the most important employer-sponsored benefit, you can also look into life insurance and disability insurance for your employees.
Retirement plan and Financial Wellness Programs
According to a Charles Schwab survey, saving up for retirement is a top source of stress for 44% of employees.
There are two big reasons why employees worry about their retirement. Firstly, job security isn’t what it used to be. Secondly, and this is the big one: private companies don’t provide pensions.
One thing you could do to help is open up a Provident Fund (PF) account for them, wherein, a sum of money is deducted from an employee’s salary and put towards a separate fund. The employer also contributes to this. And when the employee leaves the organization, they get the money saved in that fund. Most employees are open to this system – since they’re willing to incur short-term deduction to ensure long term security.
Along with a PF, you should also offer financial wellness programs to your employees. This includes financial counseling, wherein, you educate them on tax saving schemes, managing their incomes, and where to invest their money. Ultimately, this helps employees develop a better understanding of their finances and investment options. Plus, any person with a stable and secure financial plan is likely to perform better, which is a win for your company, too!
Learning Opportunities
For most people, having ample opportunities to learn and grow in their workplace is an important factor while applying for a job. Think of it this way: why would an employee feel like working at your company if they aren’t learning anything new from it? We’ve all heard the phrase “dead-end job” before, and as an employer, you need to make sure that none of your employees feel like they’re in one of them.
For example, Pixar has a great track-record for fostering a culture of creativity through Pixar University which is a collection of in-house courses that they offer to employees. “Pixar University helps reinforce the mind-set that we’re all learning and it’s fun to learn together,” explains Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar and president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, “It is responsible for training and cross-training people as they develop in their careers. But it also offers an array of optional classes—many of which I’ve taken—that give people from different disciplines the opportunity to mix and appreciate what everyone does. Some (screenplay writing, drawing, and sculpting) are directly related to our business; some (Pilates and yoga) are not.
Pixar also encourages their technical artists to “publish their research and participate in industry conferences”.
“Publishing may give away ideas, but it keeps us connected with the academic community,” says Catmull,”This connection is worth far more than any ideas we may have revealed: It helps us attract exceptional talent and reinforces the belief throughout the company that people are more important than ideas.
While a lot of in-office workers may get a chance to attend various seminars and workshops in an instructor-led, classroom environment, your remote workers might not get the same opportunity. You can create learning opportunities by signing them up for online training programs, webinars, certificate courses to help them skill up.
WFH Enablers
Based on a Gensler study about workplace focus and productivity, the most significant factor in determining an employee’s ability to focus on work is their physical environment. This is of paramount importance to employees working remotely due to the sheer number of external variables involved. If you’ve ever had to work while your dog is asking for food for the fifth time, you know what I’m talking about.
The other major hindrance is the lack of specialized equipment that may exist in the office but is not available to a remote worker. This includes laptops that run on a certain operating system or subscriptions to software like Illustrator or Indesign that are prohibitively expensive to purchase for one person.
Employees also need to invest in ergonomic workspaces when working from home, which means they’d need infrastructure help like chairs, tables, and high-speed modems among other things. For example, the popular eCommerce company Shopify announced in March that they will be giving $1000 to their newly remote workforce to help with a home-office setup. Indeed also decided to reimburse (up to $500) their employees for their furniture needs including standing desks, lighting, and chairs.
You can also cover part of an employee’s internet or mobile bills. Chegg, a California-based education technology company, takes care of their employees’ internet expenses, while also compensating them with $500 for workspace furnishings.
If you can help your employees with any of these, then you’re already on the right track.
Mini-vacations & Informal Get-togethers
An unhealthy work-life balance will make employees stressed, demotivated, and unhappy with their job. Everyone needs a stress buster at some point, a small vacation sponsored by an employer would definitely go a long way. If not a vacation outright, you can reimburse a sum of money for their trip.
An alternative is to have a set number of vacation days that they are allowed to use up, which can accumulate over the course of the year. This allows for a lot more freedom, and they can choose to take them all at once, or for a few days at a time when they really need it.
There’s a common misconception that employees working from home are already on vacation. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Lines between work and home often get completely blurred, and more often than not, an employee may end up resenting their own home space because they only associate it with work.
Taking time off gives them an opportunity to step away from the screen and spend quality time with their friends/family and tend to necessary personal errands. They might pick up a hobby, or do something else they love without stressing about workplace responsibilities. They return to work with a refreshed mind, happy, and better prepared to handle tasks at hand. For example, a few months ago, Google announced a company-wide paid holiday on Friday to prevent burnout and ensure the “collective wellbeing” of its employees during the pandemic.
Another crucial practice to help employees release their stress is by creating room for informal interactions at work. While office goers have the opportunity to celebrate birthdays or individual achievements together, remote workers don’t have this opportunity. This, as a result, can often lead to disconnection among the remote employees and can create a sense of isolation.
To help them feel more involved in the team, you can schedule surprise birthday video calls, send them a token of appreciation on special occasions, and schedule weekly catch-up calls. This also helps new employees feel more connected and valued by the company, resulting in a happy workforce.
Home services
Apart from the usual work-related deadlines, employees working remotely also have to manage household chores like laundry, cleaning, maintenance, grocery shopping, and a number of other often overlooked tasks. There’s actually a way in which you can help with that, and it’s something that most people didn’t even know they needed.
There are new user-friendly applications that are meant to cater to regular household tasks. You can register your employees to platforms that provide services like home delivery of essential supplies, a helper to do the laundry, or a plumber to fix a leakage at home. In this way, home services will allow the employees to remain committed to their work during the working hours, and also enables them to find time for themselves and their families.
In The End
The remote working populace is one that is often overlooked. It takes a lot of willpower and effort to get things done amid the endless distraction of household chores, and/or child care.
When an employer goes out of their way to acknowledge these issues and takes steps to help with them, it shows that you care about them beyond their work.
To kickstart the planning process, conduct a quick survey of all your remote workers. Make a list of their most common pressure points, and find ways to eliminate them.
We’ve listed just a few of the hundreds of ways in which you can make your remote employees’ lives easier. Find out what works best for both you and them, and the results will speak for themselves.
