Mutual trust, understanding and transparency between employers and employees will be key

Employers are in an increasingly difficult position given their lack of consistent access to their employees’ work activities while a large portion of staff are off-site. While once they may have been able to walk around their office and see their team actively typing an email, making a phone call or sitting in a conference room amongst colleagues, the remote workplace makes it difficult to feel confident that business is moving at its usual pace.

Yet according to many recent reports, employees have been more stressed and overworked than ever before, suggesting a misalignment between employees and business leaders that could be disastrous for morale and motivation over the long-term. Employers will need to learn to trust their employees to be responsible and productive, focusing on results and output over hours.

On the other hand, employees will need to acknowledge when they’re communicating with an employer, boss or even colleague whom they rarely communicate with given the shift to a remote or hybrid workplace, and ensure they’re presenting themselves in a way that makes the other confident about their home workspace, professional demeanor and/or ability to work productively. Employees will also need to be more vocal about their needs as they become more accountable for the quality and efficacy of their home workspace.

Employers will need to ask more questions and be even better listeners

There is a clear disconnect between the opinion of employers and those of employees. While recent reports indicate that staff feel unsupported by their employers as it relates to their remote workspace, employers are of the opinion that they’ve provided adequate support to their employees. Without the benefit of in-person interaction in many cases, it will be important that employers go out of their way to uncover problems and challenges that their employees are experiencing and finding solutions to help them.

Technology isn’t a luxury, it’s a business necessity

The importance of technology and how it contributes to productivity can’t be overstated. While many employers limited their investments in staff resources over the past year of remote work to providing laptops, there are significant gains employers will find from giving employees more resources that fuel productivity, such as additional monitors for multitasking and cross-referencing, video conferencing solutions to improve collaboration, docking stations that allow for simple desk sharing and even ergonomic furniture that reduces discomfort for employees while at home. In the long-run, investments in technology are likely to create the foundation for a productive, remote workforce, so long as employers are willing to look to the future.