Working from home has a future

Working from home will be indispensable in the future, as is very clear from current employee surveys on the topic of 'working from home'. Employees want this form of work even after the coronavirus pandemic has been overcome. However, for most employees, physical meetings are still important.

The design of rooms

If employees can increasingly work from anywhere, they will no longer need a fixed workplace. The challenge for companies in the future will be to design (virtual) contact spaces in such a way that they offer real added value for employees. After all, contact with colleagues is necessary to do a good job. Personal interaction clearly promotes the success of projects.

Systematic and open dialog

In the virtual working world, the randomness of impulses - e.g. in a conversation in the cafeteria - practically comes to a standstill. There is a danger that teams will increasingly lose the feeling for each other. New employees also hardly have a chance to get to know the informal rules of conduct and culture of an organization. This entails the risk of employees becoming detached from the company.

Employee and pulse surveys

Maintaining relationships is also essential when working from home. Even the feeling of a lack of belonging depresses motivation and leads to less commitment. This requires companies to be willing to engage in genuine dialog. A professionally conducted employee survey establishes an open and systematic dialog with your company's employees. The idea of participative employee management is successfully put into practice, which has a positive effect on employee motivation and job satisfaction.

Pulse surveys enable managers to obtain rapid feedback from employees at a defined frequency - this can be weekly or monthly, as desired - e.g. on hot topics such as working from home.

Leadership as a challenge

Tight management often does not work and even hinders the workflow. Many managers became aware of this during the lockdown. However, the control vacuum has also created space for self-organization and initiative. Companies or managers who have been able to allow this have come through the crisis better so far.

In our next blog post, we will show how 360° feedback can help managers to meet (new) challenges.