Skipping on travel costs and time, spending breaks talking to your loved ones, working at your own pace away from overly-regulted work environments, living away from the city life at a destination of your choice—the remote work impact has considerably soothed the wounds of hustle culture that used to tower over everything else . While many employees seem determined to work from home, research into remote work trends by Gallup has indicated that only 28 percent of remote employees feel a connection to their organization’s mission and purpose, much lower than the 33 percent of on-site workers and 35 percent of remote workers. The employee disengagement poll confirms the fears that many business owners have long held to be true—that remote work is not good for business.
Is the Remote Work Impact Really That Significant?
In addition to the employee disengagement statistics, McKinsey’s research has indicated that disengagement and any resulting attrition could cost a median-size S&P 500 company between $228-$355 million a year in lost productivity. The numbers are staggering. When paired with other worrying stats such as another Gallup report that states that 51 percent of global employees are actively looking for another job, it is clear why companies want their employees in the office where they can keep their eye on them.
Zoom, a company whose remote work impacted every other industry, has also given in to the fears of an employee engagement decline and has asked workers within 50 miles of an office building to work in person at least twice a week. Tech companies that are best able to keep work going through the online mode are leading the shift back to in-person work.
Taking a look at remote work trends, Unispace found that globally 72 percent of employees have mandated a return to in-person work but 42 percent of them witnessed unusually high attrition and 29 percent found recruiting to be increasingly difficult. Many are left uncertain of how to address the remote work impact without further contributing to the employee engagement decline.
Employee Disengagement Statistics: What Do the Numbers Mean?
The remote work trends we are seeing are understandably distressing but companies need to better understand the work-from-home challenges and reasons behind the numbers. Unispace found that 59 percent of the workforce stated that their excessive workloads were causing burnout. Despite having spent a few years exploring this online system, companies have not determined the right way to establish a work-life balance, and this is likely a major cause for the employee engagement decline.
Employee surveillance tactics also cause distress for 59 percent of employees, according to a study commissioned by ExpressVPN. 41 percent of employees felt they were constantly being watched and 36 percent felt pressured to work longer hours. An alarming 20 percent of employees felt dehumanized by the surveillance. With stressors such as this being factored into the remote work impact, the work-from-home challenges that occur because of the company’s work ethic might be causing the decline in employee engagement.
How to React to the Employee Disengagement Statistics?
Mercer reported the lack of a remote or hybrid model was a deal breaker for more than 50 percent of U.S. employees. Similarly, three-quarters of the respondents in a Deloitte survey would consider leaving their jobs if their remote or hybrid roles were switched to full-time on-site work. Whether companies like it or not, they will be forced to maintain remote work opportunities, and their time might be better spent on determining how they plan to make it work.
Increase Communication
If the remote work trends are to be trusted, one of the reasons why companies want to end remote opportunities is due to the ease of communication and conflict resolution they find in person. While that might be true, it might be necessary to begin by expanding on communication avenues in the online world as well. Promoleaf’s survey indicated that 58 percent of employees felt their contributions were less visible when working remotely. Communicating feedback and staying in touch with employees is a good way to address the employee engagement decline. Better onboarding and investing in knowledge-sharing mechanisms are additional steps toward this goal.
Address Social Isolation
In another consideration of the work-from-home challenges, the Promoleaf study found that 47 percent of remote employees missed the informal social interactions that a common workspace allowed them. Tackling social isolation might be beneficial to increasing employee engagement, and could also make employees more willing to agree to hybrid models.
Be Transparent
Employees appreciate being treated like adults rather than being told what to do. These workers might be more receptive to listening to the reasoning that companies present rather than being given an ultimatum to come to the office or lose their jobs. Communicate the ways in which the companies feel they will benefit by moving to an in-person setup, and see if that can be achieved by remote or hybrid models first.
Allow Flexibility
One of the main reasons why the remote work impact has been so significant is that workers have enjoyed the flexibility of working from home. This is seen in multiple ways. From being allowed to live away from the city to having more time for childcare, remote work has allowed a lot of conveniences that working in person does not support. By acknowledging this and providing alternatives to workers, companies might be able to work from home challenges as well as the employee engagement decline simultaneously, finding a healthy compromise for everyone.
The Gallup employee disengagement poll also gave additional data on remote work trends—effective management of this remote work setup involves at least one 15-30 minute conversation with employees every week, with a focus on recognition, connection, and feedback. Armed with such knowledge, companies need to talk to their employees more, especially if they are interested in employee engagement decline as more than a financial cause for concern. Honest conversations are necessary for employers and employees to discuss what they can do for each other.
The sudden shift to remote work was once unprecedented, however, with time, the remote work impact will stabilize in the post-pandemic world. It is up to companies to listen carefully and decide how to respond next.