How can you Support Remote Workers In 2022

Supporting remote workers in 2022 has become of paramount importance with the urge for more people to work from home. Whilst companies have had to learn to be agile with regards to where their employees complete their assignments, it has created unique difficulties that many haven’t faced before. The same goes for companies too. Here is how to support remote workers in 2022 and beyond.

Get Human Resource Teams Up to Speed on Remote Working

Before the Human Resources team can provide support to remote workers, they need to first understand what’s involved. Sometimes, this can mean they should take turns in working remotely from home. This way, they learn first-hand about the difficulties in doing so, any stress it causes due to technology snafus, or disruption from other people at home.

It’s also beneficial when they’re trained up on how to see things from the remote workers’ perspective who have unique difficulties in delivering what’s expected. Policies need to reflect the reality of remote working, rather than simply match that of the office workers.

Perform a Risk Assessment on Their Equipment

A DSE assessment is designed to look at many aspects related to the equipment used at home to get work completed. Such assessments should include the monitor, keyboard, laptop, mouse, and typing position too. When a remote worker is forced to sit at the only available table or desk available and create a crude working environment, their physical health will undoubtedly suffer. Also, as the strain becomes too much, it will begin to affect their mental health too. A proper risk assessment for DSE by The H&S Dept will confirm how beneficial (or not) the home setup is for each remote employee. H & S Dept can also make recommendations about what to change or replace to create a safer setup.

Expand Communications

While managers and supervisors are used to having only a few meetings as a group with the occasional one-on-one with an employee, that approach doesn’t work as well in remote working situations. Remote workers are disconnected from the rest of the team, and they feel it too. So, they require a greater amount of time in communication to feel like part of the company.

Also, they will not be encouraged to voice concerns unless they are taken seriously. When the company and its HR team haven’t adapted to the needs of remote workers – as opposed to office-bound workers – then requests fall flat. Their urgency or validity isn’t appreciated. As a result, staff can feel unsupported and are likely to feel less loyal.

Document More Than Ever

Depending on the business, many jobs and individual tasks have little to no documentation for them. This includes printed instructions, instructive videos, or complete SOPs too. The expectation, particularly with smaller companies, is that the outgoing employee teaches the new one. This has previously bridged some of the documentation gaps. However, with remote working, that’s no longer sufficient. Companies must play rapid catch-up to have all processes and procedures properly documented. It is a time-consuming process, but yet it’s extremely necessary. Otherwise, anyone coming into a new role as a remote worker has too little guidance or instructions to work from.

Meet Every Month to Touch Base

Without meeting with staff members, it is easy to lose touch with them. Some remote workers may not have met their employer for some months. The ability to touch base is something that is often valued on both sides. There are things that people just don’t feel like sharing over a group Zoom call, especially if their partner is sitting in the background and can hear every word. Checking in with your team every now and again can improve employee morale, so make sure you keep all communication lines open.

Utilise the Cloud

The business needs to adopt a cloud-first policy for all work-related activities to support remote workers. Using the cloud in all things is necessary to avoid a situation where repeatedly, the remote worker comes unstuck because they have no access to what they require. At this point, people start requesting that they visit the office or wrestle with multiple emails, file downloads, and other inconveniences to work around company inadequacies. Companies serious about remote workers need a 100% switch to cloud services, at least for remote workers, to make it work. Otherwise, it’ll always feel like a nightmare.

Smooth Out Technology Issues

The technology behind remote working needs to work. Period. When there’s no virtual private network used, communications aren’t secure and remote workers become concerned. If they cannot access company files, productivity goes down too. And if their login doesn’t work reliably due to security headaches, they’re going to get a headache too! Assign a special team that is highly knowledgeable in all the tech needed and used by remote workers. This includes the hardware, software, servers, the cloud, and more.

Companies who work with or employ remote workers must accept that this is a different situation from what they knew before. The technology, tools, obstacles, and concerns of remote workers are different from office-bound employees. Rather than fight this reality, companies must embrace it when aiming to provide the support required by them. Nothing less will do.