Prioritizing Mental Health in a ‘Remote First’ Workplace
Every day, another major company takes the leap toward making remote work a permanent feature of the workplace. By embracing this trend, organizations have a great opportunity to not just increase employee productivity, but to improve emotional wellbeing, work-life balance and mental health among their workers.
It’s a win-win proposition for employees and employers. If it’s done the right way.
While remote work had certainly been growing before COVID-19, the pandemic dramatically accelerated this transformation of the workplace.
A range of companies – including Nationwide, Shopify, Pinterest and Dropbox – have already established “remote first” policies, meaning that remote work will be the default option for most employees. Others like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Deloitte, Capital One and State Farm now offer workers the option of working from home if their physical presence in the office is not essential.
One CEO aptly summed up the new workplace bottom line: “Office centricity is over.” It’s not hard to see why.
Recent research suggests that 30% of workers believe they are more productive and engaged when they work from home. Employers agree. In a Mercer survey of 800 employers, 94% reported that productivity was as high or higher for employees working remotely.
Why does remote work foster productivity? For one thing, it eliminates the stress and time dedicated to the daily grind of commuting to the office. A study by Upwork estimated that employees working from home during COVID-19 saved about 50 minutes every day.
People working remotely enjoy fewer workplace distractions, more time to spend with family, more opportunities to exercise and a better overall work-life balance. They can also save $4,000 per year or more on gas, parking, car maintenance, lunches and even clothing, as jeans and yoga pants replace khakis and suits in the workplace wardrobe.
No wonder people working from home are 22% more likely to say they are happy compared to people working full-time in the office. On the flip side, one in three Americans now say they would quit if their employers did not allow them to work remotely.
Giving employees greater flexibility and control over exactly where and how they work contributes to better mental health by reducing workplace stress and making the work environment more comfortable and personalized.
Accommodating employees through an individualized hybrid approach is key. This means also offering an in-office option for employees who prefer this style of work environment. A recent article in TIME argues that Gen Zers can actually benefit from the perks an office setting provides, including a stronger company culture, the option to socialize and network with coworkers, and the ability to find a mentor.
It’s also important to consider the potential downsides of remote work. At some companies, flexibility and remote work come with expectations that employees respond to work demands on a 24/7 basis. That’s clearly unsustainable.
Writing in the Harvard Business Review, three workplace experts recently proposed some guidelines for achieving “true flexibility” that benefits employers and employees alike. These include:
- Making flexibility available at some level to all employees, rather than treating it as a “scare or privileged resource” limited to one class of workers.
- Creating clear policies and expectations that everyone understands. This includes developing a written policy, communicating it clearly to all employees, and using clear metrics on the quality of work expected.
- Empowering employees to manage their own flexibility. This includes giving employees flexibility over where, when and how they work – with clear guidelines and accountability.
- Encouraging leaders to set the tone through their own work schedules and rewarding managers who implement flexibility policies most effectively with their teams.
These guidelines, along with the need for employers to work intentionally to foster a sense of a community among remote workers, and to maintain open channels of communication so that remote employees can also safely voice their opinions as they shift to a hybrid work environment are essential to any “remote first” strategy.
Even as remote work options increase, it’s more important than ever for employers to talk openly about mental health in a positive light, foster neurodiversity in the workplace and continuously measure progress over time.
Decades from now, the shift toward remote work could be one of the most enduring legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies that get it right could reap the benefits of higher productivity and happier, healthier employees.