Remote working: how to manage performance and reward your people

Almost half of UK workers spend at least some of their time working from home, figures from the Office for National Statistics in April revealed. This rapid shift to homeworking meant that businesses and their employees had to adapt to new ways of working almost overnight – something that presents a unique set of challenges for both sides.

For employees, adjusting to a new environment that’s not necessarily ideal for desk-based work could be stressful, especially when home and work life overlap. Keeping fit may not be possible in the same ways as before. Both of these areas have an impact on overall health and mental wellbeing – and consequently, as found in Britain’s Healthiest Workplace 2019, on engagement and productivity at work.

For employers, the physical distance has made maintaining pre-COVID engagement levels more difficult. A recent survey of 300 employees by Unipos showed that 31% of employees don’t feel supported by their employer while working from home, and the main areas of concern were around communication, collaboration and isolation.

Creating a long-lasting flexible infrastructure

There will be advantages for those who can act quickly to adapt to the changing circumstances, but it’s important to remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Find out your employees’ needs and consider a range of solutions that best cater to them. Despite the uncertainty, this is an opportunity to create a long-lasting, flexible infrastructure to keep your employees healthy, engaged and thriving, no matter their location.

First, be sure to promote your existing benefits. Often, employees aren’t fully aware of what’s already available and there may be certain provisions in place that your people aren’t utilising. Regular but meaningful communication helps foster a sense of unity, while employee education-type sessions ensure everyone knows what benefits are at their disposal. Being informed can help people feel part of something, especially while working separately.

We know that good overall health and wellbeing are fundamental to employees’ level of engagement and productivity. Culturally, if an employer is seen to be promoting, sharing, supporting and actively engaging wellness activities, employees are far more likely to get involved – and these programmes are proven to be most successful when the whole employee population takes part.

Incentivising health and wellbeing

Our data shows that one of the most effective ways to get people to take part in healthy activity is by incentivising it, rather than just suggesting it. Rewards for healthy behaviour can help inspire long-term lifestyle changes. They could be anything from shopping and lifestyle vouchers, to discounts and physical prizes – and variety is key, so there’s something to appeal to everyone.

Different things work for different people. There’ll be those who are less mobile, or who are more vulnerable or shielding, as well as those who are usually highly active. Look for – or even create from scratch – reward programmes that include all types of activity possible in and out of the home, rather than just steps or gym workouts.

Heart-rate tracking is a great way to do this as your employees will be able to earn rewards anytime they raise their heart-rate to a prescribed level for a sustained period of time – like with a YouTube workout or similar. You could think about providing free or discounted membership to exercise apps, which are growing rapidly in popularity and reward other types of wellness activity, like mindfulness sessions through mental health focused apps. You might also look to include access to things like smoking cessation and weight loss support for those needing help in these areas.

Building a sense of community

A sense of community is more important now than ever and building relations within your employee population will only help to make your wellness initiatives more successful. Supporting group activities can include activities such as virtual wellness weeks, step challenges and workshops on how to stay healthy at home.

Enacting any of these ideas should have a positive return on productivity as a whole, but in terms of performance, there are more specific things you can do to adapt. There’s the obvious – like shifting regular catch-ups (team meetings and one-to-ones) to a virtual space to maintain lines of communication. Flexible working was already on the increase but is even more key now, especially for those with childcare responsibilities during usual working hours. If you don’t already do so, offering free childcare through local schemes, or even e-learning hubs for children is another way to support these employees. Your employees will feel more in control of their time and can hopefully work more efficiently as a result.

You could also look to review your usual objective-setting process. Long-term goals could start to feel daunting and won’t necessarily get the best out of your people, so splitting them into more realistic short-term goals can help people pick up their performance quickly, as they feel more achievable across a shorter period of time. It’ll also allow you to be flexible and react quickly to change, which is especially important given the uncertainty of the current times.

The author is Pippa Andrews, director corporate, VitalityHealth.

This article is provided by VitalityHealth.