With the working from home (WFH) debate not slowing down, our Founding Director, Naomi Wilson, joined Trevor Chappell on ABC Overnights to discuss why a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t necessarily work, especially for small businesses.
Here are some key insights from Naomi’s interview:
✅ The forced move to WFH challenged old assumptions: Before COVID, many employers believed strong workplace culture relied upon everyone being in the office. Scepticism was also rife about whether employees would genuinely be productive when working from home. The pandemic proved remote workers could be both productive and connected. Despite the emergence of keyboard and mouse activity tracking software, we saw an increase in trust from employers that employees could do their jobs well in the home environment.
✅ Small businesses need flexibility: Unlike large corporations with blanket policies, smaller businesses can tailor their approach based on individual roles, business needs, and employee circumstances. As with all things, a common-sense approach is called for here. Positions should be assessed on their own merit as to the viability of working from home.
✅ Consideration also needs to be given to the individual: Are they a trusted performer? Do they have the right attitude and personality to be able to work effectively from home? (Some of us love collaboration way too much to be happy in isolation!) And do they have enough skill and knowledge in their role to meet their responsibilities in a much more autonomous environment?
Sometimes, the reasons why someone wants to WFH can also be the reasons why they shouldn’t—from the employer’s perspective. For example, someone with carer duties intending to blend the two together would need a super-human ability to be disciplined about when to work and when to care. Multitasking does not work (no, not even for females). Studies have shown that when people do two cognitive tasks at once, their cognitive capacity can drop from that of a Harvard MBA to that of an eight-year-old. That means someone trying to juggle generating complex financial reports while facing ‘Dad, I’m hungry’ interruptions is operating at the level of a grade three primary student.
When we are interrupted from deep work, it takes, on average, 22 minutes to get back to the same level of focus we had previously—crazy, right? So our level of efficiency also drops incredibly in these situations.
✅ Employer liability is a growing concern: A recent workers’ compensation case saw an employer held responsible after an employee working from home tripped over a temporary pet fence, which was in place to protect her pet rabbit from the puppy she was pet-sitting for a work colleague. Cases like these raise serious questions about duty of care and risk management in home offices.
✅ Workplace connection still matters: While WFH can boost productivity, human connection is vital. At Focus HR, our flexibility means we need to take care to ensure we consciously orchestrate human connection time. We have a weekly ‘all-hands-on-deck’ day to bring the team together and maintain collaboration, culture, and mentorship.
The key message: working from home is not a one-size-fits-all issue. Businesses need to give careful thought to WFH arrangements. It requires good (yet flexible) processes and guidelines, but more importantly, it necessitates leaders who are skilled at developing trust with their people and having open and robust conversations.
To listen to this insightful discussion on the realities of remote work—for both employers and employees—visit Overnights – ABC listen and tune in from the 2hr 20m mark.