How Can Business Owners Provide a Telework Environment "From the Employee's Point of View"?

2020/6/24

Article illustration: Remote Work: Have You Prepared the Environment?

This time the topic is: how can you provide a comfortable telework environment for your employees?

After reading this, you'll be able to introduce and run telework in your company with low stress.

Now that the COVID state of emergency has been lifted, there are both cases where companies have returned to commuting and cases where they continue telework; this time I'll talk about "cases that continue telework."

Telework increased my stress...

There was an article (Business Insider Japan) saying about 60% of people felt their stress increased due to telework.

Some people found telework during the COVID self-restraint period raised productivity, while others experienced "increased stress"... Actually, in my case, with three years of telework experience, it was comfortable before COVID, and telework during the self-restraint period was stressful.

That's because telework during the self-restraint period was "forced home-confinement labor".

○○ is the key to stress-free telework

Within this roughly 60% "increased stress" there are probably all kinds of stress, but simply put, "the home isn't set up as an environment for telework" is probably one of them.

And an environment where telework goes well is probably something like:

Infrastructure (a comfortable PC, Wi-Fi, partitions creating a private space where you can concentrate on work)
Family understanding
Management based on trust in people's good nature
Care as needed for employees who want communication (setting up time for online interaction, etc.)

Among these, the most important is probably the "infrastructure," which is the lifeline for being able to telework properly.

Even so, home isn't the office...

After all, when the digital equipment is shabby, you can't get motivated.

People who have teleworked for a long time tend to overlook it, but there are plenty of people who actually have no PC or no Wi-Fi at home.

Securing a private space where you can concentrate on work is often difficult too.

Now that the self-restraint has been lifted, you can use coworking spaces or hotel day-use.

For this infrastructure, the company really should cover it as a necessary expense.

Steer fully toward telework and you can cut costs

On the other hand, it's not unusual for companies that succeed at telework to cancel or downsize their offices and cut commuting costs.

When you weigh office maintenance and commuting costs against running telework, switching to telework achieves significant cost cuts.

If you rethink going to the office, cut costs, and then pay employees a telework allowance, satisfaction may actually rise.