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Researchers found that remote work can enhance employee's feelings of autonomy
and empowerment which in turn can lead to higher levels of employee satisfaction and performance.
However, there is also some evidence that this autonomy can serve as a double-edge sword.
Rather than empowering employees, it can leave them feeling isolated and helpless.
In a study that we conducted with companies, that are part of the Cornell Center for
Advance Human Resource Studies, we found that two-thirds of the companies, did not
view isolation as a major issue with their
remote employees.
in those companies where employees have complained of feeling of isolated,
typically, the problem has been addressed by having the employees return to
a non-remote work arrangement for one to three days a week.
Although these findings seemed to suggest that isolation may not be a pervasive
problem among remote workers, I think there are several reasons this issue
warrants our attention.
One reason we may not have found a high incident of isolation in our project
is that most of the companies we studied utilized part time rather than fulltime
remote work arrangements.
Thus, most remote workers were in the office at least a few days week which gave
them that opportunity to connect with their supervisors and co-workers.
However, when employees are working from
home on a fulltime basis, they lose this face to face contact with their co-workers
which may increase the likelihood that they will feel isolated.
Also, I would note that in many of the
companies we studied, incidents of isolation were only identified when
employees brought it to the attention of their manager, and requested a change in
their work status. Thus, it is likely that there are other
workers who feel isolated but don't report
the issue because they want or need to maintain the remote work arrangement.
I may feel isolated but choose to continue working remotely because of other
benefits that it offers. And sure, what we found in the companies
we studied maybe somewhat misleading;
it may not fully capture the scope of this issue.
There are number of reasons why remote workers may feel psychologically isolated
and become less engaged but the primary one is that their interactions with
co-workers and supervisors tend to be less
frequent as well as less rich.
Remote workers are forced to rely on
technology mediated communication which often lacks the non-verbal queues that are
important for building trust and personal connections.
In addition, we know that when individuals communicate through
technology, their interactions are often much more likely to be task, rather than
socially focused.
That is, most communication centers on the work at hand rather than on building
personal relationships.
This can further undermine the development of trust and make it difficult
to identify with the other members of
one's work group.
Accordingly as individuals transition from traditional to remote work, we need
to think about how to prevent isolation and keep these individuals engaged.
One strategy is to require individuals to work in the office for six months to
a year before they transition to remote work arrangement.
This allows the employee to understand
the culture of the organization and develop relationships with their
supervisor and teammates;
both of which, they can draw upon later to keep them connected.
In fact, I have come across very few organizations that hire individuals
directly into remote work assignments.
Usually, this is only done in special circumstances where it is impossible to
have someone first work on site for
certain jobs or being used in certain job such as sales where individuals are
already accustomed to working remotely.
In addition to having people spend some
time working in office, we can use other strategies to facilitate social connections.
One is to require face to face visits;
for example, the employee may be required
to come in a day or two every quarter so they can renew their connections and stay
in-touch with what is happening in the office.
We can also utilize technologies to allow
for richer social interactions.
We'll be talking more about technology later in this module but I'll note here
that organizations are increasingly utilizing webcams and videoconference to
allow individuals to convey those non-verbal queues in their communications
and also to help create a sense of presence that can facilitate that
relationship building.
Also, instant messaging in social
networking applications can be used to facilitate more informal or spontaneous interactions.
For example, employees can use instant messaging to share those "aha" or "oh no"
moments with their team members, which may seem less appropriate if delivered through
a more formal channels such as email.
It is also important to think about not only of what communication channels to use
but also strategies that we can embed
within them to keep employees connected
and engaged. For example, virtual teams that I once
worked with had each member create
a picture collage or what they called a personal panorama.
At the beginning of each team meeting, one of the team members would share their
panorama and tell the story behind each of their pictures.
This enabled team members to get to know one another on a more personal level
and to recognize different connections that may not have been visible through their more
task-focused interactions.
Other teams have members simply share a photo of themselves or talk about recent
events in their location. Although the specific strategies will
vary, they share similar aim in creating social connections that build team
identity and combat that personal isolation.
A somewhat different approach is to provide remote workers with formal support mechanisms.
One common strategy is to create virtual buddy systems.
Remote workers are paired with not only other remote workers but also traditional
employees working in the office. The remote buddy can help the employee
work through different challenges they may face as a transition to working outside the office.
While the traditional buddy can help the
remote worker stay connected to latest news and happenings within the office.
Although they serve different functions, both types of buddies can be valuable.
Along these lines, we can also create employee resource groups and other forums
for remote workers to connect. These forums can used simply for social
interaction but they can also be used to share resources such as tips
and strategies for dealing with the unique
challenges that arise when working outside the office.
Finally, as we'll discuss more in module three, it's important to measure
and monitor remote worker engagement.
Are these workers as engaged as our traditional employees?
Do they feel isolated or disconnected from others?
By regularly checking in with our remote employees, we can catch problems early
and take steps to intervene.
In some, we need to be cognizant of the fact that our remote workers face
a greater risk of feeling isolated and disconnected from their supervisors,
co-workers and the organization.
We can prevent isolation by helping our
remote workers to develop strong social
networks and by providing support in the form of buddy systems, resource sites and communities.