Many companies are currently facing the challenge of developing a functioning home office model for their employees, especially in view of the home office obligation that may be introduced over Christmas. In addition to the technical hurdles, this also includes professional equipment and ensuring the corporate culture, which can be promoted and maintained through targeted measures. To ensure a strong corporate culture, open communication with regular feedback is essential. This also includes a common vision, which the entire team pursues and motivates. Of course, the well-being of each individual also plays a central role. It is therefore all the more important that there is a respectful interaction within the team. Experience shows that corporate culture has an active as well as positive effect on the behavior and productivity of employees.
A positive corporate culture brings another plus point, because in conjunction with the right personnel marketing measures, you will find it much easier to find motivated and qualified talents for your team and retain them in the long term. With a positive corporate culture, you can stand out from other companies and strengthen your employer brand. This is especially important for the younger generation, who want to work flexibly and freely with modern structures. Another important point for employee satisfaction is the social integration of each individual in the team, as otherwise you can quickly become lonely in a home office. As you can see, a company benefits in many ways from a strong corporate culture.
As a company, you are faced with the task of building and maintaining a value-creating corporate culture, even when your employees are in the home office.
How can you ensure employee motivation when there is no daily interaction in the office? What if the work-live balance of employees in the home office is disturbed? How can new team members be introduced to the corporate culture and taught the company values?
Working in a home office is usually very positively received by employees, as it does offer some advantages, not least increased flexibility. However, if it becomes a permanent obligation, it can frustrate some employees in the long run. The reasons for this can be physical strain due to an unergonomic workplace, but also psychological strain due to a lack of separation between private and professional life. In addition, a weak Internet connection can become a real challenge and make communication much more difficult. This also applies to regular exchanges and the associated teamwork. It can lead to employees becoming increasingly less motivated and not feeling a sense of belonging in the company, due to the increasing lack of a lived corporate culture.
The motivation of employees is shaped not least by the corporate culture, because this also expresses the company’s commitment to its employees. The challenge now is to transfer not only the work processes but also the corporate culture that is practiced on a daily basis into the digital age. This can be a technical as well as a cultural challenge for the company if the digitization process has not yet taken place. The solution is an innovative and profitable use of communication channels to ensure a digital exchange in the home office.
To this end, it can be useful to introduce diverse internal formats. This can be, for example, a weekly meeting where employees can exchange ideas on a specific topic or current tasks as well as goals. In addition, you can introduce digital breaks and events (e.g. team or onboarding events). As a manager, take the time at regular intervals to ask how your team members are doing in the home office. It’s a small appreciative sign that can go a long way, especially with new employees.
During onboarding, make sure that the company culture is also conveyed remotely and provide the new employee with a “buddy” that the person can turn to at any time. This will help you integrate the new employee into the team more quickly. Of course, you should also not forget the health of your employees. This can be promoted, for example, through small digital sports sessions, relaxation techniques and autogenic training.
Strengthen the sense of belonging in your company and ensure that your employees can work digitally in the home office. Respond to your employees and their individual wishes, if this is feasible. Ask your employees and check the current situation in your company to clarify the exact need for appropriate measures and new formats. This will enable you to act in a targeted manner and make optimizations. Your employees will thank you for actively involving them in the process.
We would be happy to put you in touch with a partner from our network who will work with you to develop an individual solution for your company. Please send us a message via the contact form.
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*Source: Oscar
According to a new study (conducted by Nicholas Bloom, Stanford University, among others), the hybrid work arrangement reduced the turnover rate in a large technology company by a full 35%. It also improved employee job satisfaction but had no negative impact on performance evaluations or promotions.
During the pandemic, there was an explosion in remote working, which led many companies to adopt hybrid work arrangements for their employees. Employees typically spend 2-3 days per week in the office and worked from home the rest of the time. This allows them to separate the tasks they do better in person from those they do best individually.
If we take a look at the unemployment rate, we see that it is approaching its lowest level in 5 decades. This is causing even the harshest critics of home-based work to ponder and change their stance on attracting talent and retaining them long-term.
A randomized control trial (conducted by Bloom and Ruobing Han, Stanford University, and James Liang, among others) of 1,612 engineering, marketing, and finance employees was conducted at global travel agency Trip.com in 2021/2022. Employees born on an odd date (e.g., June 3) were given the option to work from home on Wednesdays and Fridays while other employees worked in the office. After the study, Trip.com then introduced hybrid work for the entire company.
The study, which was released by the National Bureau of Economics, shows not only that turnover was greatly reduced, but also how hybrid work arrangements change work hours and work habits. For example, employees worked fewer hours on remote work days but more hours on other days, including weekends. Overall, it can be said that employees worked about 80 minutes less on work-from-home days, but about 30 minutes more on other work days and weekends. In addition, employees who worked from home used individual messaging and group video calls more, even when they were in the office.
There was no overall impact of working from home on performance appraisals or promotions, even for individual subgroups. Employees who had the option to work from home reported slightly increased productivity. The number of lines of code written by this group of people (a measure of IT engineer productivity) also increased by about 8% compared to office-based employees.
Overall, this shows that hybrid WFH is often beneficial for both employees and companies, but is usually underestimated upfront.
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*Source: Bloomberg
Have your employees been working from a home office for the majority of the last few months?
If so, Mr. Habeck’s possible renewed plans to make home office work compulsory over Christmas should not affect you very much.
Working from home is a great thing, as long as you as a company ensure that your employees do not incur any additional costs.
Should there really be a complete gas supply freeze from Russia in the near future, you as a company are required to offer a fair and flexible home office arrangement for your employees. Corresponding plans by the Bundesbank have already announced. It is therefore all the more important that corresponding home office allowances are permanently established in tax law. The restriction to a maximum of 120 days and thus also the limitation of deductible expenses to 600 euros must be abolished. Currently, employees can deduct 5 euros from their taxes for each working day spent in the home office, up to a maximum of 600 euros per year.
But is a possibly again planned home office obligation really a nicely meant offer or perhaps only a trick of the enterprises, in order to save energy?
This question is currently occupying the “Linkspartei” (Left Party). They are therefore calling for companies to be held accountable. They should be obliged to pay all the energy costs incurred by employees in their home offices. The additional costs must not be “passed on” to the employees.
The SPD and “Die Grünen” (the Greens) have so far held back on the issue and possible relief. In their eyes, financial relief for home office options is basically a good concern. They are now planning to look at various regulations relating to home office in the second half of the year and make improvements.
In the event of an energy shortage, the Bundesbank is considering closing offices in the fall and winter. The possibilities of supplying heat only to certain floors or parts of the building and thus reducing the heat supply to a minimum are also currently being examined.
It remains to be seen if and when the new regulations will take effect and whether they will really lead to tax relief for your employees.
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