Remote work - balance of labor market rigidity and flexibility

Until a year ago, most employees in Serbia considered working from home a privilege. Flexibility in work schedule during the day, saving time of commuting, "work-life balance", all these were considered perks employees wanted more than free meals, rest and relaxation rooms, informal team gatherings outside the workplace, as well as other special "benefits" in the workplace.

For managers, the obligation to monitor work activities and react in sudden and crisis situations was implied regardless of officially defined working hours, and there were no significant changes here.

Now that more or less everyone has experienced this "privilege" of remote work, the other sides of this way of hiring employees have shown their face:

Increased risk of burnout

It is to be expected that remote working employees feel pressure of not contributing enough, so they have the need to prove that they are active - they write more emails than usual, work while having lunch, and start and finish work activities outside schedule. All this leads to an increased risk of burnout syndrome, since the manager is not present to direct activities and to control and prevent overwork.

Endangered sense of belonging to company values ​​

When you work from home, you are isolated from the visual component of the company's culture. Everything happens through the screen, through technology, that is, there is no visual and physical interaction. It is very difficult for teams that are not mature to achieve connection and good cooperation under these conditions, which is necessary for quality performance - the sense of belonging to company values ​​is endangered. This could be compared with a long-distance relationship - to survive, it needs excellent communication, mutual commitment and frequent and honest exchange of information, but the visual and physical component of the relationship must not be neglected.

Increased importance of the manager role

Employees need manager support in remote work more than in regular working conditions. Working from home requires a high level of self-discipline and commitment, and these are not natural qualities of all employees. To make remote work productive, the manager’s task is to guide employees through this new work process and to give them precise and clear instructions, and to inform them about the changed rules of conduct. It is necessary to understand and anticipate their new needs, and help employees adapt and create more optimal working conditions in the new environment using individual approach.

Invest necessary effort to preserve team spirit

The manager is responsible for team morale and maintaining team spirit, which can be achieved by more frequent communication and exchange of experiences and difficulties encountered by team members, and by exchanging ways to overcome them.

Maintain objectivity and introduce adequate metrics to monitor work quality and results

Work quality assessment and the manner of rewarding must not suffer due to the newly created working conditions. It is necessary to introduce adequate metrics that ensure objectivity and transparency to maintain employee morale, ensure a fair distribution of work, but also enable realistic monitoring of work results.

Pay attention to the legal framework

As this transition from the traditional employees engaging model to remote work mode was sudden and most companies found themselves unprepared, they adjusted internal acts to comply with legal provisions regarding this type of hiring on the fly. It is very important to allow for the risks of occupational diseases and provide employees with workstations of the quality same as that in the business premises (monitor, ergonomic work chair). The issue of reimbursement of electricity, heating, internet costs is also raised.

Companies that have already introduced innovative technological processes have adapted more easily to the remote work regime, especially international corporations that have team members around the world and are trained to communicate using modern technological solutions. Most often, these companies are headquartered in countries where there is already significant experience in working from home and remote work. In Serbia, this is a new experience for most companies, which brings us closer to global trends, and I believe that many companies have seen the clear benefits of this type of engagement (reduction of business costs, more flexible way of doing business that increases employee satisfaction, reduced absences and increased productivity).