Balancing Act

Change the office experience

With so many benefits of working remotely, why come into the office?

Organisations need to reconsider ways of working and optimise tasks and processes for the right space. For example, less cubicles and more collaboration spaces are needed for office workers who prefer to do ‘alone’ tasks at home.

Ensure home offices are safe

PwC’s study shows 42% of workers regularly experience loneliness and isolation when working from home, 31% feel more stressed and burnt out, and over one quarter of Australian knowledge workers (28%) have accessed formal mental health and wellbeing support since working remotely.

While hybrid working significantly helps worker wellbeing in some ways, it needs to be underpinned by a broader and diversified means of supporting the health of workers, both mentally and physically as part of Workplace Health & Safety.

Train managers to lead hybrid teams

Less than one third (31%) of team leaders have received any formal training on leading and managing in a hybrid environment since the move to remote working. This underinvestment is resulting in 41% of those with team leader responsibilities feeling confident in their ability to lead teams in the new world of work, while only 36% of them felt that their organisation provided the right tools and support to enable them to effectively lead in the hybrid context.

This has profound implications when it comes to worker performance, productivity, and effectiveness. The lack of investment from many organisations is not just being felt by team leaders but is then trickling down to employees, where almost two in five workers (39%) suggesting they feel like they’re not trusted by their manager to work remotely.