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Educating employers on the benefits of hybrid employment
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
While wages have been a primary factor in attracting new talent, many employers forget they have multiple tools they can use to attract skilled workers. These tools may include flexible schedules, professional development, career planning and discounts but it’s easy to overlook the unique power of hybrid employment.
According to an April 2024 LinkedIn Study, nearly six in 10 (58 per cent) of Canadian workers prefer to work either on a hybrid basis where they're frequently remote (33 per cent) or fully remote (25 per cent).
There is clearly tremendous interest in remote employment and so a recent Conference Board of Canada study discussed specific strategies employers can pursue to help better incorporate remote employment. ‘Real Connections in a Virtual World: Designing Remote Workplaces for Social Connections’ found that even employers who are willing to consider hybrid or remote employment, are concerned it is inferior to in-office employment.
It might seem as though an employer’s first concern is that their employees won’t work as hard from home, but responses focused more on the well-being of the workers.
The study found that most (83.1 per cent) are worried about employees feeling disconnected while working online.
Employers also expressed concern over the strength of the team. Another 83.1 per cent reported being worried about the loss of relationships and interactions at work. Among these employers, 77.5 per cent reported having concerns about the risk of remote employees feeling disconnected or lonely outside of work.
Obviously, workers without the day-to-day interaction with colleagues, can struggle with loneliness and workplace attachment.
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Socially connected workers are more motivated: Employees who feel lonely are more than three times as likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs. Employees who are able to fulfill social needs at work are more committed to their organizations and more engaged.
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Loneliness has profound effects on health and well-being: Individuals who are engaged in fewer social interactions and have less social support at work than desired tend to experience lower levels of mental health. People who interact less with others report lower levels of mental health and that providing opportunities for social interactions improves well-being. Moreover, emotional loneliness is associated with burnout.
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Workplace relationships are essential for productivity: When individuals experience a sense of belonging in the workplace, their productivity increases, whereas feeling lonely at work can make a person feel like they are performing poorly. Women with meaningful relationships at work are more likely to take risks, which is an essential aspect of innovation.
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Loneliness increases the likelihood of absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover: Research suggests that people who feel lonely miss more days of work and are more likely to leave their jobs than workers who feel socially engaged in their workplaces. In addition to absenteeism and turnover, lonely employees are more likely to engage in presenteeism: they are twice as likely to work while feeling unwell or sick.
In developing the study, The Conference Board of Canada wanted to recognize that hybrid and remote work aren’t just alternatives, but that they bring unique benefits. Respondents to the Conference Board survey encourage regular check-ins from leaders (93.7 per cent) and promoting in-person social events (88.9 per cent) as the most prevalent strategies used to foster social connections.
Unfortunately, many employers are too busy to connect. Busy schedules (e.g., excessive workloads, meeting overload) were mentioned as a primary obstacle to social connections by more than three quarters (77 per cent) of participants. Almost half (47.5 per cent) of the respondents considered the main obstacle to fostering social connections to be the need to build initiatives that accommodated workers in different work arrangements.
Just like a bush needs to be pruned from time to time to ensure it’s healthy and can flourish, so does a job description. To free up time for social interactions, employers should meet with staff periodically to examine what specifically is taking most of the employee’s time and look for opportunities to remove, change, automate or delegate tasks to ensure employees don’t see social interaction as an obligation rather than a benefit.
With this in mind, the authors encourage employers to:
- Involve employees before designing initiatives to foster social connections
- Consider the nuances when measuring the impact of initiatives
- Managing the double-edged sword of social interactions in the workplace
- Analyze policies and procedures with a social connectedness lens
- Promote work-life balance to your employees
For the employer who is continually hiring without success, hybrid or remote employment may be a pathway to a great employee who makes a long-term contribution, but I would suggest they pursue it with integrity and authenticity.
It’s critical for some employers to embrace remote employment as part of their staff model and not something they had to incorporate and would gladly ditch if the labour market changed. Whether it’s how an employer views a remote employee’s contribution or how they engage with existing employees, their focus should be on genuinely supporting employees, caring for their needs and supporting them in their career.
We’ll be discussing strategies employers can implement to shift to remote employment at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday May 27th at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland. Visit: www.MotivatingMondays.ca on Monday to join the session LIVE.
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