One of the best solutions to keep the workplaces and to practice physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic is home office. Nevertheless, to many of the employers and their workers it meant a huge challenge to introduce this solution quickly, especially if we consider that in Hungary and its neighboring countries the home office has not been significant compared to the EU average.
Convincing arguments:
home office trends
Percentage of employed people working at home in Europe/ CEE+Europe28 average + HU
Source from the presentation by Vera Kápolnás
Challenges
employees
When changing to remote work the difficulties could rise on the side of the employer from lack of control, missing team spirit, and also from motivational challenges. The struggles of the employers could come from communication difficulties, feeling lonely or even to find the right work-life balance:
*3,500 remote workers from around the world
Source from the presentation by Vera Kápolnás
To overcome the difficulties, it is important to address the above-mentioned issues with the right communication between employer and employee, and even to come back to them from time to time.
To make this jump easier, Vera also highlighted some general benefits of working from home:
- it may reduce office rental costs,
- in certain cases of sick leave (e.g. a broken leg) the employee can still do some work,
- a wider pool of potential workers is available,
- more free time remains (not spent in traffic) for recreation,
- it can be more effective due to less distraction.
