I have written before about my belief that WFH imposes a brake on productivity. There are all sorts of reasons – big and small. The other day I thought of another reason which I thought I should bring to your attention.
When working from home, employees obviously (well it’s obvious to me anyway), have less engagement with their colleagues …. but also with their supervisor or manager. This means they miss out on all those little ‘strokes’ they receive on the various interactions and engagements they would normally have with their manager.
Though these may individually be insignificant and trivial, collectively they continually reinforce the relationship and bond between the two of them., Assuming this is a positive relationship, this is clearly a good thing and very difficult (if not impossible) to replicate over Zoom or Teams or any other communication platform – especially as it is often non-verbal.
All of us need to know our contribution is respected and valued and that we are meeting or exceeding the demands placed upon us. Though this can happen formally at reviews, assessments and at the end of projects, we need ongoing, regular feedback. This is what we get from perhaps tiny ‘strokes’. Nothing may be said but we know everything is OK and we are making valued progress.
So, get your people back to the office – and let these informal interactions blossom once more. The productivity figures will thank you.