Impacts of Remote Working on Employee Performance during Pandemic
Covid-19 has affected employee performance in both ways, positively as well as negatively. At the start, it becomes challenging to manage all things. But with time, everyone got it that how to handle the situation. The world has faced many pandemics before COVID-19. But it did not let people go for remote working. That is why most of the people experienced remote working very the first time. It remained a global issue to manage remote work. It is not remained easy to work from home. Employees have to face many challenges and risk factors because of remote working. Remote working is not challengeable if it is done on a small level.
Everyone was afraid at starting level. They got to know the pros and cons of remote working and its impacts on employee performance. In the start, it created negative impacts like unemployment on a large scale. It became quite difficult to manage work. With time companies went for different useful remedies. They found some useful as well as bad impacts. Here are some impacts of remote working on employee performance during the COVID-19 pandemic mentioned below,
Positive Impacts of Remote Working:
Freedom:
During COVID-19, employees faced more freedom of work. In remote working, no one was there to ask again and again about your work. They faced less interruption from their boss. In remote working, the employee got more time to work on a single thing. Resultantly it increased the level of productivity.
Decrease Infrastructure Cost:
Remote working helped a lot in saving infrastructure costs. Companies saved a lot during the outbreak of COVID-19. All the offices were closed. They did not have to pay electricity or water bills. Same as for employees, they did not have to pay rent. Also, they received full pay. It helped to save lots of money.
Better Work-Life Balance
Before COVID-19, employees had to work within office hours. Sometimes it becomes so hectic to manage the workload within a particular time. Also, you have to work in a particular position. All of this is necessary to maintain the decorum of the workplace. Then it became very necessary to rest after the hectic routine of the office. It almost becomes difficult to enjoy personal life at its best. But remote working helped in managing work-life balance. You worked at your home in any position. It is up to you to take breaks at any time and then complete your task. You have to care about the deadline. At the same time, this behaviour is not allowed at the workplace. In-office you have to be at your place. Also, you are restricted to go outside the office.
Improve Employee Experience
Employees experienced many things from remote working. They did not have to be restricted for job timings. When a company faces good production, it becomes the cause of motivation for the employee and company. At first, it was a situation of risk for the company and employees to work remotely. But it worked very well. The major purpose of all the companies and employee working is the good level of production. When production is positive, it motivates employees, and motivation is the only thing that helps the employee keep working well. So, because of COVID-19, employees experienced good production with different means. They experienced how remote working affected the company’s profit rate and self-relaxation (Galanti et al., 2021).
Negative Impacts of Remote Working:
No Face-to-Face Connection:
While working remotely, there was zero face-to-face connection. Research by a dissertation writing service shows that it harmed employee performance. Zero face-to-face connection does not cause a single disadvantage. With no face-to-face connection, it becomes very difficult to share your thoughts and idea. It takes extra time to make a stronger connection with another person. Especially it causes huge problem while dealing with new employees.
Also, it is not easy to convince another person. At the business level, the major dealing tricks include convincing power. You can convince another person in a good way if you have face-to-face interaction. With face-to-face interaction, people participate more and more in the discussion. But remote working reduced your participation in any discussion as well as in tasks.
Collaboration:
When you had to work on some urgent task, and remained difficult to manage things because of the lack of collaboration. The communication gap caused collaboration issues. It became difficult for the employee to get the exact point. Lack of collaboration always leads to low productivity. It almost seems to be shameful to ask again and again about anything. Telephonic communication is not always enough to manage projects. Miscommunication is the only reason that causes misunderstanding. Sometimes employees feel overconfidence and do not take guidance. This overconfidence affects project management.
Isolation:
Remote working caused many negative impacts on employee performance. One of them is isolation. The employee did not get a chance to go outside of your home. The work routine was flexible, but sometimes it caused the problem. Even when an employee feels lonely, they were still unable to make plans. While working in the office makes you active. Employee daily goes outside and feels fresh. In remote working, employees could not enjoy any social connection. Everything was restricted up to cell phones. It remained a serious struggle for all employees to cover up loneliness while working remotely. Loneliness increases stress levels, and stress affects productivity (Wang et al., 2021).
Distraction:
Another major issue of remote working is that there was a lot of distraction in work. Most employees did not find a specific place at their home where they could concentrate on their work. Also, internet issues caused a drop in your energy. It remained a serious issue. It caused delays in submissions. Delay in submission is an unprofessional approach. But during a pandemic, it was not in the hands of the employee. Employees faced problems in the online meeting. Same as online submission caused problems.
