A guide for representing home workers
One of the more positive consequences of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown was the re-evaluation of jobs that previously were not considered suitable for home working. With the use of technology, many organisations moved quickly to keep the lines open to their customers and staff generally responded well to the challenges.
Organisations that received the best response from staff were those that recognised the need to support employees to balance work and home life. As the UK emerges from the pandemic, organisations are hoping to hold on to the positive changes accelerated by lockdown at the same time as taking the opportunity to save costs by reducing office space and introducing more home-working or hybrid-working – working from home combined with office-based hot-desking. There is much for individual employees to consider and organisations will need to carefully consider whether they can continue with workplace policies that apply to everyone regardless of circumstances, or whether they should develop a more individual approach to achieving business objectives balanced with employee’s preferences and needs.
This consideration will need to take into account broader issues beyond productivity metrics and savings on office space, to ensure no individual or group of employees are disadvantaged in this “new normal”.
These are the challenges for organisations and their employee representatives serving on Employee Forums will need to effectively listen to both the collective and individual employee voice.
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Representing people working remotely
September 2020