The biggest challenges of home working

Hybrid and remote workers are wasting almost one day a week on this problem, according to new research.

Hybrid and remote workers are wasting almost one day a week on tech problems.

Three years into the pandemic, technology is continuing to cause headaches for those working outside the office, with new research revealing hybrid employees are spending five hours every week troubleshooting or setting up the technology required to work remotely.

For hybrid managers, the time increases to seven hours each week, the Adobe research shows.

Scarlett McDermott, chief technology officer at tech start-up WithYouWithMe says the findings are alarming.

“If I thought my employees were taking five full hours a week (to troubleshoot tech problems) then I would be having serious worries about that in terms of their productivity,” she says.

“I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to … make sure you have a baseline level of digital literacy.”

What’s going wrong?

McDermott says many tech problems stem from poor home internet connection or inadequate or outdated computer hardware which is not compatible with work software programs.

Technical prowess is also a problem. Workers who have little knowledge of technology must be prepared to upskill to remain employable but, where expertise in a specific program is required, it may be up to the employer to provide adequate training,McDermott says.

Adobe head of employee experience Sarah Dunn says file collaboration has been particularly challenging, with a third of workers reporting that collaborating on and signing documents is more difficult in a hybrid environment.

“Technology has built a disconnect between managers and their teams,” she says.

“We found that one-third of employees felt impeded by managers not knowing how to use or using outdated hardware and software and not knowing how to edit or collaborate on a file. Only one in two (workers) said they felt their manager is somewhat tech savvy.

“(These issues) act as a hindrance to employee productivity. If these persist, then, in the longer run, workers would feel disconnected and even frustrated. It ultimately impacts the productivity and morale of the entire team.”

Induction to the hybrid workplace

To improve efficiencies, Dunn suggests workplaces offer all staff, no matter how long they have been working, an induction to the new hybrid workplace.

“Of all the models, hybrid is the hardest to achieve and there isn’t a playbook,” she says.

“(During the induction) you can go over all the latest software and hardware you will be using and spend time working out schedules or even a team charter which can be designed by the team to agree on how hybrid working will work for them as a collective.”

She says the induction process would also present an ideal opportunity to speak directly with employees about their expectations for the hybrid work environment.

Nandita Graham.

Setting up for success

In the early days of the pandemic, technical problems cost Nandita Graham two hours of work time every week.

“Working without the right tech tools and resources made it difficult to be more efficient with my workload,’’ she says.

“None of our files were hosted on a shared cloud so it was common practice to have work on your computer or internal servers.This made collaboration – particularly during a time when we were all working remotely or in a hybrid environment – incredibly difficult.’’

Graham has since moved companies and is now the product marketing manager for fintech disrupter Till Payments.

She is yet to experience any technical glitches since joining Till, thanks to a thorough induction program that provided details of resources available to solve computer issues.

“We have colleagues set up to work from home and some who have logged on to work temporarily from places like Italy and India as part of our flexible work practices – so everyone across the organisation has the ability to work productively from anywhere without interruption,’’ Graham says.

“Prior to Covid, most organisations just didn’t think (about) or have the right resources to implement the tech tools and infrastructure required for extended periods in remote or hybrid working environments.

“The fact that the entire Till force is set up for success from the day they join is a great win for both the company and its people.’’

Originally published as The biggest challenges of home working