Mathieu Hamel is an entrepreneur and CEO of
Innovation is everywhere
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Depressions, loss of motivation, lack of confidence and social ties… In 2020, France swung precipitously and by force into telecommuting.
Too frozen in habits unsuited to virtual exchanges, management and human resources are struggling to keep the flame alive.
To ensure its sustainability, teleworking will have to be expressed with more life.
Read also:
The fatigue of private office workers: teleworking is (a bit) hell
The adoption of new uses enabled by digital tools gives companies the opportunity to reinvent the world of work.
Teleworking, a major component of this transformation, still benefited a few months ago from increased confidence on the part of managers and directors.
It was also, for employees, a reflection of a more flexible and free future, intended to improve the quality of life at work.
But now, with the health crisis, this development was suddenly imposed, in insufficiently prepared environments.
If teleworking seems despite everything to prove its worth and remain an essential tool of the future, companies must develop their own digital culture and a reinvented management method, in the light of a more decentralized and fragmented organization.
Morale in the socks
A study by the ADP Research Institute is worrying: nearly one in two employees is in psychological distress.
Long-term sick leave linked to psychosocial disorders is on the rise.
Same story with
Oracle & Workspace Intelligence
: in France, 75% of employees say that the pandemic has had negative effects on their mental health.
The result is a lack of sleep (40%), deteriorated physical health (35%) and a form of social isolation (28%).
The second confinement, in addition to being subject to a seasonality conducive to depression and a feeling of an endless crisis, seems to mark the limits of conventional teleworking.
With the spread of remote work, employees are no longer exposed, behaviors are no longer visible.
The worker is static, hidden behind his screen, without always having activated the camera because the shower will wait until noon… Conditions which limit the creation of bonds of trust.
But trust is the core value of our society.
See for yourself: don't you trust someone you've met more when you come to work online with someone?
This implies that in order to move forward together, it is essential to have physical contact and non-verbal communication, through body language (gestures, attitude, gaze…) which influences our relationships with others.
In his daily habits, the worker also followed a routine that framed his day: children, transport, the coffee machine, the canteen ...
Other holes in the racket: the place and the routine, markers of an effective work discipline, are shattered.
Until today, the place created unity.
He embodied the values of the brand.
It was a space for exchanges, for connections, for creating this trust.
In his daily habits, the worker also followed a routine that framed his day: children, transport, the coffee machine, the canteen ...
Consequence: the abandonment of these rituals increases the crisis of confidence.
Businesses then find themselves faced with new problems.
How to continue to make employees adhere to common sense, while other studies show an increase in employee mistrust of the company?
How to effectively assess its employees?
How to maintain the performance and motivation of the teams?
How to develop a new idea of performance while nourishing the meaning and values carried by the company?
Read also:
Teleworking will last "a very, very long time" according to Berger
Companies that did not sufficiently anticipate the digital transition continued to operate with their usual ways of working.
If the first confinement was passed without too much hassle, the second brings back a clear need for contact, a vector link of values, for the team as for the individual, who no longer feels that he exists behind the screen.
To respond to this, managers are increasingly turning to “
one to one
”, very time-consuming, but powerful leverage to instill motivation and detect the first signs of demotivation.
But that is not enough.
Telework head-on
While working at home, if the head travels to the company's projects, the body, largely forgotten, remains passive.
He doesn't change his surroundings anymore, the little everyday trips that participate in social interaction, like simply going to a meeting on the other side of the building, no longer exist.
The work becomes purely cerebral.
Yet a brain needs oxygen.
The strength of the body is to be able to physically support the issue, to bring energy.
Without movement, fatigue occurs quickly, motivation runs out of steam and the risk of depression increases.
Teleworking can therefore only impose itself by re-enchanting the body: talking standing up, with the hands, calibrating the camera on the upper part of the face so as not to have the impression of being looked down upon ... These few tips are helping change dynamic.
The voice changes, it stimulates the message conveyed.
Giving body to the human link online also means creating interaction.
The two-hour meetings without speaking out were already complicated face-to-face, so behind a computer (...) the attention drops dramatically
Two-hour non-speaking meetings were already complicated face-to-face, so behind a computer, with the temptation to do something else at the same time, attention plummeted.
By varying the discussions, by limiting the duration of the speeches, or by using facilitation and collaboration tools, concentration is encouraged.
And to strengthen team cohesion and put employees in good conditions, some companies offer to reinject play into the world of work: yoga positions at the start of a meeting, virtual reality play at break time, fun sequences for one. unexpected moment ... Everything is imaginable to circulate energy, in a unifying way, and find its “
happy management
”.
A balance to be found
The teleworking experience is not intended to completely replace reality, contact remains essential.
With good methods, this practice will find its point of equilibrium, perhaps around 50% face-to-face and 50% remote work.
Either way, this second half should not be sacrificed.
To read also:
Teleworking, progress to welcome or dangerous regression?
It is by creating the conditions which contribute to the pleasure of creating trust, discoveries and exchanges that teleworking will find its full place in future organizations.
