Trust Issues Present When Working from Home

With a little under half the US labor force working from home during 2021, it certainly seems like remote working has become a big a part of our ‘new normal’.

As the infographic compiled by TrackTime24 below shows, most work-from-home (WFH) employees report being happy with the situation. However, it has caused many employers to have trust issues with their work force. This has led to some employers attempting to micromanage their employees during working hours, which in turn has disgruntled many of the WFH employees.

Work From Home Trust Issues

The research by TrackTime24 discovered 85% of employers have doubts regarding their leadership pipelines. Add on top of that the 69% of managers who feel uncomfortable communicating with employees via the various technologies available to do so while remote working, and it is easy to see why there are trust issues.

Even 48% of employees recognize that there have been changes in the levels of trust since the pandemic. Now one in five employees believe micromanagement from employers, either in the form of excessive control or an over-attention to detail, is the most stressful aspect of working from home.

Small Business Benefits of Remote Working

With 54% of WFH employees wanting to keep remote working post-Covid, small businesses need to overcome these trust issues. Finding the right balance to keep both the employer and employees happy can reap great rewards.

The research showed WFH employers saved $22,000 a year per fulltime WFH employee, and $11,000 per year for a halftime WFH employee. That created a total of $700 billion in national savings in a single year.

The key to finding the right balance appears to a combination of communication and openness to employees’ needs, as well as work culture changes such as valuing productivity and output over hours worked.