If you have people working remotely within your business, you're probably seeing emails at all hours of the day and night.
Working from anywhere has been life-changing for many. Your staff can be more flexible with their time during traditional working hours, fitting in time for school pick-ups and appointments where perhaps they could not before.
Additionally, more work is being done during non-traditional work hours.
Microsoft recently completed an internal survey on how working from anywhere impacts collaboration so they can make more improvements to Teams.
We have generally found two spikes in productivity within a typical day: Just before lunch and just after lunch.
There is a new third productivity spike for remote workers around 10 pm. This is because people are getting items ready for the next day by replying to emails before they go to bed.
As employees have removed commuting time, their working time and availability have increased to include these non-traditional work times.
At Microsoft, employees, on average, increased their daily working time by 46 minutes (13%) – with most of that being after-hours work.
Although it sounds like this is good for business, it also demonstrates how blurred the lines between work and home have become post-pandemic.
This third peak of activity can cause a LOSS of productivity during these non-traditional work periods, where employees feel more pressured to respond to emails quickly. In addition, it has led to increased stress levels, impacts morale, and overall well-being of staff.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said businesses need to emphasize soft skills and good management practices so that employee well-being is recognized and taken care of properly.
He also advises business owners and managers to set clear expectations concerning after-hours work so that employees don't feel undue pressure always to be available and respond. One of these expectations should involve not needing to respond to emails on the weekend, even from a manager or others, if that is their time off.
At Where To Start, we frequently ask if you are setting the right expectations for your staff and providing them with the tools, they need to increase productivity without increasing their stress?
A quick and easy win for your staff can be: Instead of sending emails at night, schedule them to be sent the following morning, avoiding the need to respond at night.
When your staff sees the boss doing this, it should quickly become accepted behavior for the entire business. It's simple to do and may significantly impact staff's quality of life; give it a try and let me know how it goes - Let’s chat
