How to Treat Fairly Both Employees on Home Office and On-site
We have asked the following questions HR Managers and Consultants from the global HR community:
Do you experience any kind of problems, or tensions between your employees who are allowed to work from home while others must come in every day (due to nature of their jobs such as technicians, machine operators, cleaners etc.)? How do you compensate the ones coming in daily? Do you give them additional benefits?
We are thrilled to have received quite an impressive collection of ideas and experiences from the trenches. Read on to get inspired!
TRANSPARENT APPROACH ASKS FOR INDIVIDUAL APPROACH
Start with clearly explaining the reasons why some employees are allowed to work from home and others are not. This will help to ensure that everyone understands the situation and that there are no feelings of unfairness.
Why this type of tension actually exists? Those who are working from home may have achieved a better work-life balance and the on-site employees may feel more burdened. Here is a suggestion: Ask! Ask those who are coming every day what would make them feel valued and supported. Try to understand why the employee feels uncomfortable when there is a difference between assigned work locations. It has been proven that it is crucial to be transparent not only with work schedules and work locations, but also with the workloads and the expected availability for work tasks. Again, being transparent and empathetic goes a long way. It’s crucial to acknowledge and appreciate the dedication and efforts of those who can’t work remotely.
ARE YOU READY TO IMPLEMENT?
Perhaps you have implemented some of the following benefits for those who have to come in every day. We are sharing this collection from the practice:
- Paid or subsidized lunches
- Flexible working hours
- Extra vacation days
- Company car
- Travel stipend, commute allowance
- Extra mentoring and career development opportunities
- Fun workshops
- More pay or performance-based awards
- Lunches with games
- Enhancing the physical workplace for comfort and appeal
- Free gym facility on-site
- Summer ice-cream and food trucks
- Health and wellness programmes
Some job positions that typically require onsite presence can be provided with one or two days of home office per month. For example, security guards may be given an online training or work from home to complete some admin work and reports.
Now, imagine two scenarios:
- A senior member of staff working from his well-established house with a pool in the backyard.
- A junior employee seated on a sofa in lounge of the shared flat with frequent distractions by flatmates with worries about the heating and AC costs at the back of their mind.
Would you consider these facts when deciding who can and who cannot work from home without causing divisions based on a pay rank or type of living arrangement? Yup, such situation would require some further thinking.
By all means, it is practical, even desired to have the question of remote office re-reviewed at a set intervals. You want to support equal opportunities. You also want to make sure that your company’s work set-ups are still producing the outcomes that initially led to putting these rules in place.
MORE ANGLES TO CHECK
Not all of you are for pampering those “disadvantaged” on-site employees. As a matter of fact, all who sign their job contract sign up for a specific work conditions and related benefits or compensations. Strictly said: ‘If you want a position that allows for remote work, then skill yourself up to get such job.
Let us remind ourselves that not everyone can work in the office for various reasons (health, childcare, accessibility, other reasons). In addition, looking at this topic from the remote contributors’ point of view, make sure that their successes aren’t limited by not working in the more traditional way, that is on-site.
There is a point where we need to stop overthinking the situation. We need to keep in mind that some people may want to come in, for example they prefer to get away from chaos at swirling at home.
To conclude, the main goal is to ensure that all employees – regardless of their work setup – feel valued and treated fairly.