Supporting Employee Mental Health in a Remote Work Setting: HR Strategies for Well-being and Resilience by Bash Sarmiento

The shift toward remote operations has transformed not just where we work, but how we work. For many business leaders and remote team managers, this new normal brings a unique set of challenges, particularly in nurturing and supporting the mental health of our teams. As stewards of our teams' well-being, we must adopt HR strategies that not only address these challenges but also promote resilience and a sense of community among a remote workforce.

Unique Challenges of Remote Work

The transition to remote work introduces specific challenges that can impact the mental well-being of our teams. Recognising these challenges is the first step in creating a supportive environment tailored to the needs of remote employees.

Promoting Work-Life Balance

While the flexibility of remote work is a boon, it can also blur the lines between professional and personal life. This inevitably leads to stress and burnout. Encouraging a clear separation helps prevent negative experiences that stem from remote work. 

Leaders should advocate for regular work hours, emphasise the importance of taking breaks, and respect employees' personal time to foster a healthier work-life balance.

Combating Feelings of Isolation

Remote work can often lead to feelings of loneliness and disconnection from colleagues. It's important to create opportunities for virtual social interaction and team bonding. This could include virtual coffee breaks, team-building activities, or simply encouraging informal chats among team members.

Ensuring Effective Communication

With the absence of face-to-face interaction, maintaining clear and open communication becomes a challenge. Implementing regular check-ins, using collaborative tools, and encouraging an open-door policy can help mitigate misunderstandings and ensure that team members feel heard and supported.

Addressing Technological Challenges

Remote work is heavily reliant on technology, which can lead to its own set of stressors, especially for those less tech-savvy. Providing ongoing tech support, training, and resources can alleviate these pressures, ensuring that all team members feel comfortable and capable in a digital work environment.

Acknowledging Diverse Home Environments

Each team member's home environment is unique, with varying degrees of conduciveness to productive work. Recognising and accommodating these differences - whether it be through flexible scheduling or providing stipends for home office setups - can greatly enhance employee comfort and productivity.

Implementing Effective Employee Engagement Strategies

Keeping remote teams engaged is vital for maintaining productivity and fostering a positive work environment. Engagement goes beyond work tasks; it's about creating a sense of belonging and connection among team members who may be spread across different locations.

Utilising Technology for Engagement

Leverage technology to keep your team connected and engaged. Tools that facilitate easy communication, project management, and collaboration can make remote work more efficient and enjoyable. Consider platforms that facilitate effective employee engagement to enhance your team's cohesiveness and productivity.

Fostering a Sense of Community

Building a strong team spirit in a remote setting requires intentional efforts to create a sense of community. Virtual team-building activities, celebrating team achievements, and encouraging non-work-related interactions can help bridge the physical distance. Regular virtual events, like team lunches or happy hours, can replicate the camaraderie of an in-office setting.

Recognising and Rewarding Contributions

Acknowledgment goes a long way in boosting morale and motivation. Make it a point to recognise individual and team achievements, no matter how small. Whether through shoutouts in team meetings, awards, or personalised notes, showing appreciation for hard work reinforces positive behaviour and fosters a culture of recognition.

Cultivating a Culture of Open Communication

Clear and consistent communication is the lifeline of remote work, playing a pivotal role in ensuring that team members feel connected, supported, and part of a cohesive unit.

Prioritising Transparent Communication

Transparency in communication helps in building trust and reducing anxieties that can arise from uncertainty. Regular updates about company news, project statuses, and team changes can help everyone feel informed and involved, mitigating feelings of being 'out of the loop.'

Implementing Regular Check-Ins

Regular one-on-one check-ins with team members provide a private space for open dialogue about work progress, challenges, and personal well-being. These sessions are crucial for understanding individual circumstances and offering support where needed.

Promoting Psychological Safety

Creating an environment where employees feel safe to express their thoughts, concerns, and ideas without fear of judgment is essential for mental health. Encourage an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding, where all voices are valued and considered.

Leadership Through Egoless Leadership

The approach of egoless leadership can significantly enhance communication dynamics within a team. Leaders who demonstrate humility, empathy, and a willingness to listen can foster a more open, supportive, and collaborative work environment.

Fostering a Security-Aware Remote Workforce

Security of workspaces and data is not just a technical issue but also a contributor to mental well-being. Ensuring that employees feel secure in their digital environment can alleviate stress and foster a sense of reliability and trust.

Establishing Robust Cybersecurity Measures

Implement strong cybersecurity protocols to protect sensitive company and employee data. This includes secure VPNs, regular updates of security software, and safe data storage solutions. Educating your team on cybersecurity best practices is also crucial in building a security-aware remote workforce.

Providing Technical Support and Training

Offer comprehensive technical support and training to help employees navigate any technical difficulties they may encounter. This reduces the frustration and anxiety associated with tech issues and ensures that team members can work efficiently and confidently.

Creating a Safe Digital Work Environment

A safe digital work environment extends beyond cybersecurity. It's about creating a space where employees feel comfortable and equipped to perform their best. This includes providing ergonomic advice for setting up home offices, ensuring they have the right tools and technology, and offering stipends for necessary equipment.

Regular Mental Health Check-Ins and Resources

Regular check-ins dedicated to discussing mental health and well-being can significantly impact an employee's sense of support and belonging. These conversations should be normalised and integrated into the regular workflow to remove any stigma associated with discussing mental health.

Providing Access to Mental Health Resources

Make mental health resources readily available to your team. This can include subscriptions to mental wellness apps, access to counselling services, or an employee assistance program (EAP) that offers confidential psychological support.

Encouraging Mindfulness and Stress-Relief Practices

Promote practices that can help reduce stress and increase mindfulness among your team. This could be through organising virtual meditation sessions, encouraging regular physical activity, or providing resources on stress management techniques.

Supporting Flexible Scheduling

Recognising that each employee may have different needs and circumstances, especially in a remote setting, offering flexible scheduling can greatly alleviate stress. This approach allows employees to work during hours when they feel most productive and balanced, contributing to better mental health.

Final Thoughts

Supporting the mental health of remote employees is vital for building a productive and positive work environment. By implementing thoughtful strategies and resources, leaders can ensure their teams feel supported and valued, fostering a culture of well-being and resilience in the remote workspace.

Bash Sarmiento is a writer and an educator from Manila. He writes laconic pieces in the education, lifestyle and health realms. His academic background and extensive experience in teaching, textbook evaluation, business management and traveling are translated in his works.

Is hybrid working driving productivity paranoia?

Whilst the majority of home and hybrid workers feel they are very productive, research shows that their employers are not always as convinced.

Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Pulse Report, from September 2022 found that whilst 87% of the employees surveyed believed that they were productive at work, only 12% of the leaders surveyed said they were confident that their employees were being productive.

This disconnect between employer and employee perceptions of their productivity is referred to as productivity paranoia and the gap between how much leaders perceive employees are working and what they’re actually achieving developed during the rapid change to remote and hybrid working. Leaders couldn’t physically see what their employees were doing, which led to many leaders not trusting that their employees at home were working as much as they should be.

This breakdown of trust with its focus on productivity and use of performance metrics can negatively impact on relationships in the workplace on both sides. Mistrustful employers start to implement strict monitoring systems, set unrealistic expectations and use controlling or fear-based management styles that increases employee anxiety and reduces job satisfaction. The emphasis on quantity over quality generates a disregard for the work-life balance which drives down employee wellbeing and productivity.

Meanwhile, employees at home feel the absence of a supportive work environment and a lack of communication, transparency and trust leads to feelings of proximity bias. At the same time constant scrutiny and unrealistic expectations increases stress and even burnout, which negatively affects productivity, creativity and ultimately leads to increased staff turnover.

Whilst productivity is crucial for a company's success, an excessive focus on it without considering the well-being of employees is counterproductive. Leaders should strive for a balanced approach that recognises both the importance of productivity and a healthy work environment. Encouraging open communication, providing support and resources, and offering flexibility can help create a positive work culture where employees can thrive and be more productive in the long term.

Combating proximity bias

One way or another, most people have been affected by hybrid or remote working. It’s something that has fundamentally changed the way people work and although there have been many benefits, it has also introduced some new challenges.

The pandemic initially led to remote working patterns that created a level playing field in terms of communication or having a presence in the office. Now, with many organisations moving to permanent hybrid or home working schedules, it’s become increasingly important for these workers ‘left at home’ to feel they are represented in the workplace and don’t suffer from proximity bias.

This refers to the cognitive bias that occurs when individuals favour or give more weight to information, ideas, or people that are physically or geographically closer to them. It’s a tendency to rely on or prioritise information that is readily or easily accessible, often overlooking or undervaluing more distant or less accessible alternatives. In the workplace, managers are seen to give preferential treatment to workers they are more familiar with because they are physically ‘in the office’. Because they are visible, they are then seen as more productive or as having more dedication to their role.

This bias can limit exposure to different ideas, perspectives, and experiences, potentially leading to a narrower view or a limited understanding of an issue. This can be problematical for employees in that they can get left out of decision-making processes and project assignments, become disengaged and demotivated, which ultimately hinders their success, career, and wellbeing. From an organisational perspective these attitudes can alienate remote workers, divide teams, and damage the overall company culture.

Anyone can fall victim to proximity bias and either intentionally or unintentionally promote it, so it’s something leaders need to be aware of to ensure it doesn’t stop the promotion of inclusivity and diversity and allows the perspectives, knowledge, and insight of physically distant people to be heard.

Overcoming biases is an ongoing process that requires conscious effort and continuous self-reflection, and as remote work is here to stay, managers need to understand proximity bias and build strategies to reduce it.

Leading in the hybrid world

For large numbers of people working wherever and whenever they want is now a reality. However, whilst increased flexibility and reduced commuting times are a positive for employees, leaders are dealing with the reality of a hybrid working model.

Leading a hybrid team can be complex. Leaders have to create a collaborative, cohesive culture that merges remote workers with office-based teams. They need to maintain consistently high performance and productivity and deal with interpersonal conflict. They also need to engage and develop talent, lead and support change initiatives, establish goals and priorities and create a sense of inclusion and belonging.

Leaders need to focus on:

1.     Communication: In a hybrid workplace, communication is more important than ever. Leaders must ensure that all team members feel included, informed, and engaged, regardless of where they work. Regular communication channels should be established, such as weekly team meetings, daily check-ins, and virtual office hours. Leaders should also make an effort to communicate in multiple formats, such as video calls, emails, and instant messaging, to accommodate different working styles and schedules.

2.     Flexibility: The hybrid workplace requires leaders to be more flexible in terms of work schedules, work arrangements, and deadlines. Leaders should be open to accommodating different work styles and preferences, and be willing to adapt to the needs of their team members. They should also provide the necessary resources and tools to enable remote workers to be productive and successful.

3.     Trust: Trust is a key component of effective leadership in the hybrid workplace. Leaders must trust their team members to work independently and manage their time effectively, while also being available for collaboration and communication. This requires clear expectations, open communication, and a culture of accountability.

4.     Inclusion: In a hybrid workplace, it's important to ensure that all team members feel included and valued, regardless of where they work. Leaders should be proactive in creating opportunities for team building, such as virtual social events and team-building activities, to foster a sense of community and connection.

5.     Technology: Technology plays a critical role in the hybrid workplace, and leaders must ensure that their team members have access to the tools and resources they need to be productive and successful. This includes providing remote workers with the necessary hardware, software, and training to use technology effectively, as well as ensuring that in-person and remote workers can collaborate seamlessly.

6.     Feedback: Providing regular feedback is essential in the hybrid workplace to ensure that team members are on track and achieving their goals. Leaders should establish a regular feedback schedule and be proactive in providing both positive feedback and constructive criticism.

Overall, effective leadership in the hybrid workplace requires a combination of clear communication, building trust, flexibility, embracing technology, and creating a culture of inclusivity. With these key aspects in mind, leaders can effectively manage and guide their teams and achieve their organisational goals regardless of where they work.

Loneliness and isolation in the hybrid workplace

Long before the pandemic and the rise of working from home, loneliness and isolation was something felt by a number of office-based employees. Even if they were based in modern, open-plan offices designed to help collaboration, there was often little actual face-to-face communication. The increase in hybrid working has in many instances led to workers becoming even more isolated from other team members.

A report by Buffer (State of Remote Work 2022) found an increase in the number of remote and hybrid workers struggling with loneliness, from 20% in 2020 to 24% in 2022. It also found that 52% of employees globally felt less connected to their co-workers since they started remote working. Another study from Totaljobs found 60% of employees reported feeling lonely in their professional life, citing continued home working and irregular office patterns as increasing the problem.

By its nature hybrid working can accentuate feelings of isolation and disconnection by allowing siloed cliques and networks to develop and create distinct work experiences, cultures, and groups. Employees who are back in the office full-time can become dominant as they are able to centrally control information, knowledge and responsibilities. Teamwork, which generally improves the quality of a person’s working life, simply increases the issues within teams that have always existed - composition, interdependence and differences in working hours – whilst meetings where part of the team is in the office and the other is remote can easily become unbalanced and increase feelings of disconnection.

The feelings of isolation however, are not always related to the lack of interaction with colleagues, but rather to the feeling of exclusion that they have. In a 2020 Igloo study, almost 60% of teleworkers surveyed said they didn’t have certain information because it was communicated in person with 55% reported being excluded from meetings because they weren’t physically present.

Social isolation is one of the greatest risks hybrid workers face but there are some activities and strategies that can stop employees from feeling professionally isolated:

1. Regular face-to-face interactions

Make sure colleagues often meet in person by creating opportunities for informal chats, so people can share information and get to know one another better.

2. Communicate well

Use different channels to communicate with colleagues. Be transparent, and keep everyone in the loop in terms of work and, if they are happy to do so, what’s going on in their personal lives.

3. Evolve learning and development

Set up processes that work in a hybrid setup, e.g. days when junior employees can work with their line managers in the office. If possible invest in learning platforms and tools suitable for hybrid environments to enable people to develop their knowledge and skills.

4. Improve leadership

Leaders need to know how to manage in the hybrid world, to understand and spot any potential challenges and provide a role model to their teams.

5. Enhance onboarding

An in-person onboarding process is essential.  As well as work-led and social buddies, leaders need to be involved in the process to enable new employees settle smoothly into the company and their role.

Although hybrid working is often presented as the future of work and does bring many benefits, it is becoming obvious that there are some problems in its implementation and one of these is that more people feel lonely at work than ever before. A feeling of isolation at home, a lack of genuine connection to other team members, lack of belonging within the company culture, or even lack of visibility and recognition can all contribute to a sensation of loneliness at work.

Loneliness and isolation can be an issue regardless of whether employees are in a physical or virtual working environment but if a company doesn’t make an effort to address these issues, the hybrid work model will only have a negative impact on employee cohesion and motivation.