Breaklounge: Remote Work that Feels Good

Remote work and hybrid working environments: Success doesn't come by itself!

How do we want to work in the future? More remote or more hybrid? Both offer great opportunities – for employees and companies. Employees don’t stress because of commuting and can better adapt their workday to their own needs. This increases happiness and ensures a better work-life balance. Companies increase the potential talent pool, enhance their own attractiveness as an employer and can reduce costs for office space and travel.

Hybrid working environments need new concepts

One thing is certain: Hybrid working environements (alternating between remote work and on-site presence in the office) is the working model of the future. However, it is also clear that remote work must be more than just typical office work, just done from home. Remote work that feels good needs new ideas and concepts for leadership, virtual collaboration and for informal communication

Remote work: The pitfalls

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In a survey by the Adecco Group, around two-thirds of respondents stress the importance of face-to-face meetings with the team.

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According to a Harvard Business Review study, remote employees communicate 80% less than on-site employees.

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Between 20% and well over 50% of remote workers feel partially or permanently lonely and isolated.

Remote Work: The downsides

Challenges

Isolation

Workers who work remotely or in a home office for longer periods of time are more likely to feel alone and isolated than those who work in a regular office setting. The consequences are declining work performance, decreasing motivation and an increasing feeling of alienation.

Emotional Bond

Employees who feel left behind in the home office are increasingly alienated from their employer. If the emotional bond is missing, it is always easier to change jobs, especially for managers.

Lack of Ideas

Many ideas arise during spontaneous exchanges at the coffee machine during breaks. Remote workers lack these opportunities to talk. As a result, creative ideas are scarce and innovations are slowed down.

Distance Leadership

Leadership is very often based on small agreements during a coffee break or a spontaneous meeting. Leadership in remote work environments require a new leadership culture in order to be practiced successfully.

Remote Work?

Not everything is perfect.

More than 50% of our employees work remotely. For us, the biggest challenge is managing these employees. Because many interpersonal short conversations, with which you can quickly discuss problems, suddenly fall away.

HR Manager

By working from home, I gain more time and save money by eliminating the daily commute. But I miss the conversations with colleagues, where I got to hear a lot about what was going on in the company. The bond with the job and the company decreases.

Employee

Remote Work: Get it right

Three tips for successful remote work

Encourage social exchange

Coffee breaks are important hygiene factors in companies. They help prevent dissatisfaction and are indispensable for the emergence of new creative ideas as well as for leadership and motivation. Therefore: Create virtual coffee kitchens as a space for spontaneous virtual meetings and the social balance.

Support Executives

Leadership in remote work environments work differently. Support managers with modern tools and methods. This includes software solutions such as Breaklounge. But also methods for conducting conversations as well as for recognizing health problems.

Get Active

Give employees not only passive formats, such as intranets. Create opportunities for your employees to actively interact and communicate with colleagues, such as brain walks and other sharing formats.

The New Reality

Breaklounge focuses on people and the team

The office in not only a place in which tasks are completed. It’s a place where people meet each other and where social networks are formed. The joint break, the chance to meet at the coffee machine and an spontaneous informal conversation can transform a task which is perceived as irrelevant into something meaningful.

Informal talks are essential. More and more companies are realizing that they need to create communication channelsthat their employees can also use in the home office to share professional experiences and adventures.