The voice of the crowd WFH report 2020
May 23, 2020
Written by Dr. Richard Claydon
The COVID-19 WFH experiment has been lauded as a success by many organisations around the world, with evidence of a surge in productivity and engagement in employees working from home for the first time.
But are we hearing the full story? What is WFH actually doing to our employees? What are the benefits and risks to an organisation during the experiment?
Especially, what are the risks of losing the ability to hear what your employees are saying about their organisational experience? Pretty much all informal chatter has been silenced, and formal surveys limit this chatter to pre-determined responses. They don't really capture the zeitgeist.
We have used Phrasia's deep listening technology to hear what people around the world are really saying about the experience of WFH during COVID-19.
Some of it is wonderful. People are talking about being more focused, more flexible and having more freedom to do the work in a way that makes sense to them.
Some of it is very worrying. People are talking about feeling isolated and overwhelmed, and or losing motivation and purpose. These are key predictors of decreased psychological wellness. It's going to be impossible to have a productive and engaged workforce if everyone is struggling with their mental health.
Our report illustrates what people are really saying about the WFH experience across the world, examines a range of explanations for the variations of the WFH Experience, and makes suggestions on how organisations need to adjust their practices to enable a productive and engaged future rather than one beset with anxiety and overwhelm.
One of the things we've seen in the COVID world is how creative and collaborative people can be under pressure. This is one such collaborative effort between Phrasia and The Human Factor, with further contributions to graphics and micro-learning from Stone Changes, Knowmium, the GFG Alliance and Performance Team, and Dowse CSP.
