If a company has financial problems, the burden should be shared among all, not just affecting the homeworkers. If there are no financial problems, there should be no excuse for not paying homeworkers on time.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.neuropool.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/woman-video-conference-call-her-home-office-during-coronavirus-pandemic.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
How to motivate and work with home-based workers: Managing home-based workers, i.e. employees who work from home, often requires extra work, but is definitely worth it in the end for the employer.
Contrary to the trend towards \"collaboration\" in open-plan offices, market research shows that employees are happier and more productive overall when they work mainly from home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, working from home does not work automatically. If employers and managers want their companies and teams to succeed, they must learn to motivate and engage remote workers.<\/p>\n
Unlike employees who travel to and from work every day, employees who work from home are less influenced by the behaviour of their colleagues. They may not be inspired by good role models, but they also do not adopt bad habits from colleagues.
The lack of pressure to conform means that managers need to take more responsibility for ensuring that homeworkers are connected to organisational goals and expectations. This is especially true for organisations where successful behaviour is normalised.<\/p>\n
If possible, home workers should come to the office at least once a week to keep the inner connection. Only about one third of all employees who work full-time directly in the company feel defined by belonging and responsibility through the company. But the same is true for home workers who only ever work from home.
The sense of belonging is highest among employees who come to work one or two days a week and work from home the rest of the week. They stay connected but retain their independence.<\/p>\n
If the home worker lives too far away to come to work occasionally, schedule frequent work meetings, provide coaching and give the worker a sense of priorities and how things work or change within the organisation.
As a manager, it is important to remember that home workers do not know what they do not know and therefore cannot judge when to connect.
95 per cent of communication between managers and home workers can be done by email and mobile phone. Video conferences are usually not necessary. It is only important to stay in touch regularly.<\/p>\n
As there are no visual cues to assess emotions in written correspondence, employees working from home can easily worry about a reaction from the manager. Often a written comment, for example through text message or email, is interpreted differently than it is meant because the visual context is missing. Such misunderstandings can distract from the work.
The easiest way to avoid this is to create an atmosphere of openness and quick response. When homeworkers know they will get feedback when something is wrong, they are less likely to have problems that don't exist.<\/p>\n
Many companies put freelancers, who usually work from home, at the bottom of the payroll. Not being paid on time means that home-based workers are not really part of the team and their contribution is not valued enough.
If a company has financial problems, the burden should be shared among all, not just affecting the homeworkers. If there are no financial problems, there should be no excuse for not paying homeworkers on time.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n