Telecommuting supports and facilitates work-life balance, as it allows for a balance between personal and professional life. Working from home offers flexibility and a healthy balance. Telecommuting can be an excellent option to level our work and family life, as long as we learn to establish clear boundaries between both aspects of our lives.
It is one of the most sought-after options today by users when looking for new job opportunities.
Reorganizing to Support Telecommuting and Improve Work-Life Balance
Telecommuting is already a measure of reconciliation between work and personal life.
Reconciliation is the possibility for a worker to balance work responsibilities with the rest of their personal obligations. These commitments are related to home care or family dedication. Likewise, it has been proven that productivity in telecommuting tends to have positive results. Remote workers must meet the same objectives as office workers, including their working hours.
There are measures for work-life balance in telecommuting that the company can implement so that the worker can carry out their professional tasks within a family environment without feeling overwhelmed by the situation, including the following:
Objectives
Here, we refer to flexibility in setting goals, without the need for a fixed working schedule. This way, workers with young children can take advantage of moments when the children are sleeping to work more efficiently.
Organization
The company should establish priorities in the tasks assigned to the worker, distinguishing between what is urgent or important and secondary tasks. This allows the worker to better organize their workday, focusing on what is priority and fitting secondary tasks into other moments throughout the workday.
It is also important to have a well-defined work environment at home, a comfortable place free of distractions where one can work comfortably and without interruptions.
Appropriate Technology
Thanks to the technological tools available today, working from home does not pose an obstacle to performing tasks optimally.
But to be truly effective in telecommuting, it is necessary to have the right technology to carry it out. The company must ensure that the teleworker has the necessary equipment to perform their functions. It will have to guarantee a good connection to its servers and networks and even provide computer equipment to workers who do not have it.
Rest
Telecommuting does not mean that we have to keep communication channels open permanently. Rest days and weekends must be respected, establishing a schedule to be able to contact the worker. This way, their disconnection is respected, which is considered necessary to achieve greater performance.
Motivation
Offering rewards for a job well done can help maintain workers’ motivation.
The option for the company to hold webinars of interest to the worker or related to their hobbies or interests is an excellent way to retain talent and make telecommuters feel valued by the company.
Benefits of Telecommuting for Work-Life Balance
Given the current situation, studies have been conducted revealing that 72% of professionals attribute their lack of productivity to interruptions and noise generated by the office itself. Some may experience stress from having to take public transportation for long periods of time to get to work, or from difficulty reconciling their personal and professional lives, etc.
Thus, companies choose to offer the opportunity to work from home, which, in turn, reduces the possibility of this stress “spreading within the organization” and achieves greater employee well-being, thereby eliminating the risk of burnout. Telecommuting is also a determining factor both when changing jobs and in avoiding absenteeism within companies.
In any case, and to summarize, among the main benefits of telecommuting are the following:
- It allows for greater flexibility to adapt the workday and accommodate it to personal needs.
- We save time on commuting.
- We reduce expenses related to work, such as transportation, meals outside, and work attire.
- It provides us with greater autonomy and self-regulation.
- It increases productivity since the employee is more focused at home and has fewer distractions.
- It allows all workers to have their own physical and mental space, ensuring higher quality in performing their duties and in the ideas they generate.