Employees managed to adopt remote working quickly and with relative ease, but what about management? According to a new report from VMware, it’s complicated; the C-suite and other managers are having trouble adapting to the new normal and being at peace with the ‘out of sight’ employee.
Polling 2,850 HR leaders and IT decision makers from EMEA, the firm uncovered that almost four in ten worry their team will lose focus due to remote working. More than a quarter said the Board discourages remote working, while half (53 percent) feel pressured into being online after-hours.
According to VMware, traditional management thinking and practices need a “top-down shakeup” if businesses are to fully embrace hybrid and remote working.
The study also notes that the number of employees across the UK who consider remote working a prerequisite rather than a perk has jumped 41 percent since the start of the pandemic, rising to 53 percent among Gen X workers.
The benefits for employees are clear as day: they are more productive, spend more time with their families and are able to compete for jobs on a much larger geographical scale.
Kristine Dahl Steidel, VP EUC EMEA at VMware, said that with this digital foundation companies “need to instil the right culture and leadership approach to create a new way of work.”
