Working from Home: Trust at Last

​Over the last few years more companies have 'talked' about agile working, including those companies that design workplace strategy and in agile working, but the reality is few take their own advice.Many bosses are uncomfortable with the notion of staff being out of sight and out of mind if they aren't on site, with the conclusion being a drop in productivity. This is an apprehension about employee accountability, when employers have never tested this theory.

Perhaps this is an ideology that stems from the industrial revolution, ‘be seen to be paid!’ Back then people were paid for their time, which was the same mentality as hiring labourers to work on the land. Time is measurable, but now most companies produce services, which is communicated intangibly.

COVID-19 could finally reframe employers views on supervision, so the technological advances will allow them to function without physically being on site.  The one thing employers will have to rediscover is ‘trust’ and in reverse whether they have done enough to earn their employees trust back. We are now putting it to the test, but the real test is to see those environments that have changed as a result of these experiences.