Biz leaders feel employees working from home have productivity of 65 pc: Report

With working from home becoming a way of life amid the coronavirus lockdown, business leaders feel their employees' current productivity is at 65 per cent, according to a report.

However, employees believe their productivity is around 78 per cent, according to the report by Bengaluru-based research firm Feedback Insights.

The report was based on a survey among 550 respondents -- 450 employees and 100 business leaders -- across 18 sectors, including auto components, chemical, construction, consumer durables, glass, electrical, electronics, packaging, logistics, machine tools, information technology and others.

Further, the survey revealed that around 65 per cent of employees are concerned about personal wellbeing, a lack of connectedness with the team and overall anxiety about the job environment.

Also, network issues (56 per cent) and frequent distractions at home (47 per cent) are the other key challenges faced by employees.

Business leaders (58 per cent) indicated managing teams remotely to be their biggest challenge.

About 50 per cent of business leaders also flagged data security and regulations to be a major area of concern, it said.

The report said 47 per cent of leaders believe that to allay any concerns and to work around the issues while working remotely, an emphasis on positive or consistent communication is essential.

It found that 73 per cent leaders said e-mails and phone calls are still the primary mode for communication.

Use of collaboration platforms is more prevalent (40 per cent) in industries such as the auto industry, IT services and certain teams in manufacturing organisations, it added.

More than half the leaders (53 per cent) believe that employees should focus on the future and upskill themselves keeping in mind changing business trends, given the possible business changes post the lockdown.

About 32 per cent leaders said that going forward, firms should channelise their efforts towards redefining themselves in this changing scenario.

The other top priorities would be to ensure that employees are future ready through training and upskilling (24 per cent) and maintaining employee morale and wellbeing (16 per cent), it added.