What is WFH? Optimizing WFH efficiency for individuals and businesses

1. What is WFH?

WFH is an acronym from the English phrase - Work From Home, which means "Work from home" or "Work remotely". In other words, WFH refers to a form of work where employees do not have to come to work directly at the company's office or factory.

WFH has appeared for a long time, applied in certain jobs and industries. However, by 2020, this trend will become more popular than ever due to the fluctuations of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Also from here, Work from home is considered an effective way for businesses to cope with Covid to limit the infection as well as maintain their business operations.

This trend brings businesses many positive benefits such as:

• More than 85% of organizations have seen an increase in productivity.
• 65% of organizations say that allowing flexible workspaces can save them a lot of money.
• 80% of surveyed workers are more interested in companies with flexible telecommuting policies.

Here are the figures showing the dynamic unfolding of the WFH trend:

• According to a survey from Gartner, up to 88% of businesses around the world have encouraged or forced employees to work from home.
• If from the beginning of 2020, only businesses located in countries with a high rate of Covid-19 infection will allow employees to work from home. By mid-2020, when the epidemic situation became stressful covering the whole world, most businesses would apply this policy.
• To date, about 33% of companies in the US, typically Twitter, are planning to implement WFH permanently for most job positions. In addition, more than 55% of units plan to increase their internal budget to optimize the WFH structure.
• Changing company culture is one of the most important elements of WFH adoption. WFH has allowed to eliminate the traditional way of working, to raise the awareness and responsibility of employees.

2. Advantages and disadvantages of WFH

After learning about the concept of WFH , Viindoo invites you to continue to follow the advantages and disadvantages of remote working that WFH brings.

2.1 For individuals

A Stanford University study found that remote workers are 13% more productive and 50% less likely to quit than employees who work in the office. of Buffer, remote workers feel happier and more satisfied with their jobs than employees who work in the office.

More specifically, for employees, the WFH trend shows great advantages as follows:

• Labor productivity is higher because employees are actively monitored as well as arrange time to complete work, work-life balance is also easier.
• Minimizing possible risks on the way to work such as traffic accidents, health insecurity due to pollution, etc.
• Save time traveling to the office, cut almost completely other costs incurred such as petrol, parking tickets, clothes, equipment, etc.
• When working from home, the spirit will be relaxed, less pressured. Imagine if you had to wake up early in the morning and rush to move on busy traffic-filled roads, when you go to the office, your energy and spirit will also be reduced a bit, right? any?
• People working from home will not need to wear the old uniform, but can wear whatever they feel most comfortable and easy to focus on.
• In the home office corner, each individual can freely arrange and design in any style that makes them feel comfortable and always have the best working state.
• When working at home, individuals will not be disturbed or distracted by noises from colleagues, pressured words from superiors. Thanks to that, the working spirit will always be the best to focus the brain to handle the work.

In addition to the advantages mentioned above, WFH also causes some disadvantages for employees as follows:

• If employees cannot manage and control work and time, it is easy to fall into an inefficient working situation.
• If employees are easily distracted, they will immediately be affected by loved ones, especially children around. If this happens often, it will reduce the performance and quality of the work done.
• It is because of the comfort of space that sometimes makes employees easy to isolate themselves, gradually losing initiative, flexibility as well as professionalism in teamwork.
• Another disadvantage of the WFH working model is the lack of connection and understanding between employees in the same team or department. Since then, it is difficult for all employees to work together smoothly to complete a common project and strategy.

2.2 For businesses

Figures on the benefits of WFH to business are also included in studies and reports, for example:

• According to a report by FlexJobs, businesses with WFH policies have higher employee retention rates and significantly reduced turnover rates compared to businesses without this policy.
• According to a report by Global Workplace Analytics, businesses with WFH policies can save between $2,500 and $4,000 per year for each remote employee by reducing office costs.

Here is a summary of the great benefits that businesses will get once they implement a work-from-home policy:

• WFH joint allows businesses to expand their human resources, especially high-quality human resources from all over the world. Recruiting talent is completely easy.
• When implementing WFH in their units, businesses can save a large amount of costs such as electricity, water, space costs, working equipment and other related costs.
• Businesses will easily adapt to all digital transformation trends in human resource management in the current 4.0 technology era.

Besides the expected advantages, the implementation of WFH sometimes also causes businesses to face difficulties such as:

• Managers have difficulty in monitoring and supervising the working process of subordinate employees. If the management process is not good, it will easily affect the plan as well as the overall work progress.
• Administrators carry out all management processes through online means. Therefore, it is difficult to directly urge and check the reports from employees.

3. How to work from home effectively

Currently, there are many individuals and businesses struggling to find ways to implement WFH effectively. Let's explore the detailed solution with Viindoo below.

3.1 For businesses

For the most effective implementation of WFH, businesses need to implement the following methods:

• Divide tasks, clear work items, have a sample daily work checklist for individuals, teams, and detailed projects.
• Develop a method of attendance, timekeeping and monitoring the work process carefully.
• Apply clear and fair reward and punishment policies for all WFH employees.
• Equip employees with a full range of electronic devices and technologies to help WFH work.
• Ask employees to write and complete their daily to-do list, then continue to report on work progress through task management software.
• Set up smart measures to control employees when logging in and out on the company's common software system.

3.2 For individuals

As technology advances, more and more companies allow employees to work from home. Understanding this trend, below Viindoo will introduce some tips to help each WFH employee always do their job well:

• Establish a healthy routine by sleeping on time and waking up early. Then, start your day with some gentle exercise and a nutritious breakfast. Each person can drink a small cup of coffee to keep the mind alert when working.
• Using the work area at home is airy, quiet, easy to inspire creativity. Make sure your wifi network and internet are always stable.
• Eliminate all factors that can be annoying when working online such as chat applications, social networks, online newspapers, unnecessary calls ...
• Plan your work by writing daily checklists and stick to them. Important tasks should be highlighted so that they can be done first.
• Interact and connect regularly with colleagues and superiors through messages, emails. This helps employees grasp the status of each other's work progress in order to arrange and support in a scientific and effective way.
• Take time to rest, ensure good physical and mental health in order to sustainably meet the work.

4. Distinguish Work From Home and Work At Home

Work From Home and Work At Home are two terms that are used very commonly today. So these two terms mean 100% or not? To distinguish these two terms, besides the answers about Work From Home as above, we need to understand what the concept of Work At Home is.

What is Work at Home? Work at home is also a form of working from home. It can be seen that the similarity between these two forms is the working position. However, the main difference of Work From Home compared to Work At Home is:

• Work From Home is a job that works offline but is converted to online work to optimize efficiency as well as save office costs.
• Work from home means working remotely for organizations and businesses, for many reasons that workers cannot come to the office. Meanwhile, Work at home is more often related to business.

Through this article, Vietnam Manpower has answered what WFH is as well as the positive benefits that this form of work brings to individuals and businesses today. Viindoo wishes your businesses to soon implement the most effective and productive Work From Home policy!