Remote employees still feel undervalued, report claims

Research by BT reveals that flexible workers need better management to feel part of the team

Flexible working is set to boom over the next year, but remote workers are drawing the short straw in terms of support and promotion, research has claimed.

Despite more firms gearing up to offer flexible working over the coming eight months due to new government legislation released in May, poorly trained management can leave employees feeling out of the loop and overlooked for promotion, BT has claimed.

Figures released by telephony giant, which has also launched a remote working toolkit, have revealed that 88 per cent of managers have never received training on how to manage remote workers and are not familiar with their IT requirements.

This lack of management expertise risks promoting feelings of isolation among remote workers and encouraging the culture of presenteeism, where staff feel that coming in early, staying late and battling on when they are ill is expected, BT also claimed.

BT’s figures showed that almost a quarter (23 per cent) of employees are concerned that colleagues will accuse them of skiving if they work from home. A further 47 per cent of remote workers felt they were missing out on the camaraderie, gossip and banter of the office, despite feeling they were more effective when working from home. In addition, 22 per cent said they lacked the IT support to work effectively from home.

Bill Murphy, managing director of BT Business, said: “Work is no longer a place you go, but something you do. Information and communications technology has provided the means for millions of people to work remotely yet many businesses are hampered by outdated management techniques.

“We have seen huge benefits from remote working for many years internally at BT, which is why we have created this definitive toolkit aimed at equipping managers to help their workers truly take their office anywhere.”