As employees continue to be forced home during the pandemic, nearly half of them are reporting high levels of exhaustion, a new study has found. The study was conducted by Virtira Consulting and reveals that 49 percent of employees experience a high degree of exhaustion from being required or pressured to be on camera during online meetings. […]
As employees continue to be forced home during the pandemic, nearly half of them are reporting high levels of exhaustion, a new study has found.
The study was conducted by Virtira Consulting and reveals that 49 percent of employees experience a high degree of exhaustion from being required or pressured to be on camera during online meetings.
The “Webcam Survey: Exhausted or Engaged?” provides insights from more than 1,700 managers and employees about the direct impact that company policies on the use of video during online meetings have on the well-being of employees. The survey also examines whether other factors contribute to the high incidence of reported employee exhaustion.
As businesses adapt and learn from the remote-work experiment, many have implemented policies regarding remote work based on opinion rather than data — causing a negative impact on employees.
Our research shows the impact that remote work and COVID-19 have had on how managers are meeting with their teams. In my conversations with business leaders throughout the pandemic, the majority said that employees on webcams during meetings increased engagement and productivity, but our study clearly shows it can have the opposite effect.
The survey comes at a time when remote work is increasingly a mainstay of business life around the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Especially with up to 80 percent of businesses reporting that they will move toward a fully remote or hybrid/flex model in the future, understanding what policies create effective and productive work-from-home employees and office-based workers is going to be critical moving forward — if businesses want to increase productivity and move beyond the pandemic.
For additional results, visit the survey page at https://virtira.com/resources/webcam-survey-excutive-summary/. To view the full analysis, you can read the report at https://info.virtira.com/webcam-survey.
The key findings reveal the following:
• More than 49 percent of individuals report being exhausted due to being on a webcam. With current estimates of over 25 million employees working at home and another 41 million at the office or in a flexible commuting arrangement, this means that the rate of exhaustion could exist in more than 30 million people;
• 61 percent of those surveyed reported that all meetings they attend are conducted on video for all participants;
• More than 60 percent of respondents reported that the number of meetings they attend has increased significantly since the pandemic;
• Over 65 percent of responses indicate that being on video is best used for team engagement and connection; however, only 11 percent reported that the camera was used this way; and,
• More than 25 percent reported feeling peer pressure to turn on their cameras even if it was not a requirement.
Cynthia Watson (formerly Cynthia Spraggs) is CEO of Virtira Consulting (www.virtira.com), which provides advisory and professional services to some of the world’s largest companies to increase remote team productivity.
