Checklist for managing the health of remote workers

  • Overview
Wellbeing at Work
Remote workers face unique challenges, it’s therefore important for a line manager to ask the right questions so that they can understand if there any complex issues that they might be dealing with.

Remote lifestyle questions

  • What’s the most challenging part of your daily work routine right now?
  • Do you have an office set up at home that you are comfortable with?
  • What’s one thing we could get for you that would make your work easier or better?
  • What’s the most important thing we could do to help you be more productive remotely?
  • How do you manage distractions during the day? Is it a challenge for you?
  • What have you found most challenging or surprising about working remotely?
  • What helps you feel connected to others when working remotely? You should highlight that loneliness may make it worse
  • Do you think you can fully disconnect at the end of the day? If not, how can I help you with this?
  • What do you do to recharge each day?

Team engagement questions

  • What do you want to learn more about our team or the company?
  • Do you feel included in our team decisions?
  • Do you feel the company supports remote staff effectively? Are there aspects we could improve upon?
  • How are the tools we use as a team working out for you remotely?
  • What challenges do you feel you have compared to when working in the office?
  • Are there any tools that we should try out that could help us improve our remote culture?
  • Are our meetings friendly to remote workers? What could we improve?
  • Do you think our decision-making process works effectively while also supporting our remote culture? Have you seen a decision drag out for too long lately?

Connection questions

  • Has remote working affected your connection with co-workers?
  • Which of your co-workers do you wish you had more of a connection with? How do you think that would help?
  • When you have a creative idea or epiphany, what do you do with it now?
  • Do you feel like you have opportunities for “water-cooler” type discussions with the team to help you spur on ideas?
  • Do you feel supported by the team so that you could go to anyone asking them for help?

For more guidance read our recent whitepaper 'The effects of remote working on stress, wellbeing and productivity'. Alternatively, please visit here for further information.

Download this article as a PDF.

Last updated Thursday 1 October 2020

First published on Monday 1 June 2020

Wellbeing at Work