Besides rapidly improving technology, the ever-changing work culture is a critical factor in transforming the landscape of organizational workplaces. Flexible work is becoming increasingly common among progressive companies throughout the world. According to LinkedIn’s Talent Group Trends Report 2019, 72 percent of talent experts agree that flexible work arrangement will be crucial for HR and recruitment. Also, in the last few years, a massive 78 percent increase in LinkedIn job posts advertising remote work and virtual assistant services has been observed.
All these trends show that remote work is here to stay in the future, and it’s not just a temporary shift in the job market right now. Like the regular workplace, remote work also has its limitations, and those working in this specific work arrangement regularly face some obstacles which their employers need to overcome from time to time. Now, let’s discuss some of the biggest challenges faced by remote workers and how you can solve them:
Disconnect from Company Culture
Most of the remote employees report the constant disconnect from the company’s culture and lack of community as one of the most significant drawbacks of remote work. They often complain about the lack of opportunities to connect and engage with their peers, which often results in weak working relationships with their in-house co-workers.
There is often a lack of understanding of the organizational vision, mission, and values from remote staff. All of these lead to flexible workers experiencing isolation and dissatisfaction with their responsibilities. Lower levels of retention and reliability also add up to the emotional lack of connection among employees working from home.
If your remote employees don’t build loyalty to their organization, they are more likely to look for other job opportunities. That’s why you shouldn’t ignore the significance of creating a sense of culture for your home-based workers. You can use video conferencing as a critical tool to give your distant workforce a taste of what it’s like to work in the office more often.
Accountability and Visibility
Accountability is a significant part of management through which managers evaluate distant workers based on what is required of them and what they are doing. But sometimes, it becomes cumbersome and overburdens the remote resource as they may feel they are excessively checked upon.
Visibility is also one concern as some mobile workers may need to be more visible and work for extra hours as compared to their in-house counterparts. It may be because they are not able to prioritize their work on their own, which could result in dissatisfaction, burn-out, and ultimately employee turnover.
You can solve these dilemmas by providing them with clearly defined deliverables and expectations, along with benchmarks for both employees and their managers to discuss achievements and progress. The use of centralized project management tools provides greater visibility to your remote staff without compromising their tasks.
Security Concerns
To counter cyber-terrorism, more companies are focusing their efforts on keeping their remote workers, information, and data safe from online attacks. In every office, security protocols, procedures, and policies are in place to take care of all the critical information, but that is not the case with distant employees.
It’s best to train your home-based staff on best practices to protect crucial information from online theft and ensure that they have protective software installed on their system.
Work-life Boundaries
Enhanced work-life balance is the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about a flexible workplace. But that’s not always the case with remote workers; they are more likely to be disturbed by home interruption while they are completing a task. You can deal with this problem, hire virtual assistants and personal assistants who have experience in telecommuting. You can also tell your newly hired distant employees to work in a dedicated workspace that is free of distractions from their family members.
Remote work has its advantages as well as challenges. The management must proactively deal with these obstacles and provide viable solutions like providing their remote workforce with secure technology and the right company culture to enable them towards achieving success.