Remote work brings many challenges – both for the employee and for the employer. All of these issues can be addressed, but it is important that you understand exactly what remote workforce management is like and what it can entail with a proper employee activity monitoring software.
Difficulties that comes in Remote Working
Time zone problems during remote work
One of the many challenges is of course the question of time zones. You may have employees who work in the Pacific time zone while others work in Moscow Standard Time. That is a 10-hour difference that can be difficult to overcome. Now you can eliminate it with a proper productivity monitoring software.
Different time zones can not only lead to communication problems, but also to delays in production, delivery and project completion. If employees don’t answer questions until 10 hours later, it will certainly slow down your team’s work.
To overcome this challenge, you can hire staff who are in adjacent time zones or make sure you only hold staff meetings when everyone is at work.
Data security
When your employees are on the other side of the world, ensuring data security can be complex, a good employee monitoring software can help you resolve that issue.
Even with everything stored in the cloud, a careless employee can still download too much data and use it against you.
Security experts recommend restricting access to confidential and critical information. You should also have a security monitoring computer activities system that can notify you when large amounts of data are downloaded.
Linguistic and cultural barriers during remote work
An international team is great as long as these differences don’t become an obstacle. In almost every country in the world, there are different customs and traditions so that this will inevitably lead to problems at some point.
When two people grew up in different areas and have completely different experiences and views, there is a greater chance that things will be taken out of context or go in the wrong direction.
Fortunately, like any other, you can overcome this challenge with a little practice. First, give each new member a chance to share some of the most common insights into their field. The aim is for these differences to be eliminated immediately and for your team to understand that accidents can occur due to diversity.
Do your employees remote work?
The main concern of employers when it comes to hiring remote workers is whether they are actually doing the job they were hired to do. If you work from home and have no one to look over your shoulder, it’s very easy to drift into the world of memes and videos.
Fortunately, there are several remote employee activity monitoring software out there that can help you with this (but we’ll get into that in more detail later).
Advantages and disadvantages of using remote work
As you can see, managing remote teams has its challenges and disadvantages, but it’s not all bad news – having a distributed workforce has its advantages too.
- It’s cost-effective as you reduce office space, office equipment, furniture, etc.
- You have instant access to a global pool of talent as you are not tied to a specific location.
- Remote teams have a higher retention rate because 8 out of 10 remote workers are happy with their job.
- 77% of teleworkers say they have become more productive since working outside the office.
After all, 79% of workers agree that they would be more loyal to an employer that offered flexibility.
In addition to the challenges mentioned above, there are also some downsides to remote teams.
Employees can be more distracted as there are many more distractions at home or in a coffee shop than in the office.
Communication problems can arise from a lack of clarity, diversity, and unsuitable tools.
Remote workers can be more difficult to discipline because they live on the other side of the world.
- On a remote team, you rely heavily on technology, and when something breaks you can lose hours or days fixing it.
- As your team grows, team management becomes complicated as you have to keep track of 50 people in 50 different locations. It is not easy to keep track of the working hours, vacation, salary, etc. of all employees.
What are the advantages for your employees?
Now you know what’s good for you and how your business can benefit from a distributed team. But you should also know and remember that teleworking benefits workers.
Employees appreciate working remotely because it makes them flexible with the best free ems software. You can choose where to work and often when to work. This is a great benefit for people who have long commutes to work or for working parents who want to spend more time with their family.
Remote working also means lower costs for workers as they do not have to spend money on trains, buses, or gasoline. Working off-site can also be good for your health, as working from home definitely reduces stress levels and you can track it with employee activity monitoring software.
