The 3 Biggest Challenges to Remote Work

By Darriona Bible

Working remote can be a lot of fun and make you feel like more of adult than you already are. Pretty much working when you want from where you want, is a benefit most look for often. Remote work can have its pros and cons, but with now facing a pandemic, forced remote work has brought on some challenges. Employee freedom from being chained to their desk has brought on disorganization with loss of focus, while hindering the knowledge transfer and employee so impact. Now than ever employers need a plan to regroup employees working from home.

Organization and Focus

Managing employees off site can be a challenge. When you live where you work, you tend to have another level of comfort. The day is automatically set at a pace of ease and might not even require you to move from bed to successfully do the job that pays for such comfort. Such flexibility is a number one concern for most employers with having employees work remote. Distractions are now maximized and not just limited to the ones in office. Work time management easily gets mixed into personal time management by doing laundry or walking the dog. It is important for employers to set clear goals and expectations for remote employees due to keeping focus. Without structure and deadlines an employee’s overall performance and the company will suffer due to the accessible leisure time.

Knowledge transfer

When you work in an office setting, sharing a task on your desk with a colleague can happen in a matter of seconds. This is a full circle collaboration. The ability to answer, question, and share critical information with a coworker happen instantaneously all while being able to gage the full understanding of the conversation in person.  While working remote is ideal for some, quick market changes will have a more delayed impact on those not siting in the office. If an organization does not have a knowledge management system in place for remote workers, it limits the organization growth and ability to understand where they can improve for future expansion.

Social Impact

Physical interaction with others can have a positive impact for many jobs. When working remote employees find themselves getting stuck behind emails, phone call and SMS. It readily becomes a comfort zone, not realizing they are now becoming socially impaired to do business face to face.  It is important that remote workers try to meet colleagues in terms of a project, not only because social contact helps with productivity, but to also find ways to continuously connect with others. For employers to keep their employees socially active they should promote socially-distanced and safe networking events. 

Remote work is not the worst thing for a company to do for employees, if actively monitored. Now that many offices are opening back up, employers are beginning to consider long term plans for remote work.

What other considerations should employers have when developing a remote work plan?