One of the biggest workplace trends to arise in 2020, was the rapid adoption of remote-friendly offices. If you have recently made the switch to remote work, or if you are thinking about adopting remote work, there are plenty of reasons to do so.

While remote work has many benefits, there are also many drawbacks associated with adopting a remote work policy. Being knowledgeable about the problems of the new workplace will only help you better implement remote work policies. Below are some of the unexpected issues that can arise as you move your business operations to a more remote front.

Going Remote Will Be Costly to Implement

One of the biggest benefits of going remote is that your business will save money over time on overhead costs. In fact, the average business will save $11,000 annually per employee that goes remote.

Implementing remote work will come with some long term savings for sure, but a major problem of adopting a remote work policy is that it is usually a costly transition.

Moving from a traditional business model to a remote model will come with a grocery list of up-front purchases that will need to be made to ensure that the transition will be successful. As you move to a more remote workforce some immediate purchases you will need to make are:

●      New Software Options

More business processes are already being handled with software offerings and tech solutions. As your company moves more remote, you will likely need to use more business productivity software platforms. While it doesn’t seem like a lot, a few added software subscriptions per employee can add up quickly.

●      Home Office Equipment

When employees move home, you cannot assume that they have all the tools at home to do their job. In the office, you knew that they had a stable internet connection, a reliable computer, and a comfortable working environment. As they move home, you will need to ensure that they have all the equipment necessary to do their job.

●      Salary Increases

Something to think about as you consider adopting a remote workforce is the impact it will have on salaries within your business. Numerous companies now offer a cost of living stipend. This stipend helps equal out salaries if someone is living somewhere that is more expensive than where the headquarters of the business is.

You likely will not be able to shoulder all of the expenses yourself, nor should you be expected to. Do not let the upfront cost of moving remote stop you from doing so.

A number of businesses have been using business financing solutions to help offset the initial costs of implementing a remote workforce. Your business loan can be used to purchase equipment or increase your company’s working capital.

Before you apply for a loan, make sure that you know some important information about your business such as your credit score and your annual revenue. Lenders will often have strict requirements that must be met before you can qualify for funding. As a rule of thumb, your credit score should be around 650, and your revenue should be at least $50,000 annually.

Tracking Productivity Can Come With Problems

When working in the office, it is easy to walk over to any employee to see if they are doing their job. Now that you and your fellow employees are home, it can be much more difficult to track work and productivity.

We understand that nobody likes a hovering manager, but in times like this, tracking what employees are doing will be necessary when gauging productivity. Investing in remote time tracking software options can help provide the insight needed to optimize productivity.

Using a time tracking tool will help guarantee that all employees are held accountable for their work each and every day. When people know that they are being tracked, they will work harder than if there was no system in place.

Time tracking tools will also help provide valuable insight into how long certain tasks take within your organization, making it easier to assign tasks moving forward. Also, if your business bills outside clients, time tracking will help ensure that you are billing them for the correct amount of time.

Communicating Will Be A Challenge

Humans tend to be bad at communicating. Even when working in person, communication seems to be a struggle for most businesses. Maintaining effective communication with all of your employees is going to be even more difficult now that you are not all in the same place.

If your business tries to get by without investing in a digital communication tool, you may see a decrease in productivity. In the past, businesses would be fine using email as an extension of in-person communication. Now, speed is everything, and emailing is no longer a viable option to maintain communication, at least on its own.

Your business will need to invest in a workplace communication tool that promotes clear and open communication across all departments. Before choosing any old workplace communication tool, make sure to do your research first. Certain communication tools will come with different features and uses, so make sure that the one you choose aligns with your organizational needs.

Maintaining Culture is Difficult

Most of the issues associated with moving remote are productivity based, but there are many other issues that can be caused by adopting a remote workforce. One major issue that many companies face when going remote is maintaining a healthy work culture.

Your business will need to create, and maintain a culture that aligns with the values and morals that you promote in your everyday life.

When working in an office, culture is something that is easily shaped. Workplace events such as luncheons, happy hours, corporate challenges, and other in-office activities all help build culture. Now that employees are home, it can seem like a challenge just to communicate, let alone create and maintain a healthy work culture.

One of the best ways to ensure that your work culture is positive is by creating a culture that promotes open feedback.

Checking in with your employees will show them that you are trying your best to ensure that they are happy in the new environment. In these check-ins, attempt to have an open-conversation, where you and your employees discuss how they would like to be a part of building the remote culture of the workplace, moving forward.

While culture may not be the first thing that comes to mind when moving to a remote workforce, it is an extremely important part of your business. Creating a healthy culture will help promote productivity within your workforce.

At the end of the day, we are all in this together. You, and your employees should expect to go through some growing pains as you transition to this new work environment. If you work together, your business will come out on the other side better than ever!

Remote work is a source of great excitement across a variety of industries. The developments in technology has meant that companies can now offer remote working as one of their most lucrative perks. Some companies love to sing the praises of being able to save money on their overheads, hire freelancers who take care of their own taxes and be able to have a remote team working that is made up with global talent. That’s the other thing about encouraging working remotely in your business; you are able to reach out to talented individuals across the globe instead of just looking in the local area for the best employees. Telecommuting is one of the best things to happen to businesses over the years and it’s one of the best things to happen to people who crave a work/life balance.

There are, of course, those who don’t agree with it, preferring to have their team on site at all times to be able to watch and wait as deadlines are hit and growth is achieved. Don’t worry though, there is still an amazing amount of evidence that suggests that remote working increases the productivity of your employees massively. This can happen, but only if you manage your remote workers correctly. You should be thinking about the individual remote employee and how they work, how they like to achieve. You should think about how you can reach your remote workers during office hours and how you can train them to access the company cloud based storage so that everyone is on the same system. People who work in their own time on their own deadlines, without being micromanaged every second of the day, are more likely to be successful in their job and are more likely to be more productive each day. Productivity is so important for management teams in business, because the better their staff work, the better the company does. It’s in your best interests then to ensure that you are doing everything possible to make your employees as productive as possible. Employees crave freedom and flexibility when they are stuck in the office, but if you can learn to manage remote workers correctly, you can maximise their productivity and benefit from their enthusiasm.

There are some jobs out there that are far better for remote work than others. You can’t exactly allow nurses to work remotely, because patients don’t live in their homes. However, you can allow administrative staff to work from home as all they require is internet access, a telephone and a computer to work from. If you have the capability to allow teams of people in your office to work from home, you should look into it. By clearing most of the desk space, you are going to be able to save a lot of money on commercial office space and funnel that cash into your IT systems and security. This can mean that you are putting the budget that you have against the things that are going to do well for your business. Trusting your staff to work from home on their own schedule is not a foolish idea; in fact, employees are more loyal to those who give them a little autonomy and trust in their own schedule. The next question that you should have to ask yourself is whether remote work is good for the people who work for you.

Not everyone wants to work remotely. Some people need the social interaction and the bustle of an office environment to be productive in their roles. Not everyone has that discipline to sit down and work their schedule without the micromanagement. Before you decide to go remote with your staff, why don’t you sit down and discuss the option with them? You can’t do better than asking those you would like to give this perk to if they want it or not. If you need to save your budget, you could offer remote working on a trial basis and let them test the waters. It’s your responsibility to maximise the productivity of the individuals that work for you and understanding the way that these people work is the first step. It takes a lot of respect on your part to allow people to make this choice for themselves, and your reputation in the industry will be massively praised by allowing a choice.

If people do decide to plough ahead and work from home, you need to make sure it’s worth it. Teams of people need to have access to online chat and file sharing facilities. You don’t have to pay out tons for a fancy service, but it can benefit your business to find the programme and software that is the most efficient and works the best for everyone. Schedule training days to ensure everyone is up to speed on how to use these systems before you let everyone loose to work from the comfort of their own home. If team members have the chance to collaborate together online, you’re going to give them a much smoother remote working experience overall. This is going to reflect back on you, because you’ve done everything in your power to increase their motivation, productivity and you’ve given autonomy to people in your business.

To be able to have a successful remote workforce, you must ensure that they have a proper office set up to work from. If not an entire room with a desk and a chair, you need to be able to give out office technology to your staff to work from home and access internal business systems. All the effort that you put into your business is going to pay off if you put the same effort into your employees. There’s no doubt that managing a remote workforce that you don’t see very often is a challenge, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot work. Sit down and make a plan, then share that plan with your staff. Lastly, sit down and wait for the magic to happen.