Lots of teams went remote in reaction to the pandemic, and lots of liked it sufficient to proceed working from another location ever since. There are still a lot of obstacles to tackle while your group adjusts to a remote jobs. If you have actually had a few missteps, you’re not alone. Luckily, you can get over every one of those challenges as well as fully profit from remote work.
In this article, we’ll discuss the five most usual challenges surrounding remote work. After that, we’ll tell you just how to tackle them.
1. Communication
Hubstaff is a workforce administration system that gives evidence of job, time tracking, and payroll monitoring to both in-office and remote groups. According to its 2021 Project Monitoring Report, a lack of interaction is the most significant challenge to taking care of remote work.
Remote groups have less possibilities to communicate. When they do communicate, they normally make use of numerous tools, such as Zoom, Skype, and Slack.
Due to their reliance on numerous interaction tools, their communication is frequently spread as well as disorganized. This can lead to misconceptions as well as wasted time as a result of lacking or siloed details.
Communication difficulties can be more obvious for groups that work adaptable routines. Supervisors usually battle to keep everybody on the exact same web page when employee start and also end their shifts at various times.
Just how to resolve it:
Beginning by establishing assumptions for team communication. Allow employee recognize what kind of actions is anticipated when communicating with the remainder of the team, consisting of:
- Exactly how quickly they need to respond to messages
- Whether they need to be offered for communication throughout certain times of the day
- Exactly how to handle interaction with team members that operate in different time zones
- Furthermore, motivate staff members to overcommunicate. This will certainly aid to prevent misunderstandings and also unpredictability, along with avoiding employees from having to remodel jobs.
Hubstaff keeps their completely remote, global group in continuous interaction with a collection of straightforward regulations called a Communication Statement of belief. It’s a created record that establishes clear regulations around how and also when to review points with teammates.
The Interaction Policy works since it’s easy to understand. Every person on the team can utilize it as a quick referral to brush up on the guidelines, and managers utilize it to advise their direct records what is anticipated of them.
When you execute brand-new rules with your group, leadership needs to be prepared to reinforce those policies regularly. People discover by repeating, nevertheless.
2. Scheduling
Teams that count greatly on shift work may struggle with the shift to a remote work design. Managers may not see that a person isn’t visited promptly up until they see the problems brought on by that missing out on staff member, like a massive phone call wait time or a manufacturing bottleneck.
Even if your team is 100% trustworthy, scheduling problems like irregular insurance coverage can be tougher to find when everyone works from residence.
Many remote groups are spread throughout several time zones. In those types of groups, there could be employees who ends their changes before other people on the group also start theirs. This can make complex the procedure of scheduling conferences and make it harder for the group to find an usual time to fulfill and team up.
- Various other scheduling issues may appear like this:
- People are instantly logging a lot a lot more or a great deal fewer hours than you expect weekly.
- You’re having problem tracking when individuals are on the internet and when they’re away.
- You established routines, however your staff member do not follow them.
If any one of these familiar, here’s what to do concerning it.
How to resolve it:
Beginning by determining how much overlap you truly require for your team to function. Managers tend to overemphasize real-time interaction when an asynchronous method is usually more productive.
Flexibility is one of the greatest staminas of remote work, yet it takes some change to your leadership design to get it right.
Default to asynchronous interaction by utilizing devices such as Slack. Only convene if they’re absolutely essential.
A lot of teams have way too many conferences, anyway. Before scheduling your next one, think about whether the problem you want to talk about calls for a meeting. Is it something that could be resolved with an e-mail or Slack message? If it is, there’s actually no demand for you to arrange a meeting.
On the other hand, if you do choose that a meeting is required, ensure just to welcome those people that require to be there. There’s no requirement for the entire group to attend a meeting if the topic just worries three or 4 individuals.
Various other scheduling concerns come from an absence of visibility. Usage software program to inform you when your staff member begin as well as finish shifts. A terrific software program device can additionally tell you when staff member are still for longer than you anticipate during their job hrs, and also it can instantly produce timesheets and process pay-roll based upon logged information.
3. Workload monitoring
It’s simple to see when somebody is bewildered or underutilized when you’re operating in the very same office as they are. When individuals function from another location, it can be more difficult to recognize just how staff members are doing and if they have the ability to manage their work.
This can come to be a larger issue if your employee aren’t positive about reviewing their work and also connecting the risk of missing out on target dates.
A balanced work means that everybody on the team is contributing, and also no one has too much or too little work to do. As basic as it seems, this kind of equilibrium isn’t automated. It takes constant monitoring to make sure you’re dispersing jobs rather as well as using your sources sensibly.
Much like interaction break downs, a work discrepancy can substantially affect your team’s performance.
Work concerns can likewise trigger additional stress and anxiety in your group. When a person seems like they’re lugging a great deal more weight than their teammates, they may experience fatigue or seem like they’re being made use of.
Fixing this issue has 2 parts: identifying the issue, after that balancing the work.
How to address it:
Time tracking as well as task monitoring tools like Hubstaff and also Hubstaff Tasks can help you stay on top of your remote group’s workload much more easily. Watch on the number of tasks assigned to each person, the work that remains in the pipe, and also the quantity of time it takes for each staff member to complete a job.
These tools will help you comprehend what staff member are doing during work hrs as well as how much time they need to get through their order of business. It’s also much easier to rebalance work when you utilize innovation to aid.
In a good job monitoring tool, you can alter the staff member appointed to a job, and also it’s simple for them to catch up because the history is all in one location. Utilize your time tracking information to help you intend in advance and also make sure that everyone has plenty of room to take on brand-new work.
Furthermore, do not avoid collaborating with freelancers. There will be times when your remote team will not have the ability to take care of all the work that needs to be done themselves, whether that’s due to bad preparation or unforeseen conditions.
In these situations, make use of Fiverr to discover professionals to whom you can contract out tasks as well as tasks.
Occasionally, you’ll simply have more job than you have time to complete. That’s why setting priorities is so vital. Clearly communicate the priority of each task and project so that your remote team members can tackle the most important things first.
4. Building trust
Developing trust within your company takes time, focus, and a lot of work, even if you work in the same office as your teammates.
With fewer opportunities for social interactions between team members, it can be harder to build trust in a remote team.
However, it’s crucial to build trust with your distributed team. Without it, you’ll struggle to build culture and keep your people engaged.
People that work in high-trust teams experience less stress and have more energy at work. They’re also more productive and take fewer sick days.
How to address it:
Organize virtual team-building activities where team members can relax, have fun, and interact with each other in a casual setting. Some examples include virtual happy hour, movie nights, and trivia quizzes.
Hubstaff has seen great success with organizing virtual team retreats. These are online events that last anywhere from one to three days, during which team members participate in a number of fun activities together.
At the company’s last virtual retreat, team members taught each other how to cook tasty meals, competed in online multiplayer games, and even had a Murder Mystery party.
These social interactions are important to build real relationships. But they’re just the start.
Trust comes from reliability. You have to prove that you’re trustworthy, and that means that you do what you say you will, you follow through when people ask for help, and you act in your team’s best interest all the time.
If there’s already some damage to the trust in your team, start by creating a way for people to communicate with you anonymously. Hubstaff uses Officevibe for this.
Then, act on the feedback you receive quickly and decisively. Your team needs to see that you care about their wellbeing and success, and you may have to put extra effort into this while you repair previous damage.
5. Maintaining work-life balance
When people work from home, the line between work time and free time can become blurred. This can result in overworked team members and a lack of work-life balance.
While it might not seem like a big problem if your team puts in more hours, this habit increases the risk of burnout because it makes your team feel like they can never unplug and get away from work.
During the pandemic, one common complaint during high-stress remote transitions was that it felt more like living at work than working from home.
Those that check their email during off-hours, stop to get a couple of things done after dinner, or work late into the night, are more at risk of becoming workaholics. Work addiction is a serious problem and can cause both physical and mental health issues. It can also have a negative impact on team members’ productivity and job satisfaction.
If you notice that you get a lot of messages outside of normal business hours or you come in to find that some people spent the evening at their desk instead of enjoying their personal time, you should consider how to improve your company’s work-life balance.
How to address it:
Start by encouraging team members to take time off. A lot of vacation time ends up being unused, so companies could definitely be doing more to encourage employees to use up their vacation days.
One way to get your team to take time off is to set a deadline for time-off requests. This should force team members to book some time off as soon as possible. You can also consider limiting or forbidding vacation time rollover.
Another way to help team members have a more healthy work-life balance is to offer flexible work hours. This will allow your team to plan their day in a way that works better for them. It will also enable them to work during those times when they’re the most productive.
Most importantly, set the example yourself.
Don’t send emails during non-work hours. Instead, schedule them to send on Monday morning or whenever that person is scheduled to return to work.
Take time off and talk about the fun things you did with your vacation. Encourage people to take mental health days and be honest when you need one for yourself.
Remember, you can work hard and still have a fulfilling life outside of work. That’s where the balance comes in. Find your own balance and help your team find theirs.
Solve your remote team’s challenges
Remote work has its set of challenges, but there are ways these can be addressed. Hubstaff and Fiverr are two platforms you can use to solve a number of your remote team’s challenges
Take advantage of Hubstaff time tracking, productivity measurement, and payroll management features to manage your remote team more easily. Then, use Fiverr to hire remote experts that will help your team stay on top of their workload and meet deadlines consistently.
Get it here.
