Many businesses have embraced the benefits of hiring remote workers. The vacancies for remote jobs in various industries and the demand for talented remote employees continue to grow.
While remote and hybrid teams significantly contribute to the productivity of a company, they also pose some challenges when it comes to administration. Employers with minimal experience in managing remote teams may have difficulty addressing problems like social isolation and distractions at home.
If your company is facing obstacles in remote team management, this article is for you. We hope to identify your concerns in handling remote employees and provide some tips and strategies on how to overcome such challenges.
Top Challenges Of Managing Remote Employees
Different time zones
Remote work has opened opportunities for employers to hire the most skilled candidates without any geographic restriction. The access to a global talent pool resulted in a significant increase in diversity in the virtual workplace.
Some hybrid organizations hire from different states while fully-remote companies hire even from foreign countries. When remote employees live in different locations, they tend to wake up and work in different zones.
Tips and Strategies!
Businesses that hire remote workers from foreign countries are advised to create work policies that are specifically designed to address the challenge of working with remote teams in different time zones. To make sure everyone is on the same page, employers should discuss whether they are implementing synchronous or asynchronous communication.
Employers should establish overlapping working hours for core team activities and meetings, according to Indeed. To encourage flexible work hours and still maintaining effective communication, managers should utilize collaboration tools and platforms that allow asynchronous teamwork.
Crystal clear remote work policies can overshadow any challenges brought upon by hiring individuals from foreign countries to provide remote workforce solutions for your company.
Lack of face-to-face interactions and supervision
When working remotely, employees accomplish their duties outside of the traditional office space. Remote workers commonly conduct business at home. Sometimes, they perform tasks in a shared workspace, in coffee shops, or any place they deem comfortable as long as they have internet access.
The fully remote work setup unintentionally disallows human interaction. Remote teams cannot interact like how on-site employees casually talk. The inability to naturally form relationships through face-to-face interaction sometimes leads to ineffective communication. Regular misinterpretations at work can become a challenge for managers because it affects work productivity.
Traditional face-to-face supervision has been proven effective. But workforce productivity should not be limited to in-person arrangements. Remote work setup, despite the lack of face-to-face interactions, can still become effective through various methods.
Tips and Strategies!
Managers can initiate relationship-building among remote employees through conducting team activities. Now and then, employers can organize virtual team-building events to boost morale and energize remote workers. Some examples of online group activities are virtual bingo, virtual scavenger hunt, and chubby bunny.
When it comes to project collaboration and work tasks, employers can diminish the negative effects of lack of in-person interaction and supervision by establishing daily routines, structured check-ins, and project milestones for deadline reference.
Distractions at home
Remote work is favorable for skilled employees who are limited in employment opportunities because of geographic limitations. In a remote environment, workers choose the location where they conduct tasks. Most individuals who work remotely perform their roles at home.
The convenience of doing a job without the hassle of commuting is very favorable to remote employees. However, working from home also has its challenges like being prone to distractions. Moreover, in normal circumstances, family and home demands can impinge on remote work.
Tips and Strategies!
In addressing this specific concern, experts encourage employers to ensure that their remote team has both a dedicated workspace and adequate childcare before allowing them to work remotely.
Remote work environments and physical office spaces both have distractions. Ultimately, employees should take charge of how they spend their time dedicated to working.
Remote managers can minimize work distractions by having regular check-ins and creating key performance indicators. These small efforts can remind the remote team about their job responsibilities.
Disconnected company culture
Company culture takes time to cultivate. Employers should hire the right talent, foster open communication, and instill the principles of the culture in every interaction.
When an organization employs a remote workforce, it can be more difficult to cultivate a cohesive and positive company culture.
According to a human resources company based in Pennsylvania, creating a healthy company culture with a remote team requires a solid plan. Though work culture may flourish on its own in an in-office team, it must be consciously developed with remote teams. The challenge of bearing a disconnected company culture when working remotely is real. The cultural problem is sometimes magnified by the diversity in the nationality of remote workers hired through the global talent pool.
Tips and Strategies!
Experts believe cultivating company culture and organizational culture must begin at the top.
Leaders and managers in a remote work setup should not exempt themselves from implementing remote work policies. If managers instruct each team member to turn on the camera when video conferencing, then they should also be visible.
Remote work management is not only limited to barking orders and regulations. To create a company culture that promotes work-life balance, leaders, and managers must discuss clear expectations and set realistic expectations.
Technology hurdles
Technology played a big role in the rise of remote work opportunities. Thanks to the emerging working-from-home setup, many employees have finally bid goodbye to long hours of commute.
Working in the comforts of our own homes has been a delight. However, even technology sometimes fails and hinders productivity at work. Some of the most common tech issues when working remotely are fluctuating internet connectivity, slow application performance, and forgotten passwords.
Tips and Strategies!
To address common tech issues when working offsite, remote managers must ensure all team members have access to reliable hardware and internet connections.
Some companies provide IT support to their remote workers. Organizations with a tech support team can minimize the time spent by remote employees troubleshooting in isolation.
How To Effectively Manage Remote Workers?
Experts have studied the current labor landscape and identified innovative solutions in managing remote employees. Generally, employers seek new strategies to boost employee productivity.
Research suggests work leaders can overcome common challenges of managing remote employees by doing the following best practices:
- Schedule daily check-ins
- Set expectations early
- Overcommunicate
- Take advantage of technology and video conferencing platforms
- Establish policies for remote collaboration
- Focus on outcomes
- Provide resources
- Encourage remote social connections
- Mentor than manage
When supporting remote team members, employers need to recognize the importance of emotional support. Companies are encouraged to prioritize employees’ physical well-being and mental health because an effective workforce contributes to success in business. Factors that impact people’s mental also indirectly lower the chances of achieving efficiency at work.
Some traditional management strategies are not applicable when managing remote teams. However, other basic techniques can still be applied virtually like facilitating interpersonal communication among employees, establishing communication channels, and planning one-on-one meetings to create project milestones.
Hire Experienced Remote Workers To Avoid Stress
Many work leaders and managers put in several work hours and hard work in managing team members. However, sometimes, even with all the extra effort, employees are still difficult to handle.
One way to minimize stress in managing remote employees is to connect with a legitimate workforce solutions company like Remote Raven. The agency has highly-skilled Talent Acquisition Specialists who can screen applicants and provide a list of qualified candidates for the position you need to fill. Depending on the specific needs of your business, Remote Raven will conduct background checks and identify the best applicant fit for the job role.
Contact Remote Raven–The Best Outsourcing-Offshoring Company For Your Employment Needs
If you are looking for remote workers who need minimal supervision, contact Remote Raven now! The company will connect you with skilled individuals who have talents and experience in working remotely. With their professional backgrounds, business owners and supervisors will have an easier time managing remote teams.
Schedule an appointment with Remote Raven now and we will discuss how to create job listings and post a job ad on accredited websites in the Philippines. The agency exclusively works with talented Filipino individuals. Virtual workers from the Philippines bring a lot of advantages for any business because they have modest salary expectations, are tech-savvy, and possess exceptional English proficiency. Moreover, Filipino work ethics are compatible with Western culture.
Remote Raven can provide business owners with a list of competent applicants and perform background checks before they start hiring. The outsourcing company handles all processes in hiring remote employees. As a business owner, your best solution to avoid being overwhelmed with the direct hiring process is delegating responsibility to a trustworthy agency.
The benefits provided by hiring virtual employers should outweigh the challenges of managing them. You can achieve success in onboarding remote workers by connecting with Remote Raven.
Book an appointment now!
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