Employers are beginning to realize that the COVID-19 virus will not only impact their business operations today, but it will also continue to impact them into the foreseeable future. Due to this, the standard employer-employee business model needs to change and new options, such as remote workers, need to be considered.
This blog provides a few things for businesses to consider about using remote employees.
Benefits of / to Remote Employees
Many employers have already embraced the remote work model, while many more are looking much more closely into changing their employment model to incorporate remote employees. The businesses that have already made the change find that there are numerous benefits that accrue, both to the employer and employee.
Employers see benefits such as:
- Increased employee satisfaction
- Increased employee retention
- Increased employee productivity
- Reduced employee absenteeism
- Reduced expenses
Employees see benefits such as:
- Reduced travel time to/from work
- Increased job satisfaction
- More schedule flexibility
- Ability to work when/where/how they need to
- Better work-life balance
What Functions Can Be Done Remotely
While it is true that not every role within a company can be performed remotely, new communications and collaboration technologies have now made it possible for a significant majority of business functions to be remote. A partial list of functions that can now be done remotely includes:
- Front office (client-facing and interacting)
- Back office (business support)
- Accounting
- Content writers
- Customer service and support
- Database development/management
- Engineering
- Human resources
- Marketing
- Product development
- Product management
- Sales
- Software developers
- Technical support
- Trainers
- Web developers
As you can see, a wide variety of business functions are able to be performed remotely, and the list continues to grow.
Challenges to Implementing Remote Workers
Now that you understand the benefits of having remote workers, there are a few challenges you must be aware of before you implement that policy. From the employer side, most of these challenges have to deal with managing and communicating with the remote employees, so you’ll need to ensure expectations are properly set and processes are clearly defined.
From the employee side, one of the most significant challenges that may arise is that not everyone is cut out to work remotely. While remote work sounds enticing, and many employees may think they want to do it, the truth is that working remotely is incredibly difficult. Remote workers don’t have other employees around with whom to discuss things, so isolation is often an issue. You can’t just walk down the hallway to another department to ask questions or clarify something. If you can’t maintain your own office equipment and you have a problem, tech support is not located in the same building. And meetings are most often held via con- or video-call, which often makes it difficult to be an active participant. These things and more contribute to some of the challenges that the remote employee has to deal with on a daily basis.
The truth is that most remote workers are more self-driven, self-motivated and self-managed than their in-office peers. They have to be if they want to be productive. But not everyone is capable of that degree of independence, so knowing how to identify the necessary traits for success in a remote position is critical.
Being aware of these challenges before you begin will allow you to put the proper policies and procedures in place at the beginning. This will help to alleviate problems down the road.
Summary
While there are a few challenges you must deal with when implementing a remote workers policy, the benefits to your business are many.
Is your business ready to make the change and reap those benefits?
© 2020, Richard Hatheway, Catalyst Strategic Marketing
All Rights Reserved
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