Remote Work Challenges And Their Solutions

P lenty of research over the years has proven that remote workers have a better work-life balance and tend to be more productive. Motivation compared to on-location work has been higher too. Lesser sick days are requested, and staff continue to stay at the job with the benefit of not having to set travel costs aside. 

As with everything, it is not always happy-go-lucky. Remote workers continue to face a set of challenges every day that can only be overcome with time and better training. 

Strategies are in place and actions are being taken to implement these into real life to help those who work from home. Let’s take a closer look at some solutions you can apply. 

The Struggle Of Remote Work And Their Solutions

22% of workers have said that they struggle with being able to unplug after work, with 19% of the remote working population saying another major struggle is loneliness. 

Remote Team Challenges

Problem: 

Project management

Solution: 

There are plenty of project management tools available in the market such as Asana that help in managing entire teams under one roof, where task assignments can be given out and tracked. 

Problem:

Collaborating remotely

Solution: 

For collaborating smoothing on a project, there are plenty of communication platforms available where the team can connect over to discuss documents and just interact. 

Problem:

Tracking productivity and tasks

Solution:

Many of the project management tools allow that the task given out can be tracked letting the team leader stay updated on the timeline. Many tools help review the tasks showing every team member’s efficiency as well. 

Problem:

Cultural and language differences

Solution: 

Making sure everyone has a language in common on the team is necessary. If there are nonnative speakers, one of the best communication methods is through emails, as it reduces the errors that can take place on calls, helping to avoid misunderstandings. 

Problem:

Working from different time-zones

Solution: 

Integrating a calendar into the project tools being used can help save time. Everyone can select their available times, while also being able to see other team members’ times, making choosing a time for a meeting or a discussion easier on everybody involved in the decision. 

Problem:

Maintaining and building trust between team members

Solution: 

Team meet-ups need to start taking place where they can form a social bond. Being open with each other and 100% transparency also helps in building trust over time. Face-to-face calls, while also having people work in pairs, also help team members in communicating better and having each other’s backs. 

Remote Worker Challenges

Problem:

Unplugging from work after timing off

Solution: 

Getting through a checklist made at the start of the day before switching off at the end of a workday helps in plugging off. Knowing that it was a productive day and plenty of work done removes the guilt of having to switch off.

Problem:

Staying at maximum productivity

Solution: 

Productivity is usually decreased by 40% when people start multitasking. Working in short bursts helps in staying focused on a certain task as long as they are done one by one instead of trying to do everything at once.

Problem:

Amount of distractions at home

Solution: 

There are plenty of tools in the market that help in staying distraction-free, as they turn off notifications during the allocated time, letting a person work without notification bells without losing focus. Having a workspace at home designed to be distraction-free also helps situations like these.

Problem:

Staying motivated

Solution: 

Having a productive day at work, knowing that the tasks for the day have been complicated and all the check-ins have taken place, leaves the worker at ease. This leads to less guilt about leaving some things incomplete giving the brain time to relax and think about something besides work as well. 

The coronavirus pandemic has led to many people working from home as limitations were set causing in-person interaction to be reduced. Many people happily embraced working from home as it reduced stress, travel cost, and saved time due to no traveling to work. Overhead costs were reduced for the employers as they were no longer working based on the location and could hire from wherever they chose to. 

There have been drawbacks to working from home situations as the lack of in-person interaction, and communicating and building trust became harder. Like all challenges, there are solutions for problems of remote working that you can apply to create more efficiency.