The pandemic and the compulsion of employees to work remotely are now a matter of the past. However, organizations have learned a valuable lesson from the situation that remote work is possible. More and more establishments are shifting gears and opting for remote or hybrid work cultures. Management is becoming more flexible and embracing this futuristic approach to running their businesses. Employees are happier to work from the comfort of their homes and enjoy a commute-free work life.
What is Remote Work?
In simple language, the remote work model operates upon the support infrastructure of technology that helps to communicate and exchange data. Employees have access to relevant work applications and platforms to do their work while being based at remote locations. Based on a Book by Jack Niles ( NASA Engineer), 1973 was when remote work came into practice.
How do you work remotely? This is the question everyone was asking when this concept was relatively new. But for the last two decades, working from home has gained popularity, and since the start of the pandemic, it almost became a compulsion for more than two years.
Benefits of Remote Work?
• Flexibility
Remote work culture brings flexibility to the entire working mechanism. Employees need to have pressure to finish the task before the end of their working hours. Also, they can be at any place and fulfill their work and personal commitments. Likewise, management can also exercise flexibility in their duties and relieve them from managing the workspace.
• Work-Life Balance
As long as one can remember, the working population has complained of their struggle to achieve work-life balance. Some have to compromise with the choice of their profile as the location where they live does not have opportunities for the same. Several female employees quit their flourishing careers because they cannot juggle personal and professional duties. Remote work can end all of these adversities and offer a perfect situation to manage work-life balance.
• Cost Saving
Controlling capital and operating costs is an ongoing struggle for any organization. These two heads determine how the profit and loss statement would look. One huge capital expenditure any firm incur is the rent or the purchase price of the workplace. On the other hand, the operating expenses like maintenance of the premise, rent, consumables, and electricity of the workplace. These two costs minimize if a large company population works remotely.
• Talent Retention
Employees have become more thoughtful and value their work-life balance more than ever. If a company shows flexibility in its working environment and allows people to work from the place of their choice, many talented people would like to stick around. Talented people can be hired and utilized without worrying over their priorities, as they will be flexible working from a comfortable place.
• No Geographical Limit for Hiring
Organizations can hire people from various geographies and use their talent to maximize their earnings. There is no limit to onboarding people from within a specific region. An organization in Singapore can hire a person from Australia, and they can smoothly work in complete synchronization.
• Improved Productivity
Remote work takes away the unnecessary time spent commuting. Also, employees can prioritize their work during the day and complete their tasks in a peaceful and comfortable environment. Traditional work setups had constraints of limited space, location accessibility, and cost of traveling. However, in remote work arrangements, all these are easy to handle.
Challenges for Remote Work
Like any new trend, remote work has pros and cons. Organizations should conduct due diligence and sort out issues before and after embracing remote work culture.
Challenges
• Cyber Security
A massive threat for WFH employees is the risk of falling prey to cybercriminals. Malware attacks, viruses, and bugs can create massive havoc if remote employees are unaware of these issues. Imposters can take advantage of weak cyber security infrastructure and access critical information and data of the company.
• Productivity Tracking
Because employees are working away from the physical presence of their managers, there may be instances when productivity declines. Managers must keep the employees under pressure and work as a motivating factor in the employees’ lives. Being praised for their work and getting guidance when needed are essential elements in employees’ lives. In remote work scenarios, employees are primarily on their own, and praise and advice can become scarce and affect their productivity.
• Harmony Between Employees and Organization
Any organization can only succeed if its employees are fully aware of the goals and ambitions of the management. The traditional structure does give a better platform to companies so that they can communicate their vision and mission effectively to their workforce. They can also create an appropriate atmosphere in the workplace to enforce those values. However, in a remote work environment achieving such harmony can be challenging.
• Compliance
Every organization has a list of policies they want to enforce for a peaceful and compliant working culture. There are codes of conduct regarding how to work, speak, communicate, handle data and information, and all this is necessary to create a streamlined workplace. In a remote environment enforcing policies can be a difficult task.
Solution
Remote work has been possible due to technology, so technology can also handle its challenges. Organizations should use an intelligent Employee Monitoring Solution like RemoteDesk to monitor and engage with their employees. RemoteDesk can help companies to manage a remote workforce with confidence and ease. Especially, a solution like RemoteDesk uses Artificial Intelligence to manage and monitor the remote workforce, help enforce compliance, maintain productivity, and manage security.
With such a solution, organizations can achieve
- Customizable and Specially Configured Work Environments and Access
- Robust Cyber Security
- Strong Employee Authentication
- Data and Information Breach Detection Capabilities
- Productivity Monitoring for Fair Performance Evaluation
Remote Work is Here to Stay: Summing Up:
Why is remote work so popular? Well, Remote work received massive acceptance under the adverse circumstances of the pandemic. However, it did give us a glimpse of the situation that businesses can function even without employees being present at the workplace. Indeed, innovative technology and streamlined processes can help companies to work efficiently with a remote workforce. Businesses should start thinking about the future as the workforce challenges the usefulness of the traditional work culture and demands flexibility. With innovative employee monitoring solutions like RemoteDesk, accomplishing compliance, security, and productivity is relatively easy.
