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Remote work used to the exception rather than the rule. Companies often decided to hire remote workers when they were establishing a startup, but they would bring them in house as soon as the company was large enough to have office space.
Then, when COVID-19 struck, the way companies saw remote work changed forever. Many businesses discovered that, not only was it possible to have a remote team, the setup often came with greater benefits than asking workers to come into the office every day.
Nonetheless, remote work presents a new set of challenges that companies are still learning to overcome. It’s not enough to just ask employees or contractors to work from wherever they’d like and expect everything to work out. To see success, you need to have an effective remote working strategy.
Benefits of a Remote Working Strategy
Having a mostly or entirely remote team provides companies with a number benefits, many of which relate to cost savings:
Reduced real estate expenses
Remote working models allow employers to cut down on their real estate needs. As well as dropping some of the office space they’ve already acquired, they’re able to expand without real estate being a cost consideration.
Less overhead
Companies also cut expenses associated with having employees onsite. This includes utility bills for electricity usage, heating, and air conditioning, equipment (remote employees often provide their own), and office supplies.
Access to talent from around the world
Being able to add employees or contractors to your team from anywhere in the world provides a multitude of advantages.
For instance, it may lead to cost savings, give you access to specific skills that are difficult to find, or allow you to enter new markets, such as when you work with people who are proficient in another language or have knowledge of local business practices in a particular region.
More satisfied employees
Remote work makes it easier for employees to strike a work–life balance, as they’re able to work from the comfort of their own homes and lack a commute. Satisfaction rates may be even higher when schedules are flexible and employees are able to fit their other responsibilities into their days.
Happier employees are more productive and less likely to leave your company for another job, which means less expenses associated with turnover and better retention of top talent.
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Challenges of Remote Work
To understand why a remote working strategy is a necessity, consider the main challenges companies tend to face when they use this arrangement.
Less Oversight
The main concern of managers tends to be that they’ll be unable to supervise workers as closely as they would if everyone was in the same location. They may worry that employees will take advantage of the freedom to not work as hard. In addition, employees worry that managers may fail to recognize the time and effort they’re putting into their work if managers are unable to see this firsthand.
Issues with Miscommunication
It’s much easier to understand the tone behind words when you’re talking in person than it is over a text-based message. Emailing and instant messaging may lead to miscommunication, including interpreting someone as rude or unprofessional. There are even greater challenges in communication between people with different native languages or located in different time zones.
Poor Work–Life Balance
Although we said above that remote work should lead to a better work–life balance, the opposite may also become true. For instance, the lines between work and home may blur, especially if employees receive messages outside of work hours or don’t have a defined schedule. There may also be distractions at home that take employees’ attention away from their work, which they may try to compensate for by working late.
Sense of Isolation
Some employees may find working remotely to be a lonely experience, especially if they have no chance to interact with coworkers outside of work-related tasks. This may also lead to the erosion of company culture and the lack of a sense of belonging.
Difficulties Accessing Information
It often takes longer to find information when employees are working remotely, including access to tools and support with tech issues. This is particularly a struggle for new employees who don’t have relationships with the rest of the team or need information others take for granted. It’s also more challenging for the organization to know what kind of training employees need.
Data Breaches
If employees are using their own devices and public WiFi networks (such as if they’re working out of a coffee shop rather than at home), there’s a greater risk of the company suffering a data breach. Breaking data privacy laws in any country where the business operates could result in fines and other penalties as well damage to the company’s reputation.
Best Practices to Maximize Efficiency
The above should not make you reconsider remote work — you just need to implement the right remote working strategy to manage these challenges.
1
Set Guidelines for Communication
The cornerstone of any remote working strategy is good communication. Workers need to know your expectations for them and set their own expectations appropriately. Create guidelines for employees that include what communication tools they should use for different purposes, how soon team members should expect a response to a message, and whether employees need to be online at particular times.
One important element of communication is regular check-ins with workers. Reaching out on a regular basis will help remote workers feel like part of the team. Depending on how interconnected employees are with each other, you may like to have a group chat or it may be better to talk to individuals one on one. Have a set time for these chats to ensure employees know when to expect them. This will allow them to make time in their schedules and prepare anything they want to discuss in advance.
Often, the best mode of communication will be video conferencing, as this allows participants to see each other’s facial expressions, which reduces the risk of miscommunication. It also puts a face to a name, which helps coworkers feel connected. In other situations, though, a faster and simpler option is more appropriate, such as instant messaging through a tool like Slack. Another advantage of Slack is you can create channels for different purposes and you’ll keep a record of messages.
2
Organize Remote Social Events
In addition to communicating about work, make sure your team has opportunities to socialize. Again, you can use various tools to do this. For instance, you could have drop-in sessions through video conferencing where you chat about things other than work and have social channels on Slack — if you have a large remote team, it may even be worthwhile setting up various channels for different interests.
Occasionally, it may be worth holding more structured events for team-building purposes. This is great for helping workers get to know each other — especially whenever there’s a new addition to the team — and for learning more about working styles for collaboration purposes. You may like to dedicate a set time for these events or hold them asynchronously. Try games, scavenger hunts, icebreakers, and challenges — perhaps with prizes.
3
Trust Your Workers
Organizations exploring remote work for the first time are often concerned about how much they should trust their workers. Such concerns may lead them to micromanage, including through invasive surveillance of employee activities like mouse tracking or requiring detailed work logs.
It’s important to note that almost three-quarters of employees say micromanagement has interfered with their job performance. Plus, 77% say it has negatively impacted their morale. On the flip side, when companies build a culture of trust, they see 50% higher productivity and 76% more engagement.
4
Measure Success by Outcomes
Of course, you’ll still need a way of ensuring employees are performing well. Instead of judging this by the number hours employees dedicate to their work or how they spend their days, look at outcomes.
Think about what metrics show that you’re closer to reaching your goals — and track just these. Decide on a reasonable timeline for completing milestones on way to larger goals. If employees fail to meet any of these deadlines, find out why. It may be that there is something you can do to provide extra support.
5
Be Transparent
Another way to create a culture of trust at your company is to be transparent. This is important at any organization, but it’s a crucial part of a remote working strategy because it’s easy for remote employees to feel sidelined. There are a few ways to ensure you’re being transparent:
- Ask for suggestions regularly, such as through a survey or a form your remote team has access to any time.
- Act on employee suggestions and let your team know what you’ve done.
- Provide honest feedback on employee performance.
- Treat all workers equally, no matter if they’re remote or in-person employees or contractors. This may include by setting similar deadlines for tasks, having the same disciplinary measures, and using the same standards for rewarding your workers.
- Show everyone where you stand in regard to meeting deadlines, such as by listing tasks in project management software and talking about your progress in your regular meetings with employees.
6
Make Sure Everyone Has Access to the Necessary Tools
Remote work should save your company money, but there may be some new areas you need to invest in. For instance, it’s important to ensure all your workers have adequate hardware to carry out the tasks you expect from them. If this is not currently the case, you may need to invest in technology for these employees.
The same goes for software and online tools. Make sure all workers have access to everything they need to do their jobs. This will ensure everyone is able to produce the same quality of work, no matter where they are based in the world.
7
Create a Knowledge Base
Workers also need to access information. Make it easy for them to find this on their own by storing everything in a knowledge base. Identify all the information employees may need — if you have existing remote workers, ask them what they needed when they started at the company. Organize everything into logical categories to ensure workers are able to locate the information they want.
8
Demonstrate Your Appreciation
Always remember that there are people on the other side of the screen, working hard to produce great results for your company. Find ways to show your appreciation depending on the significance of the work.
For example, a simple thank you upon the completion of a project may be sufficient. However, if a particular employee or team achieves exceptional results, you should consider something bigger to acknowledge these efforts. This could be a company-wide announcement or a reward of some kind.
9
Provide Opportunities for Advancement
Another way to show employees that you value them is to offer them opportunities to gain new skills and advance in their careers. This has the added advantage that it will develop employees who can take on leadership positions in your company in the future and increase your chances of retaining your best workers — because they’ll see that they have the chance for a promotion.
One option is to create a mentorship program. This is also ideal for helping new employees find their way in the company, and it gives more senior members of staff a sense of purpose.
Another possibility is to provide training opportunities that are not mandatory for a position. You could offer online classes from external organizations as a job perk or develop your own training materials. There’s even the possibility of asking other employees to create training courses in their areas of expertise. This is useful for sharing knowledge and also for showing their coworkers what role they play in the company.
Lastly, make sure you know what each remote worker hopes to achieve in his or her career. Together, create an action plan that will help these employees track their progress and, ultimately, reach their goals.
10
Follow Cybersecurity Best Practices
Provide workers with the tools and knowledge they need to keep data safe from a cyberattack. It may be worth investing in a subscription to a virtual private network (VPN) for all your workers to keep connections secure wherever they are. Your business should also use a vulnerability scanner to monitor for threats. Finally, provide regular training to ensure workers are aware of best practices (such as strong passwords and two-factor authentication) and won’t fall for phishing attempts.
11
Keep Adapting Your Strategy
If you’ve never had a remote team before, the likelihood is you’ll make some mistakes when you implement your remote working strategy. Learn from these mistakes and adapt your strategy accordingly. Don’t force something that clearly is not working, and — even more importantly — admit to your team when you are wrong, explaining what action you’ll be taking to improve going forward.
A crucial way to keep improving is to listen to feedback from remote workers. They may be experiencing issues you had no idea about. Plus, the great thing about having a remote team with employees from different cultures and backgrounds is you’ll gain more diverse ideas. Take advantage of this by asking employees for ideas. This will allow you to help new workers have a better experience when they join the team.
Using an Employer of Record for Remote Workers
A major advantage of a remote working strategy is you can find workers anywhere in the world; the challenge is often finding the best talent for your organization in this massive pool. An effective way to access talent is to use an employer of record (EOR). This will enable you to contract workers in countries where you don’t have a legal entity. Whereas you’ll still need to manage staff, the EOR will do all the work surrounding payroll, visas, and immigration for you.
Some of the main benefits of using an EOR include:
- Compliance with labor laws — It’s the EOR’s responsibility to ensure it meets all the legal requirements for hiring workers in the country, including taxes, benefits, and work permits.
- Monetary savings — It’s much less expensive to use an EOR than to set up your own legal entity.
- Enter new markets faster — It’s also faster to use an EOR than to establish a legal entity.
- Avoid disputes — Since the EOR is the legal employer, it will handle any disputes you may have with workers.
- Receive HR services — Some EORs offer optional HR services, allowing your business to focus on its core work.
Finding Remote Workers for Your Organization
Expanding your remote workforce can unlock incredible opportunities, but finding the right talent is key to success.
Remote People specializes in connecting businesses with top remote talent from around the world, helping you build a team that aligns with your goals and company culture.
Whether you’re scaling up or need niche expertise, we simplify the process by sourcing, vetting, and delivering qualified candidates quickly and efficiently. Let us help you find the remote professionals your business needs to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
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Written by
Susan Snipes