Challenges And Benefits Faced By Remote Workers

Remote working has increased immensely over the past few years.  The number of remote workers has grown at rocket speed to a whopping 115 %! In accordance with the report filed by the Global Workplace Analytics, remote work has nearly doubled since 2005. This is largely due to workers having to work from home during the pandemic. While experiencing the perks of working from home, many workers do not want to return to the office full-time. Almost 74 % of the office goers in Europe say that they are more likely to choose their job based on the employer's remote working policy. Furthermore, the benefits of remote working aren't only limited to the flexibility it offers- it also provides benefits for different businesses. In this blog we will be broadly discussing some of the benefits as well as the challenges faced by remote working.

Benefits Of Remote Working

1. Remote Working Saves You From Daily Commute: No daily commute is an incredible benefit of remote working. The commute has now become a problem for many as cities are too expensive so workers opt to live in the commuter belts. Just think, with the help of this hybrid working system, you no longer need to spend hours sitting in traffic jams or on overcrowded buses and trains in order to “get to work”. Remote working is the future of the workplace and it gives employees an upper hand to focus on their work rather than worrying about commuting and its cost.
2. Remote Working Also Helps In Saving Money: Just imagine the total amount of money that you can save by working from home. Lunches, commuting, buying outfits, coffees, client meetings- all these costs add up over time. According to Global analytics, the people who are working from home half of the time can save between $2000 to $6500 each year. That’s indeed a lot of money that you can spend on your family, Workplace Friends, or tuck away for a rainy day.
3. Working Remotely Creates A Flexible Schedule According To Your Needs: Life can get really hectic at times. However these days, it can feel like  an understatement to say the least. Today almost all the companies are adopting the philosophy of “if the work is perfect, we don’t care how and when you are doing it.” Working from home helps in planning all your day-to-day activities easily. In case you are in urgent need to run an errand during the working day and make up for that time later, you have the full autonomy to do so.
4. Remote Working Even Helps The Environment: Even commuting to your job increases your overall carbon footprint by a considerable margin. Furthermore, pollution can also be caused by keeping supply cupboards and office fridges fully stocked.
5. Helps In Improving Work Life Balance: While you are working from home you often need to deal with lesser distractions that in turn can increase your overall productivity. By saying this we mean that your work gets done better, quicker and you get more time to spend with your friends and family. Furthermore, it helps to remove isolation and improve collaboration among employees. Remote work can even be beneficial for your company as you can opt to have a better and wider talent pool to choose from. You would also be having a better employee retention rate since all workers would be doing their jobs from the comfort of their own homes. 

Challenges Of Remote Working

1. Remote Working Can Cause Difficulties When Setting Boundaries: It is seen that whenever there is less separation between work and home, some employees find it hard to set boundaries. People who are working from different time zones can really find it hard to have a particular work schedule. However, this issue can be easily resolved by communicating boundaries via statuses or keeping your team informed on your working hours via shared calendars. This technique can also improve team culture. Streamline your virtual communication today by signing up for your own free trial virtual workspace here.
2. Sometimes It Can Be Hard To Build Remote Processes That Scale: Sometimes the processes and rituals of a distributed team are very different from that of a colocated or hybrid team. Remember several aspects can be of great help when building a cohesive culture, starting from being personal such as eating lunch together to being tactical such as taking important decisions asynchronously.
3. Collaboration During Meetings Can Be Challenging: All the remote employees need to plan more carefully in order to make planning sessions and brainstorming run productively and smoothly. At times it can be a bit hard to read body language and you might be in need of a good moderator to ensure that everybody stays on task.
4. Remote Working Can Lead To Lack Of Communication: Fully relying on virtual communications means more chances for miscommunications. Whenever people are sitting next to one another, it can be really hard to talk things and get everything done as a team. Instead of some casual sort of chats, employees need to spend their time typing out words and there isn't any guarantee that the recipient would read the text, let alone that he understood it.
5. It Can Lead To A Feeling Of Isolation From Less Personal Contacts: No matter if it is about chatting on the weekends or heading out for some happy hours drink, remote workers need to work hard in order to build trust or even connect with one another.

As of now, billions of people are working from home for some of their working week, and this number is expected to grow steadily. While we do believe that the benefits of working remotely far outweigh its challenges, it is only you know what is actually best for your team and your company. However, by educating yourself more about the pitfalls and advantages of remote working, you can easily make a decision so that working from anywhere works for you.