Remote work or work from home is not a new theory enterprises encounter. Many organizations across the globe were way ahead in terms of implementing a hybrid work model where employees could work from anywhere when needed.
Some companies only chose to plug in work-from-home environments during an emergency. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a revolution among companies where they had nothing else to choose but to work from home for employees.
Somehow, they ended up being laggards in remote work when the pandemic happened and are still facing the consequences with no right tools, strategies, and backup in place. Remote work is here to stay and will eventually grow in the upcoming years.
According to a report, 73% of all the departments will have remote workers by 2028, whereas 33% of the employees will be fully remote. (Source)
Employers understand the well-known benefits of how remote work is feasible to cut down on extra operational expenditures, and employees feel elated when they save commuting expenses or have the flexibility to work.
Table of contents
Why do Companies Hesitate To Enable Remote Work?
Companies would always be skeptical about employees slacking off from their workspace during work from home as the teams work far away from each other without supervision. Whatever the situation or crisis seems, organizations must have a solid work-from-home policy and tools to improve employee productivity and give them a chance to work while collaborating remotely.
How can remote work be achieved when companies at least need a majority of the staff in the office? This is especially true with the new staff members who cannot be trusted with remote work.
Their work can be traced but not the timings they complete their tasks assigned. Organizations know the value of investing in any individual, whether it is a trainee or a person with long-term experience.
It is all about gaining the trust of employers till the time the employee is credible enough to gain the benefits of remote work. Therefore, companies have some legitimate reasons not to make work from home a full-time priority.
5 Challenges Employers Face During Remote Work
Let’s explore the reasons and find out why companies won’t let all the employees work from home indefinitely except the emergency scenarios.
1. Team Building and Collaboration
Collaborating remotely is the key to making work from home successful. However, a little collaboration over messages and long meetings without end goals would be useless.
High-priority tasks that need constant updates while knowing what teams should be working on them and when they need to collaborate with other team members on the project should be the core elements in collaborating remotely.
Remote work collaboration is not as same as meeting co-workers in person. More planning and remote collaboration tools are required to keep every team member on the same page. It makes sense that companies require high-quality collaboration, or they would want employees back in the office.
2. Social Connectivity and Engagement
Remote workers can feel out of the team if no engagement is involved. Work-time conversations and water-cooler chats have become the things of yesterday when every team member could feel included. Today, supervisors must ensure every employee contributes a bit to social interactions when virtual connectivity is there.
Chatting, texting, and talking through video conferences may be possible in the digital world, but we cannot estimate a person’s mental health. Thus, companies worry that employees who live alone under work pressure and feel the need for social aspects might eventually exclude themselves and leave.
3. Productivity Measurement
Are your employees working? Is their time spent actively working, or are they simply seated before the screen? Are supervisors appreciating every employee’s work equally? Who knows what employees do when they work remotely?
Management has to take care of every task while retaining employees and ensuring they do not lose a client because of one stupid mistake in an extensive project. Everything depends upon staff productivity and how things are aligned.
Tracking productivity is one thing, but keeping everything in line seamlessly is crucial. Companies are concerned about such things during remote work implementation. Technology like employee monitoring software allows employers to monitor only what is important.
4. Work From Home Environment
For all employees, working from the home environment doesn’t need to be the ideal solution. Companies fear that not every employee can handle work and personal life together. Even if they do, it can affect their mental health and productivity.
While some employees ace remote work and go the extra mile in completing the tasks, even sitting at night and showcasing their dedication, others with family around them need to manage everything. That is why not all employees prefer remote work and choose in-office work instead.
To keep everything equal, companies have to bifurcate everything smartly so that employees’ choices with different perspectives do not contradict. Considering such circumstances, companies may not work from home or choose not to go remote entirely.
5. Data and Network Issues
We know the consequences of working on several devices. When we do remote work, things can go out of hand. Employees do not know which site can harm the information they are working on or which crucial data is vulnerable to cyber hackers and malicious activities.
Companies understand this and want to streamline data leakage detection during remote work. Combined projects where some employees work in-office and others from home need many apps and software to collaborate remotely.
This can lead to cyber-attacks and loss of control of the data stored. Data protection software with VPN troubleshooting capabilities can greatly help companies.
How Does Employee Monitoring Software Solve These Challenges Mentioned Above?
Time-tracking and monitoring employee screens are not the end goal of the organization. They need effective digital tools to make employees collaborate remotely, prevent data theft, assist in VPN (virtual private network) troubleshooting, and boost employee productivity.
Employee activity monitoring is a solution to streamline work from home and redefine how companies see remote work as a bigger advantage to business growth rather than fearing certain circumstances.
Conclusion
With an efficient hybrid work model and remote collaboration tools, businesses can have long-term benefits while making employees believe they can work both ways without interruptions or missing the social aspect.
