With much of the world starting to see a return to ‘normal’, the more permanent changes that have come as part of the big adjustments made are starting to become more clear and one of those is certainly within a major shift to remote or flexible working options for a huge number of individuals – but the change hasn’t come without difficulty as many employees and employers alike are still figuring out some of the difficulties for remote work. But what are the biggest business challenges for remote working, and how can they be overcome over time?
Team communication can often be difficult – Whilst there has been a huge amount of change in some of the biggest inter-office communication platforms as the likes of Slack and Teams have been adopted in a huge way, it certainly doesn’t compare to the way communication works in the office as conversations can appear just from walking around, and quick catch ups become much easier. This may certainly be something that becomes easier over time as individuals become more accustomed to using the office communication platforms and as these platforms change to accommodate remote working in a bigger capacity too, but for now it’s still new, and still has an adjustment period yet to come.
A feeling of FOMO – The fear of missing out has been another big one for those stuck at home without the ability to travel into the office, whether this be on the latest trends for office entertainment in gaming here or the biggest sporting events, or even just office events like going out to the pub. Many individuals have stated they’ve felt isolated since they began working from home and finding ways to bridge this game and be more inclusive to all will certainly be a challenge for business and remote workers moving forward.
Keeping to the clock – Many individuals have found since they started working from home that keeping to the clock can be difficult, whether that be finding distractions throughout the day that takes them away from their work or working well into the evening where they may otherwise not have. It’s a delicate balance that still needs a lot of work, although some studies have shown that productivity has actually increased, it’s still a very change to get used to. It may change over time, but with suggestions that a four-day work week could become more common too, there’s a lot of change that could still come in this space and may be something that requires a learning opportunity or the use of some tool or software in order to help not only stay on task during the day, but to also ensure additional out of work hours don’t become too common.
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