Remote Working Challenges That Businesses Will Face in 2022
Are you among the companies who decided to switch from office work to permanent remote work or hybrid work? If yes, then you must have noticed that some challenges you have faced during the pandemic did not fade away even after the pandemic ended. The pandemic and the shift to remote working forced every business to deal with new challenges and take exceptional measures to survive the crisis. Some of those challenges will remain, and in 2022, business leaders need to utilize the lessons they have learned to prepare for the future. Here are some challenges that your business will probably face in 2022 and beyond.
1- Productivity
Productivity concerns are among the top challenges that remote businesses are dealing with. Managers cannot easily know whether an employee is actually working during work hours or spending that time on other things. Although there are employees who are more productive when working from home, there are others who do not use time assertively when they are not under constant control. So managers will always be concerned about how to keep all employees productive. For some companies, trust issues and having limited abilities to supervise employees are among the biggest obstacles preventing them from implementing remote work.
2- Remote Coaching of Employees
Another challenge that remote work has presented is the remote coaching of employees. Some leaders are great face-to-face leaders but they may lack the skills needed to practice remote coaching and are not acquainted with ways to coach people in a virtual environment. One reason for this is that not all companies prepare and train their leaders before shifting to remote work, and this leads to insufficient leadership which is a main problem virtual teams face. Yet the benefits of coaching in a virtual environment are too important to ignore. Companies have to ensure employees are getting the help they need from qualified managers to keep them involved and committed.
3- Establishing Trust between Mentors & Mentees
One more aspect that is impacted by remote work and has become more difficult to achieve is the role of a mentor. It requires more effort from the mentor to establish trust and rapport in the relationship with the mentee. It is also challenging to share constructive feedback without it being too “canned” or impersonal; especially because virtual meetings lack the personal interaction crucial to successful mentoring, since they are more formal and task-oriented. While in face-to-face meetings, information and ideas are easily shared. Mentorship requires effective communication and knowing about everyone’s learning abilities, and with the absence of physical proximity to strike conversations with employees, senior employees will need to take greater care to look for signs that co-workers need help.
To overcome those obstacles, companies should use new solutions and technologies which help to remotely monitor employees, track their performance and analyze workforce productivity.
MENTOR GLOBAL CONSULTANTS is offering a unique solution in partnership with a cloud-based productivity intelligence software, Prodoscore, which provides detailed, actionable insight and coaching into daily productivity that will keep your teams engaged and productive.
