While remote work has gained traction over the past 3 years and has become a preferred work model for many, it doesn’t work for everyone. Many surveys show that remote work has downsides that you need to focus on and tackle if you want to create productively, and engaged remote workplaces.
For example, 2 out of 3 employees complain about blurred lines between work and private life while 54% of them experience higher stress levels and 45% struggle with increased anxiety levels.
You need to know your enemies to fight them. Here is the list of potential issues that you may face while building your remote workplace accompanied by effective strategies and tools you can use to overcome them.
Zoom Fatigue
This isn’t just a trending term on Google. Zoom Fatigue is a real issue stemming from the hours your remote employees have to spend on various virtual meetings and video calls. This condition is tiring because video conferencing demands employees to stay staring at their screen throughout meetings because they don’t know how their colleagues and bosses might interpret their looking away even for a moment. Furthermore, many employees can get excessively self-conscious about their image during these meetings worrying about every wrinkle or facial expression.
But how to limit the number of virtual meetings and eliminate Zoom fatigue from your remote workplace?
First of all, you don’t have to rely only on Zoom meetings to stay in touch with your remote employees. Involve other efficient communication platforms like Slack or go back to sending emails instead of imposing unnecessary meetings.
If you worry that you’ll lose track of your employees’ performance by minimizing Zoom meetings, you can rely on the best pc monitoring software to collect and show you various insightful data on remote employees’ performance without disturbing their workflow or focus.
By changing your communication strategy, you’ll help remote employees relax more and concentrate on completing creative tasks.
Employee Burnout
Burnout is a serious work-related condition caused by emotional and physical exhaustion and overworking. When the work/life balance gets disrupted and your employees feel pressured to work long hours they are in great danger of slipping into burnout.
It may be difficult to identify potential burnout victims, especially in the remote workplace. But you can use track records to discern potential burnout signs, like working long hours, frequent absenteeism due to excessive stress, and so on.
You can help your employees escape the burnout trap by enhancing work/life balance, encouraging them to take frequent breaks, and devising a comprehensive self-care policy.
Burnout signs can be different. Working long hours without taking breaks is one of the red flags you shouldn’t ignore. You can put a stop to this detrimental behavior by setting clear and strict work hours and using a work hours tracker to see whether employees stick to this schedule.
Loneliness and Isolation
While remote work allows unprecedented work flexibility and autonomy, 61% of American remote workers feel lonely and isolated. This can seriously harm your employee productivity and cross-team collaboration because remote workers may experience increased anxiety and stress levels because they’re feeling disconnected from the rest of the team and left out of the decision-making process.
They can easily become disengaged and unproductive for all these reasons affecting overall employee productivity and morale and subsequently your profit and business success.
Creating a tight-knit remote team may be challenging, but it’s not impossible. You can use different communication platforms to create virtual team buildings, happy hours, or different workshops that will bring your team together and give employees an opportunity to get to know each other on a personal level.
Distractions
One of the reasons why managers are unwilling to allow their employees to work from home is the fear that distractions will ruin their focus and productivity. And they are right. Your employees may be tempted to do some chores, check out their social media or chat with friends. Things can get more complicated for workers with children or pets that require constant care, disrupting their focus on their tasks and projects.
But you can help your remote employees fight and eliminate distractions by increasing work flexibility, allowing them to organize their time and work when they’re most productive, ignoring fixed work hours.
You can also use various tools that offer background sounds to remind employees to stay focused on their current work. In this way, your remote employees will learn how to avoid numerous distractions lurking from every corner of their homes.
Also Read: Why The Community Factor Is One To Look Out For in Coworking Spaces?