Whilst remote working is not a new concept, its use has grown significantly over recent years. Driven by the impact of the pandemic, the dust has settled on a new working landscape; one which welcomes a wealth of working models from the fully office-based to the fully remote, with hybrid in-between for the best of both worlds.

For seasoned remote workers, this has probably taken little effort to adapt to, but there are many who have found themselves in this new arena with a lot to learn and the occasional stumbling block along the way.

Remote work brings with it many benefits. Improved work/life balance, fewer distractions, and improved wellbeing, to name but a few. But whether you’re a remote worker or you’re leading a remote team, there are challenges involved in working in this way. We’ve listed some of the common ones below, with some tips for how to mitigate them.

Loneliness

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace2024, fully remote employees report significantly higher levels of loneliness than their hybrid and office-based colleagues. Given the nature of remote work, this isn’t a surprising statistic. Remote work is often carried out alone and there is less opportunity for face-to-face contact with colleagues. This can lead to staff feeling isolated, which over time can have a negative effect on a person’s mental health.

The key to addressing this challenge lies in having regular opportunities to connect with others and keep nurturing the human connections that the workplace provides. Open communication between remote workers and their office colleagues can help them to keep a sense of belonging and to prevent loneliness.  

Managers should ensure there are chances to connect, collaborate, and share ideas and learning using a variety of means, including video conferencing, regular catchups, online chats, and virtual water-cooler moments, all the time thinking about ways to capture contributions and thoughts and include remote team members.

Meetings and forums should be run with consideration that all participants’ contributions are valid, whether they are in the office or joining remotely. We have some advice here to help.

Recognition of work by managers is crucial and can help remote workers to feel they remain part of the wider team and that their work is valued. And managers should encourage opportunities for teams to maintain social networks if they so wish.  

Health & Wellbeing

Remote working can present challenges in looking after our health and wellbeing, both physical and mental. As we’ve mentioned above, feelings of loneliness and isolation can increase the risk of poor mental health, but there’s also a risk of over-working when working away from the office. It’s very easy for work/life balance to fall down the priority list when the workday takes place in the home and time spent working can easily drift into personal time where the boundaries between the two worlds become blurred. Workers have cited this as a disadvantage of remote working; that their wellbeing can be reduced and they are more likely than their office-based friends to carry out work out-of-hours, such as admin tasks and making work-related calls. Colleagues can also feel pressure to demonstrate commitment by over-working when they are not visible to their managers and teams. Over time, this could become a pressure cooker and they may experience burnout.  

And it’s not just mental health that isa challenge for remote workers, but physical too. Desk-work is typically a sedentary activity and long periods of time being inactive, potentially eating lunch whilst continuing to work, and even snacking more often than you might do in the office, can be unkind to your health.

There is a wealth of brilliant information out there and good practice guidelines for looking after yourself when you’re working remotely. Simple things such as structuring the days to include regular breaks, taking a proper lunch away from your desk, having a fixed end point where the evening begins, and thinking about incorporating some physical activity into the spare moments, even if it’s just a short walk, are all good ways to help combat this.  

And being able to recognise signs when our mental health is struggling is also important, and knowing how and where to access help networks if we start to struggle.

Communication & Collaboration

Remote work provides space for concentrated, focused time, which lends itself well to detailed and technical tasks, but it can be tricky to beat the office for opportunities to collaborate and share ideas and learning with colleagues.

However, with the abundance of software and tech at our disposal, companies can easily connect remote and office colleagues. Meetings can be online, and ideas can be shared with collaborative tools such as MS Teams and Slack.    

Managers should be mindful of the risk of proximity bias, where colleagues present in the office feel more connected with what’s going on than their remote counterparts. And there should be a strong emphasis on making sure teams feel cohesive regardless of location.

Technology

Much of the success of remote working lies in having the right tech in place.  

Remote workers need access to equipment and software to the same standard as they would have in the office, to enable them to carry out work from wherever they are and to be able to communicate with their colleagues in other locations.

And whilst modern tech is portable, IT support teams aren’t quite so portable, so remote technical support needs careful consideration to keep any downtime to a minimum. It is prudent to look into up skilling your remote colleagues to deal with minor issues without always having to call the cavalry.  

Managers of remote colleagues should also be mindful of the risk of tech fatigue, which can affect workers if they are continuously accessing online meetings and staring at screens. They should be prompted and encouraged to take breaks and blend screen working with other tasks to help avoid this.

Security & Data Protection          

The risks associated with security and data protection are increased when work happens away from the safety of the office; remote working environments do not have the same safeguards in place. This includes security of equipment, the threat of cybercrime, potential data breaches, and even damage to your equipment from curious little fingers if you live with dependents who want to play on your computer.

And whilst there is a certain level of hardening that can be done to protect the home setup, security risks abound when you are working remotely in public, such as in places with public Wi-Fi networks.

Thankfully, there are some straightforward steps to take to mitigate these risks. Including, making sure all equipment is protected by up-to-date anti-virus protection, only using work equipment including phones, avoiding public Wi-Fi and using a VPN when you are working out and about, and keeping family members away from your work devices.

Colleagues should report any breaches quickly so they can be addressed and should always follow best practice security protocols such as using strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and enabling regular backups. Remote workers should be in regular contact withIT support to enable a collaborative approach to cyber security, and policies and procedures should be thorough, regularly updated and made accessible to all colleagues.

These are our five common challenges for remote working. For more insights and articles about hybrid working from Team Today, visit our blog here.