Advancements in remote work technology spurred the growth of remote workers by 159% from 2005 to 2017. The recent global pandemic fueled the trend as businesses restructured their workflows and infrastructures to embrace a new normal.

While some companies are happy to return to more traditional office settings post-pandemic, many have found remote or hybrid setups more agreeable. Offering cost and time savings, higher productivity, and better work-life balance, there are many reasons why some people prefer remote work.

If you’ve been thinking of transitioning your team to a remote setup, this blog post gives you a rundown of its benefits, what to consider, how you can maintain transparency, and how to make the shift easier.

What Are the Advantages of Transitioning to Remote Work?

Let’s take a look at some statistics regarding the benefits of remote work as reported by Forbes:

  • Improved Performance: Because remote workers are free to work from any location, their work has 40% fewer defects in terms of quality or accuracy.

  • Better Productivity: Remote workers are 35% to 40% more productive than their office-going counterparts. They also have an average output increase of 4.4%.

  • Stronger Engagement: Because remote workers are more productive and perform better, they are also more engaged than those who must report to the office. According to the latest statistics, remote workers on average have 41% lower absenteeism than office workers.

  • Higher Employee Retention: More than half of employees favor jobs with greater flexibility. Hence, companies with remote setups enjoy a 12% lower turnover.

  • Higher Profitability: Organizations that embrace remote work setups enjoy 21% higher profitability. The average cost savings for part-time remote employees is $11,000.

If you’re looking for measures that offer better performance, productivity, engagement, retention, and profitability, it may be time to think about transitioning to remote work.

Transitioning to Remote Work? Here’s What You Need to Consider

Remote work comes with many benefits, but it will affect your workforce. Here are six ways it will impact your company.

  • Your work culture will be less defined. Because people don’t get to interact as much, you’ll need to more proactively shape and nurture it through remote events and other initiatives.

  • Focus on results, not hours. You won’t be able to watch your employees like before, so change your mindset. Look at results, not the amount of time they put in.

  • You can tap a wider talent pool. Because employees no longer have to report to a physical office, you can recruit from a wider geographical area.

  • It will be harder to tell if employees are overworked. Burnout can still happen with remote work, but this can be avoided by having regular tag-ups with your team members.

  • Your employees may want to relocate. With the added flexibility, employees may decide to live elsewhere. If this happens, you’ll need to research how it could affect you in terms of taxation and if your workflows can support different time zones.

  • Your processes will become digitized. From documentation to day-to-day communication, your work activities will need to happen online. This often means adopting new tools and equipment.

Managers must be able to lead and support their teams through the change. They should be thoroughly briefed on your remote work policies, how daily operations will be affected, and the reasons for the transition.

Best Practices for Transitioning to Remote Work

While there are many benefits to remote work, there are also numerous challenges that must be addressed. Here are some best practices to make the transition easier:

Have a Remote Work Policy

Remote work will introduce new ways of working and communicating with each other. Having a remote work policy will help establish ground rules and aid employees make the transition.

Here are some aspects your policy should include:

  • The scope of responsibility of each employee

  • The frequency of alignment meetings

  • Modes of communication

  • Available work tools

Over time, you can adjust your remote work policy to suit changing requirements. Having a predefined remote work policy gives your employees a framework to follow, leading to fewer disagreements, less confusion, and better productivity.

Conduct Regular Alignment Meetings

Regular alignment meetings allow you to address concerns regarding remote work. They help you identify if additional support is needed and ensure everyone is adapting to the new setup.

Provide Tools for Remote Work

Providing employees with tools and financial assistance to create a suitable workspace at home is essential. Some companies arrange for work equipment to be delivered to the homes of their employees while others finance the purchase of new tools.

Essential software and subscriptions should also be covered by the employer. Common apps employers with remote employees need include project management software, group messaging apps, screen recording tools, video conferencing solutions, cloud storage, and security tools.

Establish Clear Communication Guidelines

Before fully transitioning to remote work, craft clear communication guidelines for your team. For example, define which communication tools they should use, when to use them, and how they should be used.

Define Acceptable Working Schedules

Will you allow your employees to work any hours they choose? Should they have core hours when everyone is expected to be online? Are there certain times when meetings shouldn’t be scheduled to support work-life balance?

This is an important part of your remote work policy that must be described in detail.

Keep Communication Lines Open

Keep the lines of communication open, be it through a group chat or by conducting quick check-ins regularly. Allow employees to understand that if they need assistance, help is readily available from their managers and peers.

You can hold town halls where everyone is invited, team meetings, and one-on-one sessions. You should also have regular performance reviews so employees know what they are doing right and what they can do to improve.

Hold Virtual Events

To promote engagement and decrease turnover, host virtual events. You can have pizza parties where you have food delivered to their homes, remote bingo, virtual scavenger hunts, and more. The point is to nurture camaraderie between team members and make it easier for them to interact with each other remotely.

Be Empathetic

Understand that change may be challenging for some team members, and not everyone may immediately be able to deal with remote work. One of the challenges of remote work is you don’t get to connect with your colleagues in person, so you don’t easily see when one of your team members is struggling with the new setup.

Reiterate that team members can voice their concerns and challenges at any time. Keep an open mind regarding their unique struggles. At the end of the day, treating employees like humans who face stress can do far more than sending them high-end gadgets and other incentives.

ControTask: Change the Way You Work

You may think remote work obliterates professional transparency, but that doesn’t have to be the case with ControTask. Our employee monitoring software allows you to keep an eye on hybrid and remote teams by generating automated, regular reports.

Our cloud-based platform lets you see what your team is working on and how long they work so you can identify over- and underworked employees. This enables you to make data-driven management decisions and allocate resources accordingly.

Give your employees the flexibility they want without sacrificing your bottom line. Get started with ControTask today.