In today’s digital world, remote working has been the trend to manage work operations. The reason to adopt this working model is simple. It allows employees the flexibility and freedom to work while boosting productivity.
But, is working from home perfect to improve productivity? The answer is No. Remote working has its own unique challenges that affect employee productivity. In this article, we’ll share 11 amazing ways to be productive when working from home and overcome those challenges. Let’s delve deep into it.
Challenges & Solutions of Work from Home Employees:
Challenge 1: Feeling of loneliness
Working from home involves spending all day alone on your desk for long hours which might make you focus on core work, but it can make you feel totally isolated and may also hold you back with less productivity.
Focus on the possible solution and make sure you socialize. Working amidst people in areas such as cafes, libraries, or other social spots can make a great place to stay pleasant in a stimulating environment. On the other hand, renting a co-working space is an excellent idea for employees who have no option to work from home.
Challenge 2: Interruptions while working
If you’re working from the office, there are fewer chances of interruptions. But at home, you probably might face major problems with power outages, family members, household work, and much more. All these issues affect you from doing work and might distract you minimizing productivity.
Developing an office-like environment might be the trick here. Employees who use co-working spaces see their work as meaningful. You can likewise incorporate an uninterrupted backup power supply for this environment.
Challenge 3: Communication
When it comes to communication with a remote worker, there are lots of challenges that you might face. For example, you might sometimes miss all the video conferences, phone calls, and meetings in the office resulting in a communication breakdown.
You need to find a solution and incorporate collaboration software into the workplace to bridge the gap, keeping team members in the loop.
Challenge 4: Company environment
Corporate culture is full of employees with diverse mindsets, races, and cultures. Daily work life is exciting with new opportunities to learn, exchange thoughts, and, most of all ideas, rejoice in celebrations, etc. Furthermore, employee productivity is encouraged by people around you, while it’s not possible when working remotely.
In any case, it doesn’t mean you can’t have some good times working from home. Despite you still have your family members and companions who can enjoy with you, go on trips, or share their memories. You simply need to plan it and invest some quality time with them.
Challenge 5: Time management
The importance of time management plays a key role in working from home. It is because here, you don’t have anybody to assist you with struggling deadlines and keep you motivated, ensuring your productivity is kept to a maximum. Furthermore, work-life balance should be in harmony with both personal and professional life simultaneously.
Planning and scheduling can be favorable here. You can schedule a plan for working hours, family hours, and other aspects to be successful. You can utilize time-tracking software like Track.ly to create your activity and develop a working schedule in a much simpler way.
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Challenge 6: Dependency
It is obvious that in remote working, we rely on clients and employers for the work. Consequently, it comes as an instance when you will have beyond what you can deal with, and somewhere you will have nothing to do by any means. Adjusting them can get extremely troublesome, but certainly, there are approaches to do it.
For instance, you can negotiate with the client requesting a deadline extension during the haste. Talk to them directly if you are over-stacked with work, because you may make more mistakes if you rush up, resulting in less productivity.
Challenge 7: Knowledge sharing
Workplaces offer a platform for sharing ideas and collaborating with others who can help with it. It is not possible when working from home. There are very limited chances of learning new things or growing your creative abilities.
The best way to improve this circumstance is to collaborate with colleagues. Enhance overall employee productivity through chat-based applications, or schedule video conference calls for the exchange of knowledge and ideas.
Challenge 8: Time Zone difference
One of the biggest challenges faced while working remotely is to adjust your work timing with clients. It is usual that active collaboration with clients seems to be rare while working remotely or either you have to wait for long hours for every query. So only many software and time-tracking apps are used to overcome such difficulties.
This can certainly disturb your work schedule. Hence, prefer clients who work in a similar time region. Time zone coverage is just something that’s possible by fixing the right time for communication.
Challenge 9: Language barrier
There are numerous ways to interact with individuals face-to-face. Though, this communication becomes tricky on email and chat apps. There’s no way to completely eliminate it entirely, but using video calls and simple language can reduce it. It’s important to clear all doubts before taking on the project.
Challenge 10: Health
We usually follow standard work timings and leave the office, but it is not applicable for work from home. Here you are always on-site, which might sometimes extend the working hours. At some point, you may get so indulged in work that you won’t even take a break from work, and that is stressful leading to bad health conditions. The impact of overworked employees seems to be less productive when compared to others.
The only solution to deal with this matter is to schedule working hours and nonworking and finish your work in time. Also make sure that once you sign off, avoid office work until the next following day to stay healthy and productive.
Challenge 11: Trust
No direct interaction with superiors is possible through Work from home. Many superiors really don’t trust the People entirely. Sometimes really good reasons may look like an excuse to avoid work for them.
There is no direct solution to the problem of the work-from-home challenge. Trust is the only means here. You can utilize the Track.ly tracking tool to build rapport and trust with each other. Here you can share your work process with superiors and can measure employee productivity easily. This tool measures the productivity of how each employee has put in their efforts.
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Conclusion
As long as you know how to deal with the above-mentioned challenges, working from home wouldn’t be much rewarding. It requires some effort, planning, and the right utilization of work-tracking tools. Adopt Track.ly which has the capabilities to track and manage those who are working from home, thereby improving employees’ productivity, and can deal with aforementioned challenges to monitor the overall work process.