Remote working has been revolutionary for many businesses worldwide in recent years, but it doesn’t come without its own challenges. There are the obvious ones, such as dealing with isolation and learning to be productive in your own space, but there are some other considerations, which this article will go over.
Project Management
Project management could be something difficult to work with remotely. There may be many different steps and levels to a project, which means constant communication and collaboration are key, which could be difficult to make when you’re not in the same space.
Whether you’re a project manager, or someone involved in a project, you will need to ensure all the information and resources is available to use. It should be clear what you need and have clear goals and deadlines to head towards.
Consider how to distribute tasks as a remote project leader, and know how to get updates when you need them. If you don’t get feedback and receive regular updates, work may start to slip up somehow.
General Organisation
When you’re in a physical office, it is perhaps easier to understand how you can organise office space. You can see everything that’s not just your workplace that needs dealing with. Clearing up can be greatly beneficial for the general organisation. Of course, it is not just physical organisation. This also refers to your file and online organisation.
This would have still been important for an office setup, but it’s something you may have to think about further when remote working. This is especially beneficial, as you will have to rely more on yourself, as no one at your home could do this for you.
It may be best to separate your personal PC from a workplace PC or laptop so that everything on this device is only work-related. This will make it easier to organise and separate your personal life from your work life. Consider the files and documents you have on this device and where it all needs to go. Folders will be helpful here for organisation. If you have too many files, you could be running out of storage space sooner rather than later. Consider compressing your PDFs and other files so that they’re smaller in size and easier to share.
Communication
Another challenge you may have to overcome comes in the form of communication. Physical communication is easier in an actual workplace, whereas communicating over email or a messaging platform could make it more difficult to get your tone and general voice across.
You may come off as rude when you don’t mean to, or you may think someone is being rude to you when this may not be the case. Of course, there is always the chance that a message could get lost in some way, which leads to a loss of work or productivity. You could overcome this by implementing a system that encourages more clear cut messaging, which notifies you when a message is received or actioned.
In terms of communication, you may also have more international colleagues that you now work with because of remote working. You will have to overcome potential language barriers and consider any culture barriers that could exist. Culture barriers could mean that there are certain holidays and days that staff will need off
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