Remote work: a future trend with risks

In the last decade, the proportion of remote work has steadily increased, but this form of work represents a long-term challenge for teams. 

This article therefore presents the most common risks for teams and how you can avoid them.

Without that, it will be difficult

“One of the secret benefits of using remote workers is that the work itself becomes the yardstick to judge someone’s performance.”

Jason Fried, author of “Office Not Required.

As it is not apparent to the manager whether or how work is being carried out, a healthy basis of trust the most important thing. The only thing that can be used as a guide here is the results achieved by employees and customer satisfaction. It is often precisely this trust that binds people to a company.

A study by Stanford University shows that the Employee turnover for remote teams 50 % lower than for offices in the traditional sense. In the long term, it is therefore important to ensure that mutual trust is strengthened in order to create a functioning working basis. Employees generally value the remote working model and the trust of their employer enough to take the commitment behind it seriously.

The challenge

It should be noted that not everyone is cut out to work independently and that a certain degree of self-organization is simply required. In order to keep yourself To be able to motivate , you also need a strong interest in the project. Only if this is the case can you benefit from the advantages of virtual collaboration.

82% of employees from remote teams report an enormous reduction in stress. Stress is the strongest factor when it comes to loss of productivity. So while many people think that stress increases when working independently, the opposite is the case.

The employees’ own initiative remains their responsibility, but this can be strengthened from outside. The best way is not through mountains of deadlines, but through trust and recognition.

Don’t forget appreciation

It is an advantage to know the difference between trust and appreciation . Even though they often go hand in hand, appreciation at work is the biggest factor when it comes to work motivation. But unfortunately it is also the fastest to get lost. In the fast-paced world of work, it is often only the work result that counts, while the work put into a project is quickly lost.

It often helps to remind yourself that you have a group of highly qualified people in your team that you have previously selected yourself from a huge talent pool. Measures of appreciation start with little things like praise in an email and can go all the way to rewards for special work.

Showing appreciation in everyday working life – especially with outsourced employees – is an art that is worth learning. After all, even as a boss you are happy to receive praise from your employees. However, the greatest form of appreciation is the relinquishment of responsibility. The employees thus recognize a sense behind their daily remote work and can develop themselves further. In this way, you can take the pressure off yourself and strengthen the team in terms of time.

Gain a new perspective

“Never change a running system” is perhaps not the right approach here.

With a well-established team, you quickly fall into routines that you rely on. It makes sense to look at your working methods from a different perspective, even when everything is running smoothly. It is important here not to look for the mistakes, but for the opportunities that arise within the team. Workflows can be optimized using more sophisticated tools, for example.

A good way to create new motivation   and optimize working methods is to use team offsites. When colleagues know and understand each other better, work also runs more smoothly – despite the distance.

An offsite is an organized team break in an inspiring environment. Team spirit is created here   and the motivation to advance the team through your own work increases. Through various workshops and input on the offsite, the work routines at home can be reconsidered and optimized .

Despite the potential dangers, remote teams are the future of many companies. They fulfill the wishes of young talents who are looking for a good work-life balance and help companies to achieve their goals. It is important to be one step ahead of the dangers and to keep them in mind as a preventative measure. As a virtual team, you can master the challenge of remote working in the long term and also create a completely new, more efficient team.

We ourselves offer both a framework and the aforementioned offsites to take teams to the next level. Let’s talk about how we at can give your team a boost .