Challenges working remotely
Technology is creating new professions which enable people to work from anywhere. The number of people working remotely is increasing because the new generation of workers, millennials, look for flexibility, inspiration, creativity, to be more productive, work wellness, work/life balance, short commutes from home to work, connect with foreign markets and peers and also why not working discovering new cities, people and cultures. The way we work has changed and traditional companies have to make a shift if they want to keep the talent and productive employees.
I’m working remotely for about 5 years now. Remote work has many advantages over a traditional office-work environment. However, also presents some unique challenges. Communication is the key. You need to over communicate. And in addition, to be successful as a remote company, you need to be able to trust your employees.
If you don’t communicate in a remote environment, you don’t exist – Vanessa Sans HWL
Studies have shown working remotely increases employee engagement in moderation because still is important to nurture relationships face to face. It is about to find a balance between working off-site and in-site. The office is becoming a place for collaboration.
Furthermore, there are effective apps and tools made for teams working remotely as we explain in our article Work smarter, not harder, some of them are team chats like Slack, meetings and video chats like Zoom, project management tools to manage and track tasks like Asana, apps for to-do-list like Todist, etc.
Coworking is a possible answer for corporates who want to offer flexible remote working but not working from home as can be distracted, boring and isolated for some people.
Coworking spaces are ecosystems made of freelancers, entrepreneurs, startups, companies and remote workers where people work on their thing and have the chance to find like-minded people and grow the human and professional connections they were missing from working at home.
More companies are sending their employees to work in coworking spaces to gain inspiration and understanding about what is happening in the startup and freelance ecosystem. Others are working from coworking spaces to become more agile and flexible to the market changes.
The article is inspired by the interview of Vanessa Sans at Financial Times “Rethink forced by the loneliness of long-distance work” and also written by her and posted on her Linkedin.
Featured image provided by Hubud.
