Remote work in all sectors have been steadily rising over the years. According to a Gallup report, American employees working remotely rose to 43 percent in 2016 from 39 percent in 2012. And it’s a global phenomenon too.A study released by IWG found that 70 percent of professionals around the world work away from the office at least once a week, and 53 percent at least half of the week. Remote work is not favorable to employees only, more and more companies embracing a ‘remote-first’ and ‘agile team’ philosophy – including Teramind! According to a 2019 study by Owl Labs found, 16 percent of global companies are fully remote and 40 percent are hybrid (companies who offer both remote and in-office option).
There are many ideal factors to this setup. For instance, remote work can boost productivity while significantly reducing the costs of office space and other accouterments. As a result, many companies are embracing this culture.
But that’s not to say that remote work is without its own set of problems. Communication challenge, loss of productivity due to lack of supervision, feelings of alienation, difficulty of managing accountability, high turnover, difficulty of tracking project, timeline and payroll, security concerns - all can add up to diminish the benefits of remote work. Fortunately, with the right strategy and tools you can effectively monitor your remote workers to identify and address these issues to fully reap the benefits of a distributed team.