Remote work isn’t suited for everyone. Here are some of the challenges this kind of work brings—isolation, lack of communication and connection—and how video conferences can play a significant role in crossing the gap.
Lack of growth
Employees often work alone most times of the day—or night, if they’re a night owl. And while that lack of interruptions result in tons of work getting done, it could also lead to stagnant practices and approaches, the Forbes says. By encouraging your teams to do video calls and meetings, you can provide your remote employees with the interaction and stimulation they need to keep growing their talents and honing their skills.
Poor connection
It’s hard to feel any sort of connection for a person who’s only an email contact on your screen. So when something happens, it can be easy to misunderstand what the other party is saying. This could escalate and lead to a strained working relationship. With video calls, it’s easy to know what the other person is really saying or thinking about. It’s also easy to pick out non-verbal cues through facial expressions, gestures and body language to get a solid gauge on whether they’re listening to you or not. Since video calls succeed in putting a face to the name, you tend to feel a lot closer to your teammates, even when you don’t even inhabit the same continent, much less the same time zone.
Impaired discipline
Remote employees often have great discipline and organizational skills to make sure they turn in their deliverables on time. Or at least, as close to the deadlines as possible. However, people get tired and stressed. It can be easy for employees to develop bad habits. One way to keep them disciplined and gunning down for those deadlines are video calls. Make one up, praising their efforts to stay true to their deadlines and it’s going to have the same effect as a pay raise. You’ll see a marked improvement in your employee’s performance. So a little encouragement via video can go a long, long way.
Lack of social interaction
When someone spends less time with people, he often finds social situations awkward. By providing your offsite employees with the social interaction they need through video calls, you can help improve the socialization and communication skills of your team members. That’s always a welcome improvement. Improved communication skills have always played an important part in human history. From negotiating changes to proposing revisions, an employee with a slick and smooth communication style will be an invaluable asset to your company.
Lack of vision
Remote employees who don’t see the kind of vision you have for the business can bail early on. So if you want to keep your employees with you, share your vision with them. Send out video calls discussing plans for the future and how your employees are and will always be an integral part of the process. Just make sure you pick out the right business video conference system – like BlueJeans – and you’ll be good to go. With the right features—from HD clarity to connectivity options—you’re sure to get your work done with ease.
Cultural barriers
It’s easy to set ground rules for all your teams to follow. That way, growing a culturally diverse workforce isn’t going to be a problem. That diversity is also a good quality to nurture. When people are different, when have different experiences they can draw on, that makes for a great team. Because you get more than the same votes. You get viewpoints of varying types and interests. It’s the best kind of breeding ground for great ideas. If you want to build the best kind of virtual workgroup, this is one way to make that happen, says the Computer Weekly.
Wrap up projects
Ever had to send in revisions for a project and had all the team looped in? Remember how convoluted and confusing that long thread got? With video calls, you get no such problems. It’s easy to talk make decisions or wrap up projects because video calls work faster than emails. Just imagine the seconds it takes for you to write out a single sentence or form a reply. Compare that to how may words you can say a minute and video calls win, hands down.
Poor leadership
In some cases, it’s the lack of a clear and decisive leadership that dooms a remote team. By going for someone who has the experience and attitude to lead a team, your remote employees are going to perform so much better.
So invest in the right tools—and the right people—to overcome the challenges unique to remote work and teams. If you’ve got both of that covered, then you and your team will do just fine.
