There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to organizing employees remotely. But sometimes it is inevitable to take them into the team. How to deal with them?
When creating and launching a product, the staffing issue is always acute. Especially if you are a company that is just starting up and is located in a small town. At a certain point, you realize that everyone you could have already joined the team, but a number of areas are not closed, and you urgently need specialists. And then – hello, remote work.
The advantages and disadvantages of working with remote employees became clear after multiple iterations. It’s crucial to keep in mind that the majority of the team works in the office, with only a few people working remotely. When the entire team is dispersed and there isn’t a physical office as such, the pros and cons will be different from those listed below. In that case, the situation is different. Both the manager’s and the employees’ views will be taken into account when weighing the advantages and disadvantages of organizing remote work.
It should be said at once that there is no definite answer as to whether remote work is better or worse. Everything depends on the maturity of the team, the focus of each of its members on the result, and their interest in the ultimate success.
Pros of working with remote employees
There are a lot of advantages to working with remote employees, but there are the most important ones.
The first is the apparent savings in salary. There is no need to hire them, pay taxes for them, organize their workplace, and bear legal and social responsibility for them. The accounting department will be delighted if a remote professional creates his own legal entity (PLC or IE), as the cost of his services may be deducted from revenue and lower the tax base. To avoid disagreements or issues with payment, it is crucial to register a remote worker in accordance with all the regulations. A remote employee can choose convenient working hours, taking into account his or her own rhythms. There is no need to stretch tasks and create the appearance of work. There is a fixed amount of work or a set goal and it can be achieved in the most productive state, and in the shortest possible time, rather than stretching the solution for hours and days.
The second is that with the remote work format you can attract specialists with very high qualifications. For example, a highly paid lawyer, programmer, architect, Internet marketer, most likely, will not agree to be a full-time employee of a small company or startup. Furthermore, such businesses cannot give significant compensation, there is no consistent workload, and the office is located far from the city center. For a specialist, none of this is interesting. However, it is advantageous and appealing from a professional standpoint to complete critical project work fast. In addition, the recruiter has a wider range of opportunities when selecting candidates. In the case of a company in a large city – there is an opportunity to hire employees with potential and lower salary expectations.
Cons of working with remote employees
Employers, however, must be aware of certain quirks and drawbacks when working with remote staff. For each type of work, they must define highly specific tasks and create a thorough set of guidelines or a brief. Next, approve the work based on this document. Mutual duties must be strictly upheld in order to cooperate with them such as supplying data, keeping appointments, executing contracts, and making payments. They can take longer to complete than when working with a full-time staff, making these aspects disadvantages. If this isn’t done, projects may get derailed and other problems may arise. A loss of work context may occur. This is especially true if most of the employees work in the office. Part of the team has discussed the solution and is already working on it, while the remote employee will only find out about it at the next phone call or at the meeting.
For a business, especially for a small company where the manager is multi-functional, it is very important to work with people who are organized and independent. Moreover, a small company cannot afford to have many employees. Working with freelancers is hard and a bit scary, if you constantly have to set tasks and monitor their implementation, it takes a lot of time. But if you can connect with a trustworthy, self-sufficient remote worker, everything turns out to be fine. Also, when part of the team works remotely, it is more difficult to give feedback and also to find a good time for a general team meeting.
Remote work is the future! Remote work is only a plus for employers
First and foremost, both the employer and the employee need to be aware of the differences between local, office work, and remote work. The same benefits as those offered to office workers apply to remote workers as well. It is a full-time, formal employee of the business with a set work schedule, salary, and benefits including paid time off for vacation and sick leave.
A remote employee, in contrast to a freelancer, is bound to a single employer and is not allowed to switch jobs or projects. This worker has access to constant Internet connectivity, as well as all required tools for independent work, and can work from any convenient location.
Workplace risks are not larger and are really lower than in the office setting. Employer risks are even lower financially. If an employee does not fully work remotely, then he also works in the office. Only the employer bears all costs for organizing a workplace in the office, and the employee when working remotely.
The most important thing an employer wants to get is a good result of his employees’ work. This is precisely the goal of remote work. After all, a remote worker can only demonstrate the outcome. And in this situation, it is difficult to be stupid and claim that I am not responsible for the mistake; if I am, then someone else is. A ToR, a deadline, and any potential instances of force majeure are specified up front.
Many are convinced that remote work is the future.
There are several reasons:
- Employees that work remotely display the outcome rather than engaging in violent activity in front of the employer when in the office.
- The productivity of a team is higher since employee communication takes less time than office interactions.
- You can engage any expert from anywhere in the world who would never set foot in the office of your business.
- Reduced operating costs. For example, for the office, equipment, tea, coffee, etc., as well as saving the time of the administrator and office managers. The money saved can be put into the payroll and a more experienced employee can be hired.
How to minimize the disadvantages of working remotely:
The entire team can communicate and be in the same information area thanks to daily gatherings online. You ought to get together face-to-face once a month or every three months to build communication and brainstorming. To manage a remote team, you can also experiment with learning various services for managing a remote team.
Bio
Helen Wilson is a professional content writer. Her main spheres of specialization are Marketing and Business. She studies topics about psychology and health, and also she provides a “help write my essay
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