Top 6 Major Problems Faced by Employers While Work-from-Home

Effective Work From Home Solution
Working from home has turned out to be a feasible option for both employers and employees. Companies can reduce infrastructural and other costs while employees can work from the comfort of their homes. This is a win-win situation for everyone involved due to increased productivity and less wastage of time and resources. There are innumerable benefits of remote work. One of these benefits is reduced absenteeism. Employees who work from home take fewer days off and are more productive and focused. It also helps them maximize their savings as they end up not spending on the daily commute. Similarly, employers find access to a bigger talent pool as geographical boundaries and distances barely play a role in the case of remote work. This is particularly useful in the case of small businesses that do not have a large budget to accommodate more employees, as that would require them to spend on infrastructure upgrades.   However, all of this is not as uncomplicated as it sounds. Despite the many advantages of remote work, there are several challenges that companies face when their employees are not present on the same premises. Not all employees are able to give their best in remote work, as some of them perform better in teams. Staying motivated is another problem that many people struggle with. Apart from these, carrying out uninterrupted communication is another problem that arises when people work from home. These challenges can be overcome with the right strategy and the right tools to ensure seamless implementation of these strategies.   Listed hereunder are some of the most common challenges that both employers and employees face with remote work.  

Working as a team is difficult 

When team members are working in isolation, it becomes difficult to collaborate and work as a team. While the lack of communication is not an issue in offices, it emerges as a big problem in the case of employees working remotely. Lack of communication and poor teamwork can be seen clearly when information is not being passed on to other members and deadlines are not being met. It becomes difficult to maintain the flow of information within an organization when its employees are scattered in different corners. It is difficult to collaborate on projects and meet deadlines.   Solution  While one tangible solution lies in web-based solutions that facilitate easy streamlining, it takes more than just software solutions to overcome this problem. Managers and other senior-level players need to come up with the right strategies to ensure good teamwork. Teamwork can be made easy with the right tools. Investing in a good software solution that allows team members to collaborate and team leaders to oversee the progress can help to solve this problem effectively. Features such as availability status, group chats, and file sharing prove to be immensely beneficial for businesses. Moreover, cloud-based software solutions are an ideal choice for employees working from a remote location, as they make it easy for employees to gain access, irrespective of their location.  

Lack of motivation and reduced productivity 

Many people find it difficult to stay motivated, especially when they are required to work in isolation. The work-from-home lifestyle doesn’t necessarily suit everyone. While some people find it more convenient to work remotely, others find it difficult to stick to a routine and end up underdelivering. This can be due to several reasons. especially in the case of people with families, pets, and children, as they are surrounded by too many distractions. Others find it difficult to keep their morale high and work well in teams. This can also be due to a feeling of isolation and stress resulting from the same. Moreover, it is equally difficult for managers and team leaders to extract the maximum productivity from their employees. This often pushes them to micromanage everything, which proves to be counterproductive in the long run.   Solution There are several things that need to be done in order to address this issue. Ensuring that the staff stays motivated is important, especially when they are working remotely. Therefore, daily check-ins and team-building exercises play an important role. You should avoid micromanaging everything, as that causes undue stress to the employees. Instead, making regular follow-ups is a more feasible option. Since your employees are not present in the office, it is important that you build a personal rapport with them and initiate non-work-related conversations. Setting small, achievable targets is another way of ensuring high morale. Remote work also makes it necessary for employers to initiate team-building exercises. Regular virtual meetings are an effective way of ensuring this. All of this can be ensured by investing in a robust work-from-home solution for small businesses.  

Tracking progress and assessing performance 

  While it is relatively easy for businesses to keep track of leads, sales, inventory, projects, and accounts in a traditional office setup, all of these things can be challenging when your entire team is working remotely. Moreover, it becomes difficult to keep track of ongoing projects and stay ahead of deadlines when three different people are working on them from three different locations. Businesses find it difficult to assess the performance of their employees when they are working remotely. Agents’ performances need to be tracked and assessed from time to time for several reasons. By assessing the performance of their employees, businesses can track progress, identify problems, and come up with effective solutions. However, all of this becomes difficult in the case of employees working remotely.   Solution   In order to overcome this problem, businesses need to find reliable cloud-based solutions that enable them to stay in control of everything. These solutions help managers and team leaders have better control over operations. Not only do they make it easy for team members to collaborate on tasks, but they also make it easy for employers to monitor progress. Features like real-time reporting and call monitoring on cloud-based solutions make it easy for businesses and call centers to work efficiently. Various work from home productivity tools make it easy for managers to create projects, assign tasks, and add updates. They can also check real-time progress and the time spent by employees on different projects. This, along with other features, can be used to assess the performance of each employee. This empowers businesses to identify their shortcomings and work accordingly.  

Cyber Security Risks 

  While remote work can be managed with the help of third-party software, it puts businesses at a higher risk of losing sensitive data to cyber-attacks. Moreover, your remote working employees may be working on devices with compromised security. The entire existence of a business, big or small, depends on data. Therefore, data-related concerns are reasonable. There have been several incidents of security breaches in the cases of work-from-home employees. The only problem with WFH employees using different software applications is that it puts data security at risk. As a result, data can be accessed by anyone and can be misused.   Solution Data security breaches are avoidable as long as businesses realize the need to invest in a cloud solution that is known to be reliable and secure. Since cloud services encrypt your data in order to transmit and store it, it becomes difficult for hackers and unauthorized parties to access your data. This ensures increased data security. Moreover, many cloud-based services allow users to control and manage security settings, thereby empowering them with greater control and security. As a result, most businesses that adopt cloud-based solutions and services confirm the fact that there are innumerable benefits of cloud services, such as security and reliability. Moreover, it is easier to retrieve data from the cloud as the data does not vanish even during downtime. As far as data recovery is concerned, cloud-based work from home productivity tools have a clear advantage.    

Managing team members with different work schedules  

One of the biggest advantages that remote work has provided businesses with is the ability to hire talent from anywhere in the world. While it has opened a sea of possibilities and opportunities for businesses, it has also made management a little more difficult. This is because a large number of your employees may be working from different corners of the world. This means their time zones can vary from yours by hours, and it can be difficult to adjust to that. Moreover, many freelancers go by their schedule and may not be available to work during your business hours. This tends to complicate things as people rarely agree on a time for meetings and other things. This is likely to make your business suffer and needs to be tackled strategically.   Solution  This problem needs to be approached with a good strategy, in addition to employing the necessary work from home productivity tools. To begin with, fix the working hours for your employees in such a way that it does not inconvenience them or you. Another thing you need to ensure is that every little bit of progress is updated and you are notified about it at the earliest. Secondly, notify team members about one another’s timings to facilitate better communication. Even if your team members are located in different time zones, set a time for regular meetings to ensure seamless teamwork. All of this becomes easier with the right tools. Several management software solutions enable you to manage teams with ease. Features such as availability status, task updates, and reminders allow you to effortlessly manage team members, irrespective of where they are located.    

The Hidden Costs of Remote Work 

  While it is true that both employers and employees save money and achieve better productivity, there are several other factors that are often ignored. Having employees work remotely requires businesses to invest in a number of software solutions to achieve the same level of productivity they are used to in an office setting. Moreover, people don’t have access to several essential office tools and equipment at home, and the onus of providing these falls on the company. They must invest in a variety of work-from-home productivity tools, including cloud-based project management tools, inventory management tools, accounting tools, and CRM, to name a few. Moreover, these tools need to be cloud-based in order to ensure remote accessibility. While there are no huge upfront costs involved in the case of software services, the subscription fees for multiple software solutions do add up eventually and end up breaking the bank.     Solution    The solution to this lies in a comprehensive work-from-home software solution that eliminates the need for a separate software solution for every single thing. Not only will this reduce the overall cost, but it will also help you streamline operations as all data will be stored on one single software. However, choosing the right solution is a challenge in itself. Since the entire functioning of call centers depends on the tools and equipment, choosing the right tools is necessary. Another problem that arises is the cost of providing the right call center equipment to agents. Businesses should carefully assess their requirements and budget before choosing the right work from home call center solutions. Ease of use, scalability, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness are some of the factors to keep in mind while choosing the right software solutions. Even though there are a large number of work-from-home software companies in India to choose from, you should only settle for a solution that meets your requirements. This is crucial as, even with the right tools and the best team, working remotely can be challenging. Apart from these, there are several other things you need to carefully consider, such as the time taken to install the solution, its integration with your existing CRM and other setups, etc. Choose a software solution provider that offers installation support and can provide customizable solutions. Once you have installed the software and are ready to go live, make your team familiar with the solution. Training them would be a good idea at this time. Not only will this ensure the seamless functioning of your call center, but it will also foster team building.    

The Most Reliable Work from Home Solution for Small Business 

  VedaERP is the best software solution for managing work-from-home teams. It has been developed by SAN Softwares, a leading software development company in India. It is also one of the most reliable work-from-home software companies in India. This one-stop-shop software solution can help you simplify and streamline your business operations with ease. It is an ideal enterprise management software solution that can handle everything from inventory management to accounting. It is an ideal solution for accounting, sales, e-invoices, GST return filing, purchase management, project management, inventory, and team management. VedaERP provides effective work-from-home solutions that can help you monitor tasks, manage projects, and track progress. It is a secure, cloud-based solution with a user-friendly interface. You can easily manage everything using this one cost-effective solution and ensure enhanced productivity.   It is a scalable solution that can be easily integrated with the existing setup to ensure better streamlining. Some of the useful features of VedaERP include:  
  • Project Management 
VeaERP makes it easy for you to create and manage projects. You can create multiple projects, assign tasks to different team members, and monitor progress. You can also update tasks and make changes once they have been created. You can also check the time spent by each team member on a particular task. This proves to be helpful as you can keep track of your team members’ efficiency and productivity. All of this is possible due to a dedicated dashboard for projects, which enables you to monitor and manage multiple projects at once.  
  • Team Management 
The sales team management feature allows you to follow up with leads, check client balances, check ongoing and expired contracts and more. It provides you with details about the targets achieved by your agents. It can also be used to calculate the incentives earned by each agent.  
  • Lead Management 
VedaERP is an effective lead management software that makes lead tracking and scoring easy. It is a smart lead management solution that can register new leads, update databases, track progress, and give you greater control. The lead dashboard gives you easy access to all leads and provides the necessary information. You can assign new leads and score leads to identify quality leads. Other useful features offered by VedaERP include lead scheduling, team tracking, lead creation, dynamic field, and call log. By ensuring efficient lead management, you increase your chances of maximizing sales.  
  • Target Management 
Using the target management feature, you can easily assign and manage targets. Once you have assigned a new target to an agent, you can track their progress and get access to agent-wise target reports. You can also calculate the item-wise margin of agents. This proves to be immensely helpful in achieving targets and managing them effectively.   Aside from these, the VedaERP can assist you in managing your work from home teams. The leave management feature enables you to manage your week-off rosters. Your employees get the flexibility of making leave applications using mobile apps. With VedaERP, you manage your finances, leads, projects, sales, and inventory through a single software. It can provide you with real-time reports and accurate analytics. It is an integrated inventory process system that helps communicate easily with all departments and supply chain partners.

Frequently Asked Questions

Managing remote teams comes with challenges like difficulty in team collaboration, maintaining motivation, tracking progress, and ensuring data security. Without face-to-face communication, teamwork can suffer, and employees may feel isolated or struggle with maintaining a routine. Additionally, monitoring performance and safeguarding sensitive company data become more complex when employees work from different locations. Addressing these issues requires robust software solutions and effective management strategies.

Businesses can enhance teamwork among remote employees by investing in cloud-based collaboration tools that facilitate easy communication, file sharing, and project tracking. Regular virtual meetings, daily check-ins, and team-building exercises can also help maintain a sense of camaraderie. Managers should create a culture of open communication and use platforms that enable real-time updates to keep everyone aligned on goals and progress.

Companies can track the performance of remote workers using cloud-based project management tools that offer real-time reporting and task updates. These tools allow managers to monitor the time spent on tasks, assess progress, and set deadlines. Features like call monitoring, time tracking, and productivity reports help businesses maintain visibility into the work being done and identify areas for improvement.

Share On Social Media Platforms
×