The Complete Remote Working Guide
In today’s global economy, distributed teams have become the standard for many companies, meaning employees can work remotely from anywhere in the world. Remote work has been increasing in popularity for several years, and the COVID-19 pandemic greatly accelerated the pre-existing trend. Now, the benefits of telecommuting are becoming widely recognized, and experts agree that remote work is here to stay.Remote work is not without its challenges, however, so any company going remote should adhere to best practices for moving into a virtual office. Likewise, for entrepreneurs—who can benefit from lower startup costs of a remote business—there are certain strategies worth following to ensure success in the competitive global market for remote work.
Benefits of Remote Work for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
Established businesses and new startups alike can benefit by adopting a fully remote or hybrid workforce. Here are some of the benefits that can come from distributed teams:- Access to global talent: Enabling remote work means you can attract top talent from anywhere in the world, not just within commuting distance of your business.
- Improved retention: Most people want to be able to work from home at least some of the time, which may explain why companies that support remote work report 25% lower employee turnover than companies that don’t.
- Increased productivity: Work-from-home employees are often more productive and work more days per month, on average, than in-office employees. Absenteeism is also reduced because workers are less likely to use sick time or show up late to work.
- Reduced costs: Employers stand to save a lot on overhead by switching to remote teams. For companies that enable full-time telework, studies show an average savings of $10,000 per employee per year on real estate expenses.
- Fewer interruptions: When set up securely for remote work, businesses are less affected by interruptions and closures due to localized external factors like natural disasters.
- Reduced burnout: In one survey, 56% of workers listed flexibility in their workday as the number-one way in which employers could support their mental health and stress reduction. This suggests that options for telecommuting can help combat burnout and associated losses of productivity.
Benefits of Remote Work for Employees
Although some still prefer the structure of an office setting, nearly three-fourths of people prefer the option to work from home. Indeed, employees may be happier with remote work for several reasons, which can be seen in their improved work-life balance and increased productivity. The many benefits of remote work for employees include:- Ability to work from anywhere: Though a home office is the ideal work environment for many, telecommuting allows employees to switch up their routines and work from other locations, and even occasionally work while traveling.
- Saving on transportation: Remote workers can save more than $4,500 per year on fuel costs by not driving to work.
- More free time: By eliminating the commute, workers can also save a significant amount of time. Based on statistics on the average daily commute, remote employees can gain a total of 408 hours—or 17 days’ worth—of free time each year.
- Flexible hours: Teleworking hours can be made flexible, allowing employees more freedom to customize their workday schedules and maximize individual productivity.
- Promoting sustainability: Fewer people driving to work means fewer cars on the road, and that benefits everyone by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One study estimates a reduction of 140 billion driving miles each year by just 20 percent of the U.S. workforce going fully remote.
Starting a Remote Business
With today’s technology and worldwide connectivity, many types of businesses can enjoy the benefits of going remote. Examples include familiar online models like web design, consulting, or retail. However, many services that traditionally operate in-person can feasibly become virtual as well. Real estate, personal training, and healthcare are just a few examples of industries moving increasingly online.
Whether you want to take your company remote or launch a new online venture, it’s important to cover all the necessary steps to starting a remote business:
Whether you want to take your company remote or launch a new online venture, it’s important to cover all the necessary steps to starting a remote business:
- Conduct market research and determine your competitive niche.
- Develop a remote business plan
- Name your business and register any trademarks or domains.
- Secure startup funding through loans, investors, or crowdsourcing.
- Register your business with local, state, and federal agencies.
- Obtain insurance and develop backup plans.
Hiring Remote Workers
Just as with any other company, a remote business needs the right employees to grow and thrive. Remote work offers the advantage of a broad and diverse field to choose from, but with that comes the challenge of finding just the ideal candidates from a global pool of talent.
Finding and Recruiting Talent
Traditional job postings are not always sufficient for remote recruitment. You need a specialized online process to attract the right candidates and evaluate them efficiently. Here are some steps you should take to hire remote workers for your business:
- Refine your job descriptions to reflect the unique requirements and perks of each remote position.
- Update your website and other messaging to authentically reflect your company culture and values.
- Post on remote-specific and industry-specific job boards to reach the most qualified candidates.
- Use recruitment platforms or software that can automate parts of the hiring process to make your job easier.
Remote Employee Onboarding
Along with training for the job, onboarding new employees is a crucial component of the hiring process. Onboarding is all about welcoming new members to the team, integrating them with company culture, and equipping them with the tools they need to move forward with training and development.
Virtual onboarding can be difficult due to a lack of personal interaction, but there are ways you can add a human element to the onboarding process:
- Get started right away in introducing new hires to other employees and encouraging interaction.
- Assign each new employee to a mentor and have them meet regularly.
- Clearly define roles and set expectations for every employee.
- Start training with a small project and allow for as much time and collaboration as needed for completion.
Managing a Remote Team
Remote work has been shown to promote employee retention and reduce turnover, but those benefits only come with effective management of your remote workforce. Managing a remote team has its challenges, but can be accomplished with the right combination of IT infrastructure and human connection.
Communication and Collaboration
Maintaining open channels of communication is important for any business, and remote businesses are certainly no exception. Communication is key to fostering trust among team members and enabling fruitful collaboration.
To maintain effective virtual communications, you’ll need not just email but also video calls, messaging, conferencing, and other multimedia. It’s best to enable multiple channels of communication, but to keep these within the same platform for the sake of efficiency. Microsoft Teams is a good solution for unifying communications, promising secure, customizable video meetings, and a host of integrated tools.
Project Management
Another essential for a remote business is project management software, which will enable you to construct and manage workflows among various apps and platforms. Along with channels for open communication, effective project management is necessary for collaborative work to thrive.
On remote teams, everyone must be able to clearly see the tasks at hand, know the expectations, and track progress through every stage. Maintaining this level of visibility is important for fostering trust, which will in turn promote further communication and co-creation for your team.
Work-life Balance
One thing that makes remote work so attractive is the prospect of a healthy work-life balance. This can be difficult to achieve, however, either because of spending too much time working or dealing with distractions.
In one study of remote workers, 60% of respondents believe they have a good work-life balance. The same study, however, reports that 43% more remote employees than on-site employees work over 40 hours per week, and that 77% of remote employees have experienced burnout.
This means that remote workers may need some help striking a healthy work-life balance. Here are some steps you can take to promote productivity while minimizing burnout among your remote team members:
- Set a routine for each day, but allow for flexibility.
- Encourage breaks for lunch and short physical activity.
- Communicate clear boundaries about work hours and meeting times.
- Hold regular check-ins for accountability on work, but allow for discussion of personal matters as well.
- Prioritize relationships and allow for non-work interactions among employees.
Relationship Building
One of the drawbacks that remote employees identify is the sense of isolation that comes with working from home. To combat this, you should encourage social interaction among team members. Here are some tips for building relationships in the virtual workplace:
- Make video calls more human by occasionally sharing personal stories or introducing pets on camera.
- Provide separate communication channels for off-topic discussions and activities.
- Host some non-work meetings such as virtual lunches, fantasy sports leagues, or book clubs.
- Set up eSports games for team building and professional development.
Technology for a Remote Business
Even before any of the steps for hiring, onboarding, and managing a remote team, you must have a technology plan for your business. None of the aforementioned tactics for assembling remote teams can be successful without a capable IT infrastructure and seamless connectivity.
Hardware for Employees
To ensure a smooth onboarding and promote productivity early on, each employee should be properly set up for connectivity from day one. This means delivering home office equipment before a new hire’s start date so they can get comfortable with the technology. Essentials for a home office include:
- A laptop with the power to run complex programs and videoconferencing simultaneously
- At least one extra monitor to expand the digital workspace
- Docking station plus all the proper cables and adapters to set up a customizable home workstation
- Printers and scanners, along with office phones, if employees’ at-home work requires them
- An ergonomic keyboard and mouse to reduce typing fatigue and injury
- A high-quality office chair to promote comfort along with posture
- Helpful accessories like a headset, high-definition camera, speakers, or mousepad
Hardware for Employers
One of the advantages of remote business is that you don’t need a physical space full of expensive hardware to run your IT systems. You can instead run everything through cloud technology, so you need only an internet connection and standard home-office hardware to access powerful networking and storage capabilities.
However, it pays to have on-site backups in case connectivity fails or a security breach happens. For that, you should invest in physical data storage that’s sufficient to handle all of your information, and configure the system to perform automatic backups regularly.
Software for Remote Work
All of your tools for productivity, project management, communication, and collaboration can be obtained through cloud-based software. Cloud computing reduces the need for on-site processing and networking, allowing your entire team to access all the same information with any device. In addition, cloud support enables unlimited scalability as your business grows.
Here are some examples of cloud-based software that your business can use:
- Slack for a standalone messaging app
- Microsoft Teams for integrated collaboration and productivity
- Asana or Monday.com for project management
- Veeam cloud data management for backup solutions
- Microsoft Azure for powerful cloud computing services
Beyond this software and hardware, you should also prioritize software that will keep your business safe, which inevitably should fit into your cybersecurity strategy.
Cybersecurity with a Remote Workforce
One of the biggest dangers to a small business is the threat of cyberattacks. This is especially true for remote businesses because studies show that remote work can make an organization more vulnerable to cyber threats.
Security Threats to Remote Businesses
Small businesses that operate remotely may face many cybersecurity risks, including:
- Malware and ransomware
- Phishing scams
- Man-in-the-middle attack to intercept information
- Unsecured access from personal devices
- Unsafe data sharing by employees
Your remote business needs to be prepared with cybersecurity systems, protocols, and backup plans to prevent and respond to these types of breaches. The good news is that most cloud-based services have some security built in, but you may still need extra levels of protection.
Protective Measures for Cybersecurity
To ensure business resiliency in the event of a crisis, you should take these extra measures to secure your data:
- Identify valuable assets to prioritize protection
- Audit for vulnerabilities and evaluate the likelihood of possible scenarios
- Based on your findings, consider advanced security software to cover outstanding vulnerabilities
- Keep all software updated at the recommended intervals
- Teach employees how to identify and report security problems
- Consider consulting cybersecurity specialists for advanced assessment and testing
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