In this article we explore some of the tactics to consider.
Since the pandemic, there has been a significant rise in the number of employees who are working remotely or virtually, usually at home. While some employees are fully remote, many have a hybrid work pattern where they are in the office for one, two or three days a week.
The merits of remote work continue to be debated, and it is potentially a fluid situation. Some businesses have ordered a full Return to the Office (RTO), often following a strong directive from leadership.
Arguments about the benefits and pitfalls of remote work at scale focus on productivity, culture, teamwork and more, and various studies have been carried out which show arguments both pro and against. It is also possible that in the future pay and rewards structure may also start to reflect whether you work remotely or not, favouring those going into the office.
Generally, though it looks like hybrid and remote work is very much here to stay. Many businesses and office-based employees got into a routine during the pandemic and were able to work successfully, proving that remote work can work at scale, something that was unlikely to have been accepted before the pandemic.
Benefits of remote work
Overall, remote work has lots of benefits for both employees and organisations.
For employees it offers an improved chance to better balance the day-to-day demands of work and life. In has proved particularly important to those with families or who are primary carers; opportunities for remote work do support diversity and inclusion, and studies commissioned by McKinsey have shown more women favour the opportunity for remote work.
Additional benefits include better productivity, particularly for certain styles of work, including the type of more intense analytical and report writing that in-house legal teams often need to carry out. There is also a lot of time (and pain) avoided by missing the daily commute.
But it’s also important to remember that not every employee can benefit from remote working, usually because of their home circumstances. People in smaller accommodation, in shared houses, with small children, and even in difficult domestic situations may simply not have the opportunity.
For organisations there are also multiple benefits, including the opportunity to attract and retain talent from a wider area, keep real estate costs down by reducing office space, better support for diversity and inclusion, and also significantly reduce their carbon footprint, supporting the move towards net zero.
Challenges of remote work
Working from home and the flexibility of remote working are attractive for many but they do come with their challenges. Here are ten of the key challenges around working remotely.
Challenge one: Mindset
Probably the most significant issue associated with remote working, but especially working from home, is mindset. This is not only the way an individual employee approaches remote working, but also that of their colleagues and occasionally, senior management. The mindset of your family and those you share a home with matter too.
Not everyone likes remote work and prefers to be in the office. If you resent working at home, there are usually opportunities to work more on-site. Being able to establish a “zone” to work at home where there is peace and quiet can also help. If your family or people you share a home with struggle with where work and non-work starts and stops, establishing clarity of where and when you work and sticking to these can help everyone fall into a routine.
The mindset of colleagues, management and leaders can also be a significant problem. Before 2020, working from home was often regarded as a “light” option or something that is considered not being “fully present” at work. While this arguably outdated view has definitely lessened, it has still persisted in some quarters and is partly behind a backlash against remote working.
Negative perceptions of home working have various repercussions including an impact on promotion, the cohesion of teams, and your ability to successfully interact with colleagues. There can also be an assumption that people who work remotely are trading in opportunities for career progression for a lifestyle option and are, therefore, less interested in internal promotions. Research already cited above carried out by McKinsey has shown this is a myth, particular for women working remotely.
Challenge two: Visibility
An issue associated with negative perceptions of remote working is also the problem of visibility. Sometimes if you're working from home or out of the office, you can lack the visibility of your colleagues who are fully office-based or are in the office more days than you.
Because so much communication takes place informally, you may miss the “water cooler conversations” that convey valuable information, or the nuances of communication that are conveyed face to face. Also, there's sometimes a feeling that you need to show your face in the office so senior leaders recognise that you’re contributing, and members of your team see that you’re pulling your weight.
Challenge three: Technology and connectivity
Technology is a key enabler of remote working and when this is less than optimal it is a real barrier. Generally, technology is less of an issue than it used to be. Platforms that support online meetings, discussions, chat, and collaboration including Microsoft Teams and Zoom Workplace have matured and most businesses have invested in these. Invariably if there are security issues then VPN access is also in place.
However, there can be issues. Occasionally the solutions in place might not be optimal. Poor connectivity – particular if your broadband connection goes down or is particularly weak – will impact the effectiveness of remote work. If your laptop has issues it can be harder or take longer to arrange support if an IT professional needs to physically look at your machine.
Challenge four: Meetings
A very specific challenge is also around meeting which are rarely equitable between in-person and remote participants. When you dial into a meeting remotely and everyone is within the same room, you are automatically at a disadvantage because you cannot see the full interactions and expressions of people who are there. And also, there can sometimes be a problem with audio in terms of you hearing them or them hearing you.
Video conferencing tools and equipped meeting rooms have removed some of these issues. Sometimes everyone in a room may be on their laptops, particularly if they are using a companion content thread or even an AI assistant to support the meeting.
Teams may have impromptu meetings in a common area within the office, perhaps because all the meeting rooms are booked out. This can prove to be a challenge for remote staff because it is harder for them to dial in.
There is also a problem about your perceived availability for meetings because if people only want to meet you in person, and you're in the office for a limited time, then it can be difficult to organise a face-to-face meeting where diaries are busy.
Challenge Five: Time zones
Managing a global virtual team across jurisdictions has multiple challenges including those around culture and language, but often it’s the time zones that have the most impact. If you're UK-based and have ever had to work with colleagues, for example, in Australia, or on the west coast of America, then you’ll have to get used to either early morning or evening calls that aren’t ideal. Of course, this virtual working challenge is an issue for both office and remote workers.
Challenge Six: Loneliness and wellbeing
The impact of working from home alone or being away from your team can result in loneliness. This can be far more of a problem than people realise and needs to be factored in by those involved, including HR if relevant. Not all may wish to work outside of the office. Having too many online meetings – sometimes known colloquially as “Zoom fatigue” – can also be tiring and stressful.
Working remotely can also make it much harder to notice if a colleague or team member is struggling and needs support. Some organisations have even invested in training to support managers in being able to recognise warning signs around wellbeing across their team.
Challenge Seven: A lack of a home office
Working from home is not always so straightforward. You may not have the space or the peace and quiet you need to be able to successfully carry out your role. Working on the kitchen table is not ideal but that is the reality for many.
Challenge Eight: Management and team dynamics
Managing a team remotely can be challenging. There can be feeling of being one or two steps removed from your direct reports. Members of your team may not be happy about working remotely themselves or feel less supported. As we have already noted, it can also be harder to notice and support members who are struggling and need extra support.
Remote working can also throw a spanner in the works of team dynamics. The chances of miscommunication and misunderstanding can be heightened, although not necessarily always. Coordinating activities and collaboration, particularly in real time, can be harder, although online tools can also provide additional visibility and even clarity.
There can also tend to be weaker social ties between team members who don’t interact face to face on a regular basis which when in place can support stronger working relationships.
Challenge Nine: Hybrid patterns
Not everyone supports hybrid working. Some see it as an uneasy compromise between remote work and returning to the office, that reduces both the benefits of being fully remote and being fully in-person. However, many others appreciate the opportunity to experience both types of work.
Hybrid work does have its challenges though. Not everyone likes having to switch between different modes. People can struggle to work out where people are going to be on different days. Hybrid work also sometimes imposes patterns with specified days to be in work with a structure that is inconvenient or limits the flexibility which people highly appreciate.
Challenge Ten: Calls to Return to the Office
The situation around hybrid or remote working can change. Some organisations are aiming for a full Return to the Office, without much choice in the matter. People enjoying the benefits of remote or hybrid work may find the full return back to the office somewhere between inconvenient and a trigger to find a new position.
Ways to deal with the challenges
Of course, there are various different ways to overcome and reduce the impact of some of these challenges. While there is no magic instant solution, a few common-sense approaches can help a great detail. Here are some suggestions, many of which you may already have put into practice.
1. Arrange for regular some limited time in the office
One way to mitigate some of these problems is to arrange a time when you're in the office. And people know that you will be around. Of course, this may be built into the existing hybrid working plans of your team and depends on your circumstances. But it can also really help when you have a team who work mainly remotely and you need everyone to be together in one place at one time.
If everybody knows everyone's going to be in on a Wednesday, then you can plan face to face meetings It also manages the expectations of senior managers who don't fully buy into remote working, so they are clear when you're going to be in the office.
Similarly, if you are a manager of a team and they work in remote locations, being able to visit them from time to time, and work out of the same office can benefit team coherence.
2. Be explicit and transparent about your working times
Being explicit about your working times allows everybody to know when you’re contactable and manages expectations. One way to be clear about your working hours is to include the information in your email footer or on your intranet or employee directory profile. It also helps to include the best or preferred way to get in touch with you, and potential times you may be in the office. This helps to remove a lot of the ambiguity and stress around people getting in touch. Ideally an entire in-house team should follow this practice.
Similarly sticking to a set of working hours and having clarity around it can help your family navigate the blurred lines that can happen between work and non-work that when working from home. Letting them know when you have calls or meetings which cannot be disturbed can also help.
3. Also be explicit about your working space
If you are working from home, it also helps to try and have an explicit working space during the working day. Most people do not have the luxury of a dedicated home office, so this may be anything from the kitchen table to somebody’s bedroom. It may also need to move during the day. It may be influenced or dictated by where the wi-fi connection is strongest, where there are less distractions or noise, or where you need to move to, for example because the kids are coming home from school. Where possible, having clarity about working location each day, and sticking to it allows everyone in the family to settle on a routine.
4. Share the time zone burden
If you have a global team spread across challenging time zones and you need to meet regularly then it’s inevitable that somebody is going to have to compromise and work at an inhospitable hour. If you can spread the burden so it’s not always the same people on the late evening or morning call, then obviously this is a better approach.
5. Use the tech to its full capability
It’s quite likely that everyone will have access to online meeting and collaboration capabilities with an application like Microsoft Teams. Using these capabilities to their full can help with remote working – using video where possible, encouraging asynchronous collaboration using discussions channels and so on.
6. Aim for more equitable meetings
As described in our challenges, often when meetings have a mixture of people dialling and those physically sitting in a room together, it can create an imbalance with those working remotely at a possible disadvantage. The solution to this is to have purely online meetings where people in the office are joining the meeting from their desks. This may go against instincts, but actually it can be a highly effective strategy to streamline your meeting process.
The use of additional capabilities such as a side online discussion where people can ask question without interrupting the flow, meeting transcription and recording, digital whiteboards and even now a useful AI assistant can also be reasons to go online.
How to run more equitable and efficient meetings is a big topic in itself. Having video cameras on tends to be helpful for the meeting; however, this is not always possible for everyone and sometimes people feel uncomfortable switching them on for a variety of legitimate reasons.
7. Call out the doubters
Challenging any outdated views on remote working that have resurfaced needs to be judged carefully, but generally you will have company and HR policy behind you, as well as a majority who agree with you. If there is a good way to call out the doubters and tackle the issues head on, then good for you.
8. Sample a bit of co-working
The rise of co-working spaces provides a lively working environment, as well as good connectivity and suites of meeting rooms. While this provides a remedy to the potential loneliness and monotony of homeworking, the privacy and quiet required for legal work means this may not be a realistic option for everybody. But if you have an opportunity to use a co-working space and you can ensure the privacy you may need (or use it for non-sensitive projects) then it’s worth giving it a try.
Conclusion
Remote and hybrid working provides some challenges for in-house teams, but also has considerable rewards in helping to balance work and non-work activities, as well as supporting productivity. As remote working has become far more widespread, many of us have got used to working patterns, but there are still challenges from time to time. As a rule, having clarity and visibility about when and where you are going to work, and then adhering to this, will allow everyone to fall into a pattern and take full advantage of remote working.