In the business stratosphere, more and more organizations are switching to the remote working format. This practice is being adopted to ensure people’s safety and the business’s efficient functioning.
It is insightful to observe that working in a remote environment was thought of as quite impractical a few decades ago. And this is because there were a lot of details that lay mismanaged.
For example, ensuring employees’ productivity, monitoring their goals, evaluating business targets, and keeping teams motivated was a considerable challenge. This was primarily due to the lack of physical proximity in the remote working environment.
Today, a majority of Indian companies are encouraging their employees to work remotely, ensuring their safety and productivity. The remote work ecosystem in India is starting to take off owing to the present scenario finally.
Despite a few challenges that still need to be addressed, there are strong chances that the remote ecosystem might become a permanent part of organizations in time to come. Let’s take a more in-depth look at these:
1. Ensuring Employee Productivity
One of the biggest challenges in the remote work ecosystem is ensuring the productivity of employees. Both startups and tech giants of the Indian economy are coming up with ways to manage their teams more effectively and ensure that the productivity is not hampered.
This is important because the drop in employee productivity can directly result in a decline in the already suffering economy. Organizations are using cloud-based technology to the rescue.
Several apps, such as Trello and ClickUp, are being used to track employees’ day-to-day activities and ensure that critical tasks are completed within their deadlines.
2. Collaborating With Peers
While working in an on-site office environment means you can walk to your colleagues’ desks to talk to them, the scenario is different in the remote ecosystem.
A recent survey shows that around 35 percent of the employees find collaborating with colleagues and clients, one of the biggest challenges of remote work. This isn’t just for small businesses but also for tech giants such as Dell. However, organizations are digitizing their services and taking the assistance of apps to resolve this issue and continue a seamless communication mode.
3. Infrastructure Challenges
With favorable policies, there has been densification of offices in India. While this provided many opportunities for the employment-seeking youth, it is essential to note that not all of these organizations were equipped for a change to the remote ecosystem.
As a result, employees were found facing infrastructure challenges such as hardware, internet connectivity, and electricity. On the other hand, companies such as Google have announced work from home for their employees indefinitely.
Some companies such as Springworks are helping employees to set up their home office by providing an office table, chair, headphones, 4G dongles, and computers with long battery endurance.
4. Cybersecurity
The idea of cybersecurity remains a distant affair in the context of remote working. Regardless of the business’s size, the threats to data, assets, and other business properties remain constant. This was under control in an on-site office environment but escalated with remote culture taking over.
Therefore, it is essential to understand the underlying threats and ensure that an organization’s remote working ecosystem remains free of such issues. Dell is one such organization that is helping companies solve the work from home issues. Small Business Advisors is a solution for startups and SMEs to help them with data security issues.
5. Employee Motivation
Another critical factor that plays a massive role in the Indian remote working environment is employee motivation. Since many startups have emerged in the past few years, employees are required to put additional hours of work, helping the business compete in the market.
However, this often takes a toll on employee motivation since recognizing efforts, putting in more hours to work, etc. go unnoticed in work from home scenarios. According to a survey, approximately 46% of employees miss their social circle and meet colleagues in person.
To act upon these, companies are tasking the assistance of Indian apps such as Trivia that help improving employee engagement and keep them entertained at the same time.
6. Remote Hiring and Onboarding
Recently, startups have put new hiring on hold, and many are using remote working tools to hire and onboard new employees.
Kartik Mandaville, CEO of Springworks, said: “We usually add the new employees to the company’s Slack Workspace and Whatsapp groups. And assign them a buddy before their joining to allow them to discuss with their manager if there are any questions. This helps in faster onboarding.”
Therefore, to ensure business functioning and profitability, organizations have to switch to remote work culture. This will be the idea of work going forward, and the sooner organizations start working on making it seamless, the better they will receive the results.
DepositPhotos – remote working
