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For remote workers to be productive, they need to have access to the same technology, data, and resources as employees inside the office. However, access is more than just a box to check. Because remote workers rely on commercial internet connections or public wifi, they can face poor connectivity to the web and SaaS apps they depend on for work. Making matters more complicated, 64 percent of remote workers share internet with their households, and 33 percent say connectivity problems are their biggest technology challenge.
Solution: If your employees share their internet connections, one immediate solution is setting a usage schedule with their household. When they have a video conferencing meeting coming up, their children should know not to play online games that take a lot of bandwidth. It’s also good to have a backup plan like a mobile hotspot device or smartphone tether if their primary connections get spotty. For the long term, your organization should look at networking technology that optimize slower connections to ensure quality application delivery.
For an introvert, the quiet of a home office can seem like a paradise compared to the noise of water cooler chatter in a co-working space. However, the lack of face-to-face contact and social interaction can leave remote workers feeling isolated and cut off from team members (especially if they’re in different time zones). This often leads to more video calls being scheduled to improve communication. Remote workers not only attend more meetings overall, but 14 percent of remote employees attending more than 10 each week. At the same time, 71 percent of senior managers worry their meetings are unproductive and inefficient. This not only fails to improve team communication, but also can lead to meeting fatigue that hurts engagement across remote teams.
