As businesses shift towards remote working practices, they are getting to know the pros and cons that come from employees working from home. While remote working has many advantages, such as reduced costs and more flexible working options, when bad remote working practices are in place, it can harm your company. In fact, bad practices could even ruin your business.
Unsafe Data Access Can Lead to Cybersecurity Issues
Remote working has become more and more popular in recent years, and in 2020, the vast majority of companies had no option but to provide remote working options to their employees. While remote working has many benefits and looks set to stay, it is crucial that all employees have the right training, equipment, and network and resource access to ensure their working practices remain safe. When employees do not have a thorough understanding of cybersecurity issues, data can be leaked and other security issues can arise.
While a simple thing like a premium cloud file server can solve many security issues because it ensures all data in the cloud is protected and only accessible by authorized users, companies still need to ensure employees do not use things like improperly-secured virtual private networks. Workers can cause security breaches in various ways. In fact, according to a report from the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes, remote workers have caused a security breach in a whopping 20% of organizations since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The report also showed how phishing email rates have surged over the same period of time. When your employees are not trained in the correct way to ensure safe online practices and you do not use robust cloud-based services, it can cost your company a lot, in terms of both money and trustworthiness.
A Lack of Routine and Structure Can Be Detrimental to Businesses
Remote workers can get into all sorts of bad habits that can ultimately affect their performance. Without having to necessarily work routine office hours and having the option to stay in pajama bottoms all day long, remote employees can potentially become slovenly and unmotivated.
If remote workers are not able to self-motivate themselves and create the right work-life balance, their work can start to suffer.
Communication Can Become Complex When You Are Dependent on Technology
In an office environment, it is easy to walk up to someone you need to talk to for assistance or advice. But remote workers are entirely dependent on technology for communication. Even though there are some fantastic platforms available that make online chat and conferences easy, if there is a glitch of any type, such as a problem with the Wi-Fi connection or an issue on the servers end, workers could end up without reliable access to other team members.
While such problems may be easy to overcome by an IT team, remote workers will not have access to that team in the same way as they would at the office. That means a remote worker could be all by himself or herself without any knowledge of how to fix an IT issue.
Impersonal Interactions Can Harm Businesses
While remote workers still communicate with team members online, it is no substitute for communicating in person. When employees are in an office environment, they are able to form professional friendships and enjoy a joke in between working. Those types of relationships can greatly benefit efficiency and productivity because employees who interact with one another in person are happier.
When such personal face-to-face interactions do not exist, employees can become less engaged in their work, less communicative, and more stressed. That leads to poor performance, which has a knock-on effect in terms of things like productivity and efficiency.