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The fully-remote business is a hallmark of modernity, a convenience that many were considering before the pandemic, and practically begging for afterwards. It’s true that remote work comes with many, many benefits – you can hire from a wider talent pool, you have lower overhead costs not having to rent out an overpriced office in the middle of your town, and flexible working now becomes a standard.
That said, like any change, there are also downsides. First of all, the intra-office communication that many people do enjoy engaging with just isn’t the same over Microsoft Teams or Slack. A device malfunction may leave a vital staff member unable to work for a time, while by the very nature of being online and working with a plethora of internet connections, you might just find that your cybersecurity needs to be even stricter.
So, if you’ve decided to go fully remote, or your startup is developing its best intentions going forward, you may wish to consider some of the following advice:
Outsourced Hiring
A little outsourced hiring really can make a difference when you need it. This is because while you may have employees on payroll, it can be hard to confirm attendance or prevent the risk of them just not logging on to work as and when needed. Outsourced help can also be used to complete small tasks you may be missing the skillsets to achieve, like using a copywriter to help you format your web pages appropriately. You may never use this, but opening yourself up to the possibility provides the flexibility any remote business will need for success.
Employee Socialization
It’s not easy to help disparate employees socialize when they may be at opposite ends of the Earth, but luckily, there are platforms you can use to bring people together. Of course, you’re unlikely to fill “dead time” by playing online games together or bonding in that way, but you can still implement instant-messaging chatrooms through apps like Slack or Teams, encouraging informal communications, and sign your team up for webinars, educational meetings, or video conferencing team meetings so your staff are aware of one another and happy to connect. At least this way, the “familiarity breeds contempt” rule will never be a factor, because your staff will only interact enough to be comfortable.
Web Maintenance & Backups
If your website goes down, that’s a problem. Sure, the internal structure of your business management may not be affected, put the only public-facing vehicle you have to sell your products or services is impeded. That’s why remote businesses really do need to invest in web maintenance packages that can back up and develop their web presence around the clock. This way, you can also protect against disaster recovery, and will outsource the hosting necessities to a managed IT service, rather than an internal server farm you have to maintain yourself. This is more than worth the pronounced investment.
With this advice, you’re sure to put the right plans in place, even if (and especially because) your business is entirely remote.
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