Tips to Manage a Remote Global Workforce – Remote work is here to stay, and companies can now draw from talent pools worldwide. However, the rise of remote work brings unique challenges. Most companies are ill-equipped to handle the transition from on-site to remote work, and managing a global workforce adds even more wrinkles to this situation.

Here are 4 common challenges of managing a global workforce and how you can overcome them.

Challenge #1 – Managing Payroll

Payroll is one of your company’s biggest expenses. It is also a critical investment since your employees are your company’s greatest resource. Payroll laws worldwide can be complicated and expanding your business to even a single international jurisdiction can bring a lot of complexity.

Thankfully, technology is rising to the challenge. Payroll platforms these days offer a wide range of services that cater to a growing business’ needs and eliminate hiring complexity. For instance, Papaya’s global workforce management solution will help you simplify payroll processes and expand into multiple jurisdictions easily.

HR platforms like Papaya Global simplify scaling and expansion by acting as employers of record or EORs. You can use these companies to hire employees locally and manage all aspects of payroll. Such unique solutions remove the need to wrestle with local laws and create legal and compliance departments in every jurisdiction you expand into.

Backing these services are vast libraries of local laws and regulations that platforms constantly update. As a result, you can seamlessly hire and onboard new employees without worrying about the tedious back-office work that payroll creates.

Challenge #2 – Communication

When your workforce is spread worldwide, communication becomes highly important. The problem is that cultural communication norms will potentially create disagreements and miscommunication. Add to this the difficulty of gathering everyone in a single online location due to time zone differences, and the challenge becomes significant.

However, ensuring proper communication is a matter of enacting a few forward-thinking policies. For starters, you must embrace asynchronous communication tools such as Slack or other instant-messaging tools. Slack helps your team get on the same page by encouraging collaboration and is a handy replacement for email.

Define policies surrounding communication norms. For instance, team members should not always expect instant responses from their team or supervisor. You can create a policy that requires a response within 24 hours of a message. Conduct weekly meetings with all team members to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Asynchronous communication is very different from the usual office communication culture and will take some getting used to. However, the rewards are immense. Your company will be active 24 hours daily, and you’ll get more work done. Your employees will become proactive and resourceful.

Last of all, it will help you tap into talent pools worldwide, hiring the best workers no matter where they are.

Challenge #3 – Remote Work Culture

One of the knocks against remote work is that it fails to create a strong company culture. Employees don’t interact with each other during the day or around the water cooler. The lack of small talk makes work seem lonely, and HR managers often wrestle with the task of building camaraderie in the organization.

Instead of thinking of this challenge as a drawback of remote work, approach it as a challenge to create a new culture. Remote working culture doesn’t exist yet because it’s a new phenomenon. You should brainstorm different ways of getting teams together and giving team leaders more autonomy. Embedding an HR team member in every team is also a good idea and is an example of how remote work requires organizational shake-ups.

Zoom rooms and online collaboration software will help your team members get to know each other better. For instance, you could hold weekly sessions where team members are randomly assigned to each other in a room for 30 minutes. This will help everyone get to know each other in the organization.

Organizing frequent company retreats is also a great way of bringing everyone together. Allowing employees to bond together over common interests online and creating activity groups will also boost camaraderie. The bottom line is that remote work gives your employees the chance to work in a less stressful environment.

As work is disrupted, some challenges will arise that need unique or groundbreaking solutions.

Challenge #4- Work-Life Balance

Remote work might reduce stress, but when mismanaged, you might find that your employees are experiencing greater stress levels. For instance, in the initial days of the COVID pandemic, junior financial sector employees complained of overwork and stress due to having to be on call 24 hours a day while locked down in their living spaces.

Defining work hours and policies surrounding communication standards will help your employees maintain a work-life balance. They will have the opportunity to switch off and return to work refreshed. Enforcing paid time off and offering incentives to enhance their skills are other ways of ensuring your employees don’t burn out.

Many Challenges, but Worth the Effort

Remote work might bring multiple challenges but ultimately offers your company huge advantages in the long run. Make sure you follow the tips in this article, and you’ll create a great digital workplace that caters to all your employees’ needs.