The shift to remote work has been largely beneficial, with more employers being able to hire talent from anywhere and increase workplace flexibility. However, as more businesses embrace this paradigm, HR leaders must also contend with the challenges it presents, particularly in terms of employee retention. Explore five of these challenges and how organizations can overcome them.

1. Work-Life Balance and Burnout

Work-life balance has always been a significant problem for staff retention. According to a recent survey, 63% of the 4,000 respondents preferred improved work-life balance over increased remuneration.

With the introduction of the work-from-home model, it’s easy to assume that this issue would be less pronounced. However, remote employees appear to be struggling with managing work-life balance, too. This primarily stems from the clear lack of separation between work and home life, which causes them to feel stressed and burned out.

From their perspective, it’s hard not to empathize — there’s no shortage of potential distractions in a remote work environment, and juggling everything can often feel overwhelming.

Solution

To address this challenge, employers must establish clear guidelines and expectations regarding deadlines and daily goals, from the get-go. At the same time, companies need to realize that no amount of onboarding policies can overcome the fact that remote workers will always take some time to focus on non-work tasks during work hours. For instance, it’s unrealistic to expect primary caregivers to ignore a crying child or an elderly parent needing assistance just because they’re trying to hit a set deadline.

It’s also important to introduce flexible work schedules, especially for remote workers across international time zones. Everyone has their most productive hours during the day, so forcing people to work outside this period will only be counterproductive.

2. Compensation and Benefits

Many companies adopt remote working because it allows them to streamline their hiring budgets. While independent contractor compensation is generally cheaper than in-house employees, no one wants to work for peanuts. They'll simply up and leave if they feel the pay isn't commensurate with their contributions.

In some cases, they won’t resign outright. Instead, they’ll silent-quit — putting in bare minimum work with no extra effort whatsoever until they finally leave or are terminated. This is highly problematic from the organization’s standpoint because it means they’re paying for underutilized work. A whopping 81% of remote workers are likely to silent-quit due to frustrations over compensation, lack of growth opportunities and poor work-life balance.

Solution

Companies must commit to fair compensation and comprehensive benefits packages for in-house or work-from-home staff. In an age where people can make tons of money doing mundane stuff like live streaming on social media, employers need to step up their efforts in offering attractive remuneration or risk losing the retention battle.

A good rule of thumb is to follow market-rate benchmarks plus cost-of-living adjustments for the base pay. This dynamic approach recognizes that the cost of necessities like food, housing and health care vary significantly from one place to another. As such, remote employees should be compensated based on the relative cost of living in their geographic location to meet their basic needs comfortably.

3. Limited Communication and Collaboration

Remote employees may often feel isolated due to the lack of face-to-face interactions, which can cause them to lose productivity and become disillusioned with their work. Over time, these feelings of loneliness and disengagement can drive them to seek new opportunities.

On the employer side, limited communications make it difficult to ensure everyone is on the same page, especially where there are language barriers. Time zone discrepancies and cultural differences can also keep remote team members from effectively collaborating, further impacting output.

Solution

Addressing this challenge requires employers to find ways to foster a sense of community among remote workers. This can include regular one-on-ones with their supervisors, video conference meetings and team-building activities. Companies with many remote employees in a particular geographic region can also organize in-person team meetings to foster camaraderie and strengthen relationships.

Leveraging the CultureBot app can help automate these processes and foster a more inclusive and engaging workplace for remote workers. This suite of solutions encompasses four core areas — games and live events, team engagements, employee celebrations and feedback management. Together, they can help tackle employee retention by encouraging collaboration and celebrating achievements, both of which are essential to combating feelings of isolation.

CultureBot integrates seamlessly with over 25 different HRIS systems, allowing companies to set it up with just a few clicks. From there, HR leaders can take advantage of its many functionalities to make the work environment more interactive. For example, they can use it to automate birthdays and work anniversaries so remote employees feel included and appreciated within the workplace culture.

4. Micromanagement and Overbearing Leadership

Without physically seeing what team members are doing, supervisors may feel the urge to be more involved in the day-to-day work dynamics. However, this approach is counterintuitive and can often lead to remote workers quitting their jobs. According to a recent report, micromanagement is one of the top three reasons employees leave an organization.

On the employer side, overbearing leadership can diminish creativity and strain relationships between remote workers and their managers. When it comes down to it, no one wants to work with a boss who always insists on doing things their way.

Solution

Recognize that the potential to micromanage stems from a lack of trust rather than a real need to ensure their productivity. According to a recent Microsoft survey, 85% of managers don’t trust their remote workers to be productive.

Rebuilding this confidence involves objectively assessing whether employees are getting their work done. This can be through KPIs and other relevant metrics that do not require frequent interventions in task management. Ultimately, a company has no business employing workers it cannot trust.

5. Lack of In-Person Training and Development Opportunities

Remote workers may struggle to access the same career growth opportunities available to in-office employees.

In most cases, the best training and development option for them is through virtual sessions, which might not be as engaging or educationally rewarding as an in-person learning experience. This can lead to feelings of stagnation, ultimately leading to employees leaving for new opportunities.

Solution

Addressing this issue requires some out-of-the-box thinking. For instance, instead of providing a ton of online courses, companies can organize local training sessions for remote workers within the same region to attend.

Admittedly, this approach is more expensive, especially when considering the logistics, but it can be a worthwhile long-term investment in fostering loyalty and commitment. Plus, learning from a local professional eliminates language and cultural barriers to learning, improving lesson retention, engagement and overall satisfaction.

Retaining Remote Employees for Organizational Success

In today’s business environment, remote employee retention has become a fundamental aspect of organizational success. Achieving this goal requires clearly understanding why workers are so quick to leave their jobs and addressing the challenges head-on. In this way, companies can build motivated and more engaged remote teams that are more likely to stay for the long term.