As business owners and managers have become more comfortable with how remote work functions in their business, they’ve become more effective. Despite this effectiveness, a staff of only full-time remote employees can bring about some tough challenges. With any challenge comes some form of benefit, which businesses identified long before the pandemic. Global Workplace Analytics indicated through recent research that the number of remote employees had increased by 173% between 2005 and 2018. How do these businesses benefit from their remote employees? Well, some of the most notable benefits to organizations include lower overhead costs and increased employee productivity.

With these benefits comes a bit of additional risk and challenges, though. One of the toughest challenges managers must overcome is adapting their managerial style to their remote employees. The inability to interact face-to-face makes managing employees a bit more difficult for some managers. Ensuring that each employee is held accountable can also become more difficult as a result of these employees working remotely. Employees may also face some challenges as a result of this transition. For example, they may have trouble effectively collaborating with their team members or other departments. They may also have feelings of isolation depending on how long they work from home without much interaction.

Managerial challenges aren’t the only thing organizations will have to work through in order to support their remote staff. There is additional liability that must be considered as well. It all starts with the loaned hardware that employees need to complete their work. Of course organizations will be responsible for providing this hardware, but what happens if said hardware is ruined? Maybe an employee’s family member mishandled the hardware and it’s no longer functional, or maybe the employee themselves spilled their morning coffee on the hardware. While these situations are inherently bad, even worse things can come from this loaned hardware. Imagine the hardware is stolen. Companies will have to cover the financial loss themselves but will also face the burden of a potential data leak as a result of the stolen hardware. The correct insurance policy is necessary for organizations to avoid paying the damages regarding this theft.

As mentioned previously, one of the most hazardous risks of a remote staff comes in the form of data breaches and cyber-attacks. Without the correct cyber liability insurance policy, organizations could be left with an inconceivable amount of damages to be paid. First-party cyber liability insurance covers any of the breaches that impact your organization’s data. Third-party cyber liability insurance covers the breaches that impact your client’s or partner’s data. Being insured is imperative when considering remote staffing.

Remote work may seem like the catalyst of tough challenges for businesses, but that couldn’t be any less true. More than likely a businesses’ employees will benefit immensely from some time out of the office. Providing some respite via remote work allows employees to feel a heightened sense of freedom. This freedom is often a result of the additional free time they receive by cutting out commuting to and from the office. All this free time leads to consistent improvement in the mental and physical health of employees. Any businesses weary of how remote work could impact their business should take a moment to check out the infographic featured alongside this post for more valuable information on how to manage their remote employees effectively. Infographic courtesy of B2Z Insurance.