Practical guide to remote working challenges

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The Remote Working Toolkit survey was created to learn the opinions and understand the preferences about remote working from businesses across Queensland. The survey's feedback has helped shape this remote working information.

The survey was conducted with the support of the Small Business Association of Australia, Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (Business Queensland Connect), and Jobs Queensland.

Five major challenges were identified by employers in the survey. Here are some practical solutions to those challenges.

1. Reduced performance, reliability, and accountability

Some employers perceive that remote employees may have reduced performance, reliability, and accountability.

A lack of direct supervision could lead to employees not being committed to their work and being less productive.

Resolve by:

  • discussing the issue with your remote workers and co-design the measurement criteria with them. Formalise the agreed criteria by adding to the employee's written performance agreement and add to your project plans for current projects.
  • measuring your employee's performance (using defined agreement and plans) based on outcome indicators that reflect tangible business results. For example, compare the project milestones and deliverables produced against the time, cost, and quality criteria established for the project and employee.
  • avoiding the use of invasive surveillance tools to monitor remote workers productivity as this can be costly, time consuming, and ultimately reduces employee trust and productivity.

Learn more about setting clear expectations and managing performance.

Distractions at home

Employers were concerned that the following issues may affect an employee's performance:

  • having substandard workstation setups
  • unexpected family responsibilities or distractions.

Resolve by:

  • adopting performance agreements and outcome-based measures, and:
    • communicating your business's requirements for a compliant workspace by
      • adding to remote working agreements
      • ensuring workspace photographic evidence is provided
  • ensuring employees arrangements are in place to keep disruptions at an acceptable level – for example, arranging for appropriate childcare assistance, or having an agreed flexible schedule where work and home duties are balanced.

Training remote workers

Training remote workers was identified as a challenge for employers as this has the potential to affect an employee's efficiency.

Resolve by:

  • assigning another member of the team to be the new remote worker's first point of contact point and work 'buddy'.
  • asking the contact person to help with initial onboarding of the new worker, and help guide them through the business's work processes
  • creating standard operating procedures that outline work expected of each remote worker, and step-by-step instructions about how to complete the work. Work procedures and instructions need to be accessible on an online platform for all employees
  • setting clear performance indicators and developing a performance agreement with remote employees
  • scheduling regular conversations and using online communication platforms to help train remote workers, and
    • monitoring employees work and providing timely feedback
    • asking workers to participate in daily 'stand-ups' by instant messaging and video conferencing software (e.g. Microsoft Teams)
  • using online resources to supplement inhouse employee training.

Resources and tools

2. Communication and coordination

Communicating and coordinating within remote teams was also identified as a challenge for employers.

Accessing work and sharing work and information is more difficult for remote teams than for workers in a physical office setting.

Resolve by:

  • establishing clear rules and communication scheduling with your remote team. Add this to your communication plan (in the remote working policy), remote working agreements and get agreement in writing from your team. Examples could be, employees must:
    • be available during business working hours (8:30am – 5pm)
    • respond to regular emails within 1 business day, and urgent emails and messages within 4 hours
    • attend online 'standup' meetings at 10am daily
  • using the right communication platforms and cloud storage services to share information
  • ensuring your information is logically arranged and in accessible databases so team members can retrieve on-demand
  • scheduling regular communications with the team – for example, online daily stand-ups to share information, report progress etc.
  • using the right project management tools to track work package outcomes and progress.

Resources and tools

3. Maintaining and promoting workplace culture

The difficulty in maintaining and promoting workplace culture for remote workers has been identified as a concern.

Remote employees are physically isolated and therefore have less opportunity to connect with team members. This can lead to stress and not feeling they belong to the organisation. This lack of 'connection' can also be a contributing factor to staff turnover.

Resolve by:

  • scheduling regular and open discussions with your team
  • providing online channels for your remote team members to socialise (e.g. create a team chat channel on your communication platform so staff can socialise)
  • starting online meetings 5 minutes early so team members can socialise before the meeting starts
  • introduce an informal 'icebreaker' exercise before your regular team meeting (e.g. name your favourite food, and tell us why)
  • hosting online workshops to conduct trust building activities
  • celebrating together as a remote team through online events (e.g. pizza parties, high teas, trivia sessions).

Resources and tools

4. Finding and recruiting remote employees

The process of finding and recruiting employees to work remotely was found to be a challenge for many employers.

Finding staff to work remotely resolution

Resolve by:

  • listing your job vacancy or searching for candidates using the following keywords:
    • fully remote
    • remote work
    • work from home
  • searching these websites for employees:
    • recruit for your business – find staff on this free portal
    • search for 'remote only' job boards to advertise your vacancy
    • remote only job boards – search for 'remote only jobs' online
    • search job sites (e.g. LinkedIn, Seek).

How to hire employees to work remotely

Resolve by:

  • taking the Hiring employees online course – Fair Work Ombudsman (Australian Government)
  • using the Hiring employees checklist to help you follow Australian laws when hiring employees – business.gov.au (Australian Government).

Resources and tools

  • Read more about hiring and recruitment including hiring contractors, apprentices and trainees, mature age workers and more.

5. Workplace health and safety compliant policy and procedures

Setting up a Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) compliant policy and procedures was also found to be challenging for employers.

There are a range of WHS resources available to help you develop policies and procedures for your business.

Queensland Government resources:

Australian Government resources

  • Last reviewed: 22 Mar 2024
  • Last updated: 25 Mar 2024