Do you currently employ any number of full-time remote employees? Perhaps these are employees who started as the COVID-19 pandemic began, or maybe they’re tenured employees who recently transitioned to remote work. Whatever the case might be, your organization likely isn’t the only one who has seen an increase in their full-time remote employees. In fact, just prior to the pandemic, between 2005 and 2018, organizations throughout the country saw an increase of 173% in the number of remote employees. It wasn’t even a safety concern between those years, but now the pandemic has made remote work a necessity for employers to consider. Luckily for organizations, there are a handful of benefits that remote employees bring and there are tools to manage remote employees to help everything go smoothly.

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.

There is also additional liability that companies have to be prepared for as a result of their remote employees as well. Injuries while reporting to work from home still have to be covered by organizations. This is largely accomplished through workers compensation packages that have extended coverage for those remote employees. Loaned hardware that is either damaged or stolen can also prove to be challenging for organizations to deal with. What often comes from stolen hardware are data breaches, which can be extremely detrimental to an organization as well. Choosing the right insurance policy to cover these damages is imperative.

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.

All of this considered, the benefits that your employees reap as a result of remote work is enough to make navigating through the risks worth it. An increased sense of freedom and free time allows professionals more than what they’d get from reporting into the office full-time. Improved mental health states and increased productivity are a result of remote work as well. Balancing these risks and benefits is crucial. For additional information on how to accomplish this, be sure to check out the resource accompanying this post. Courtesy of B2Z Insurance