With years of passing, thanks to the post-covid era, more and more people are switching to remote working. As per rough estimates,4.7 million people have already gone remote. Even in one report, we found the global remote workforce has increased by four times between 2018 to 2021.
With this huge influx of remote employees, it’s too tough to keep harmony between them, which means, conflicts are inevitable. Any conflict in an organisation is necessary to respond. Why? Think of an example.
A conflict between employees occurs while working on the same project in different shifts. Both first will fight, then will be annoyed and finally will be demotivated with the work. In the end, one of them surely will leave the organization, which also will affect overall productivity and performance.
Now it has become a big challenge for organizations to keep remote conflicts under control. Imagine, no one is meeting face to face, least eye contact, different timings, and diverse cultures meeting in one place, with all such, how a manager establishes a conflict management process?
To get an answer, read our blog carefully.
What is remote work conflict?
Many of us must have heard or are familiar with organizational conflicts, politics so on and so forth. However, this new term, “remote work conflict” must be confusing you.
Or you are facing such conflicts or a victim of it but do not know what to do? Before going into any details, let us first be aware of what remote conflicts are.
When people from different backgrounds work at the same place, conflict occurs. In remote facilities, it is also the same. The only difference is, at offices, employees can resolve such conflicts with face-to-face talks or sharing of food in a lunchroom.
However, while connecting digitally, no such meetings could take place, resulting in burning up the issues. Similarly, with emails, it has now easy to communicate but tough to let another person completely understand what one is saying, hence disagreements do occur.
Preventing conflict in remote work is important
When one communicates digitally, without personal interaction, miscommunications and misunderstandings are common. Out of many, some of the adverse impacts on employees and organisations due to the remote conflict are:
- The productivity of employees also and the organisation is severely affected.
- Stress and anxiety increase irritation and reduce motivation for an employee. In this situation, more personal clashes may occur between employees.
- If the manager has failed to address the conflict on time, the employee turnover or resignation ratio remains high.
- To a further extent, it is also possible, an employee takes an organisation or its particular employee to court, resulting in damage to the overall goodwill of the organization.
Tips on how to resolve misunderstandings
After extensive research, we have also devised some effective strategies for not only managers but also for employees to work in a peaceful and healthy environment digitally.
For managers: 3 Pillar Strategy
- Identify Conflict: The first stage is to acknowledge that the conflict exists. Do ask any questions to employees to check where the problem lies.
- Get a solution: The very first point is communication. If there is a conflict between two people, you may discuss it with both of them personally. Keep yourself accessible to every employee. Be clear so you could avoid any possible consequence.
- Check again: Arrange meetings and even celebrate small achievements together to mitigate conflicts. Do check the productivity of employees, and if you find any loophole initiate the mentioned process again.
For Employees: Showing Good Gestures
- Give Respect: If you see any conflict arises, call your colleague and discuss the issue. We prefer suggesting Video Conferencing so you get a little bit more about body language.
- Set Common Goals: Setting common working standards or goals is necessary. For instance, If you see you and your coworker working at different timing, try to set one which is feasible for both of you.
Conclusion
It does not matter whether you are an employee or an employer, if a conflict exists, you ought to address it for the betterment of personal and organizational goals. Conflict is not something you could postpone for a future date, if not addressed, at last, it’s an organization which suffers.
If it’s a remote facility, then you need to acquire more shrewd strategies. You need to be clear, accessible and well-communicative so the chances of conflicts remain low and everyone works in a harmonious environment even by connecting to digital technologies.