There’s no doubt that the pandemic has led businesses into work challenges and overcoming these challenges, companies have modified their working patterns and have embraced ‘Remote Work’ to effectively operate the business. COVID-19 has boosted the use of technology in most industries and has pushed the trend of remote work for more traditional industries as well with construction being one of them.

To look at the greener side, the construction industry which has usually been resistant to remote work has now accepted it as a normal trend in the industry. “Virtual management” & “Virtual teams” that’s being embraced due to the pandemic will be a new normal for the industry.

Benefits of Virtual Teams & Virtual Management During COVID-19 Epidemic:

• Safety is Priority

When you engage remotely in virtual management operations, you control the paranoia of the spread of viruses and preserve the safety of your people. As a business, you’re likely to be less concerned about the employees’ health as they’re protected and safe working at home or remotely. Keeping safety at the centre, you will still be able to maximize stability and avoid severe business impact as employees here require less supervision due to the nature of their job.

• Ease of Management

We now see great concern and panic among managers as they’re clearing offices and looking for best practices for managing employees who are working from home. But when it comes to remote teams, they are largely hired due to their ease of management.

Managing remote teams is a lot easier as they’re highly skilled in handling projects and clients regardless of the different time zones. Simply put, COVID is directing managers towards finding better & more efficient ways of working.

• Higher Flexibility

Distributed teams bring higher work flexibility than traditional in-house employees. They scale up in terms of workflows, are 13% more productive and are not chained with schedules or operating hours. Homeworking is a norm to virtual teams and managers don’t have to worry about communication challenges, loss in productivity, on-time project completion and several other roadblocks.

• Improved Work Quality

Dedicated remote teams are believed to improve employee productivity by 43%. Working remotely means a better work-life balance, and a better work-life balance keeps employees motivated, happy and more focused. Remote employees deliver better quality work as they claim to commute 78% lesser and have 78% less stress.

• Ease of expansion

Companies have realized that they can operate even with limited people in their office which allows them to expand with the existing infrastructure, reducing their overhead cost, making it a cost efficient process. While there is a need to invest some in technology to work in a virtual environment but is considerably less as compared to adding more office space & infrastructure.

COVID 19 has had an immediate negative impact on the construction though not as severe as other businesses, but pushing it towards adoption of technology will prove to be a blessing in the long run.