Remote work (Work from Home) is not just a trend anymore, it is becoming a new reality. With this, there has been a radical shift in how the operations, projects, and resources are managed around the company. After all, it is the remote teams that are now running the entire business. While businesses are have been adapting to new remote team practices, it is the project managers who have to battle with new challenges.
Project managers have to devote extra focus and energy to ensure that the team’s productivity, motivation, operational readiness, visibility to bottlenecks, etc. is on track and the business runs smoothly.
Here are some of the major challenges faced by remote project managers –
Optimum Availability & Readiness
When teams are working remotely, ensuring their remote workspace is fully functional and that the employees are accessible whenever needed is critical. During work hours, remote teams need to ensure optimum availability. Their internet connectivity problems can create issues during ongoing meetings or tasks. These interruptions would lead to a loss of productivity which would impact the projects.
Task Management
Task tracking or management can become a hurdle in successful project completion when people are not working together. When the teams do not have the visibility of who is working on which task and what has to be done next, the project can become chaotic. Keeping a tab on each task, its progress, and its completion is another big challenge for the project managers working remotely. The inter-dependency of project tasks leads to delays, while real-time collaboration gets missed out and important information is not available on time. This means the results will not be optimum.
Ineffective Communication
Project management & collaboration require robust communication. When working virtually, project managers do not have the opportunity to interact or communicate with their teams as frequently as they would while working in an office space. Communication generally becomes trickier with virtual teams.
Therefore, to ensure the right information reaches the right team member on time, project managers have to put in more effort. Status reports, briefings, billing reports, etc. have to be shared with the clients on time, which requires all the tasks and processes to take place on time. However, sometimes, the channels and processes of communication are not that conductive.
Keeping the Teams Motivated
There are a lot of internal challenges in remote teamwork and project teams, that the project managers cannot always control. Face-to-face interactions have a greater impact on the team which helps build stronger working relationships. Meanwhile, remote work relies on tech tools. Setting up the right tools, defining the team’s roles and processes, and establishing effective communication are the priorities for which the project managers have to keep the team motivated.
As businesses require their resources to be 100% efficient and properly utilized, project managers further have to ensure these resources deliver optimal work in due time.
How can project managers overcome these challenges?
These challenges can be significantly overcome by upskilling to a PMP certification. A recent survey has reported that certified PMPs can handle high-performing projects a lot more efficiently and their project success rate is also much higher. Not only does the PMP training help project managers overcome many remote project management challenges effectively, but it also opens new doors to opportunities for the certificate holder.
According to PMI (Project Management Institute), employers would need to fill nearly 2.2 million new project-oriented roles each year by 2027. Today, there are over 1,000,000 PMP-certified individuals around the world and they come nowhere close to meeting the existing demand for skilled PMPs. Also, research in the US states has indicated that the median salary for a PMP holder is about 25% higher than the ones without PMP certification – that’s how highly sought-after PMP training is.
Since organizations are now mainly focused on developing leadership, effective negotiations, and successful conflict resolution skills alongside traditional IT and technical skills, it becomes even more necessary to get skilled and certified as a PMP.
Here’s how you can get PMP Certification Training that has been designed to enable the managers or professionals to manage their projects in a highly efficient and effective way.
Learn PMP and Boost Your Career
The PMP Certification enables project managers to work virtually across multiple industries, globally. You can prepare for this certification with Cognixia.
Cognixia – the world’s leading digital talent transformation company – is committed to providing learners with remarkable training & certification programs in digital technologies, which would help them shape their future. We provide the best online immersive learning experience for both individuals as well as corporate workforce through our interactive virtual instructor-led courses.
Our online PMP training course has been developed by experts & active practitioners, and also reviewed by the project management community before its release, to assure it reflects the current state of this profession. This PMP training program consists of multiple project management training modules. The course covers a wide range of topics that take you through the differences between project management & operations management.
Under this PMP course, you will cover the following –
- Managing conflicts
- Leading a team
- Supporting team performance
- Empowering team members and stakeholders
- Building teams
- Addressing and removing obstacles, impediments, and blockers
- Negotiating project agreements
- Collaborating with stakeholders
- Building shared understanding
- Engaging and supporting virtual teams
- Defining team ground rules
- Mentoring relevant stakeholders
- Promoting team performance
- Managing project changes
- Integrating project planning activities
- Planning and managing scope, deliverables, schedules, budgets, and resources
- Engaging stakeholders
- Assessing and managing risks
- Managing communications
- Executing projects with strict timelines
- Planning and managing procurement
- Managing project artifacts
- Determining appropriate project methodologies
- Establishing a project governance structure
- Managing project issues
- Ensuring proper knowledge transfer to ensure project continuity
- Planning and managing project/phase closures and transitions
- Planning and managing project compliances
- Evaluating and delivering project benefits as well as value
- Evaluating and addressing external business environment
- Supporting organizational change
