When the whole world is at risk, struggling to accept the new normalities and realities of the environment, there is another side of the coin, which divulges how drastically pandemic has been affecting the enterprises and the workforce. People will recognize the changes caused by the Coronavirus outbreak that will completely change the perception of people looking at businesses, their workings, and the workforce.
Human Resources are indeed front liners of the organizations, keeping an eye on all the potential concerns of the company. In Unprecedented times, Human Resources are dealing with the unnatural and anomalous atmosphere and leading the company with their utmost capabilities and capacity.
In the time of crisis, where businesses are gliding on the ongoing operations of the company, they are also concerned about the job losses of the employees that are followed in that process. The role of the HR team’s steps in here, they tandem with the management to ensure that employee’s wellbeing is taken care of. Remote working is one of the ways for the smooth ongoing functions of the enterprise but at what level is that smooth enough? Are there no challenges faced by the workforce or for senior management in remote working? Let’s just straight ponder on what is the reality and challenges faced by the workforce, in remote working cases.
- The transition of Work Culture:
The sudden shift in working culture is something that nobody has experienced so far. Indeed, they were programs formulated in such a way that emphasized remote working, but there are many organizations, businesses, and enterprises that don’t encourage or promote remote working. The pandemic has given the only impetus to work remotely. This has catered to many problems for the HR teams. The first and foremost of HR departments have to look for is to ensure that every employee has the proper tools needed for remote working.
- Being certain in the times of Uncertainty
In the unparalleled times when nobody knows what the future holds, anxiety can hit you hard, it is teaching all of us how to handle the uncertainty that comes our way. The HR teams are formulating strategies to provide the best possible measure to overcome any kind of uncertainty. HR teams are relooking and realigning the alignment of the policies and the strategies, this company can help you get through all-new policies and new alignment.
- Feeling left out.
You might think that remote work is the only key where you can help employees, but what about the people who are working alone day and night? What if their mental state is not good? What if they do not feel like Working? How would you know all these things when you’re not nearby, therefore, you can just reach out to somebody via phone call, text, or maybe a facetime. There will be times when you will miss out on things that you had in your company, walking down the lane.
- Networking gets difficult.
If you’re responsible for your networks for new clients and work. Then you would know how difficult it is to find work when you’re not able to connect and communicate as a telecommuter. Without in-person conversation, it becomes difficult to connect to others. You can just rely on some of the brands or so for the work.
- Effectiveness and efficiency in Employee engagement:
What is the end goal of the company? It is the development of the company, achieving the organizational goals but more importantly meeting the end goal of employee personal growth and development. While working remotely, it becomes difficult to manage internal communication and the workflow of the company. It is not easy for the employees to work effectively and efficiently in the time of crisis, moreover in remote working which can indeed hamper the mental health of the employees to a great extent. To avoid this, HR should make strategies in such a way that can be applicable for real-time scenarios, heading the meetings and sessions from time to time and organizing team events will deploy inefficiency to some extent.
- Communication as a topmost Priority:
Communication is considered as one of the topmost priorities of the organization, whether the workforce is working remotely or not this is the part that has to be taken care of. While working traditionally, it is the work of the HR team to ensure that proper communication is going on. For managing the workforce, not just communication but the right communication is needed from head to toe. Irrespective of the crisis, HR professionals from all over the globe have managed to communicate with their employees. Be it organizing a meeting over zoom or at any other relative platform or organizing team events, programs at different levels.
- Productivity levels differ.
What is the end goal of the company? It is the development of the company, achieving the organizational goals but more importantly meeting the end goal of employee personal growth and development. While working remotely, it becomes difficult to manage internal communication and the workflow of the company. It is not easy for the employees to work effectively and efficiently in the time of crisis, moreover in remote working which can indeed hamper the mental health of the employees to a great extent. To avoid this, HR should make strategies in such a way that can be applicable for real-time scenarios, heading the meetings and sessions from time to time and organizing team events will deploy inefficiency to some extent.
- Loneliness
The aspect of remote working can be hard on employees, you have to do all the work on yourself. Replying to calls and text in your home wear and sleeping. Laziness and loneliness. Therefore, it can be heard for the employees to just work day and night from the work without even knowing what they want to do. This can indeed hamper the productivity of each individual which can therefore hamper the productivity of the enterprise and business at large.
In this, not so normal times, where every employee is fighting the battle against the fear of losing a job, health concerns, anxiety issues, and whatnot. The HR teams should be agile and spontaneous in taking decisions and making changes in past policies and strategies. They should be more agile in their processes and should look into the re-prioritizing meeting of the end goals. Right alignment, agility, good communication is the need of the hour.