Many thought leaders are trying to push the idea that "Working From Home" is the new normal. This model has been in practice for a long time by organizations whose businesses require little or no physical presence and they know who have to work remotely.
Many thought leaders are trying to push the idea that "Working From Home" is the new normal. This model has been in practice for a long time by organizations whose businesses require little or no physical presence and they know who have to work remotely.
The pandemic has challenged our existing business and people practices. These are testing time for leaders to prove that they have the vision to lead under given circumstances. Currently, organizations have been forced to deploy remote working for their team members, and with nearly no economic activity, human resource leadership is now deliberating on long-term deployment of this model.
The comparison between costs of centralized and remote working initially may pave the way for smooth transition towards this model. However, sustainability depends on controlling recurring costs of remote working.
Another important aspect which needs to be thought out in detail is the mental wellbeing of people working from home. People are used to social interaction at workplace which reflects freedom. This long-term absence will affect them psychologically, their ability to think, react, manage, and ultimately productivity.
The other concern is to distinguish who works from home and who reports to office. I see organizations using the term non-essential staff and essential staff. There is NO non-essential staff. All human resources are essential for operational effectiveness. Use of this term will instill fear among all people who are working remotely.
HR leaders need to look ahead into the future with clarity and pass on this clarity to all who are currently working remotely. This honest communication should continue post-pandemic to all teams who will continue working remotely as part of risk management and business continuity.
So how can business and HR leaders prepare sustainable and engaging work from home models, which will not just maintain but rather build organizational goodwill, value and trust without any compromise?
Coach leaders on adapting to the new norm so that their leadership style and mindset is conducive to such innovative approach to work.
Create policies which assist employees in managing their working time from home effectively whilst keeping them engaged and motivated. These may include dress code, working ethics, personal space and privacy, result-driven monitoring, and motivation guidelines.
Be honest in your communication. Tell your employees that yes, these are unprecedented times which is impacting industries and people globally.
However, we will do our best to address these as things start unfolding, and the current working from home approach is to keep our people safe. How long this will last? We are not sure.
Inform them that if you are working from home, it is because your role is important but does not require physical presence in office.
Address fear of working from home for prolonged periods of time. Inform your employees how technology is being integrated for ease of work, evaluation and rewards. Use online training modules to upgrade their skills on how to effectively use such platforms and technology.
Let them have fun while working from home. Have teams play games online. Let them share their pictures and videos of how they are managing at home.
Don't calculate their online presence or working hours. Focus on results. Talking of results, these should be meaningful, realistic and relevant. For example, if there are no sales, evaluate increase in number of prospects rather than actual sales. Use their time for improvement in products, processes and organization.
Use analytics to understand engagement and productivity between generation X, Y and Z. This will provide some useful insight in identifying groups of people that could add more value to business and its processes while working from home on a permanent basis.
For deploying work from home model on a permanent basis, discuss and explore which model is suitable for what type of job function? Occasional work from home with primary working from office; work from anywhere with primary working from office; or completely remote working from home.
And lastly, ensure encryption and data security. Your information is sensitive and confidential and only through thorough research can you overcome risk issues.
Because if you use any service provider whose data security protection is not up to the mark, you are not just exposing your data and people, but also jeopardizing the sustainability of remote working.
The writer is a local entrepreneur
