Remote work has always existed until the pandemic in 2020, when almost everyone had to work from home, voluntarily or involuntarily.
According to statistics from Zippia, 6% of workers in the United States worked fully remotely, with 75% having never experienced remote work. However, after the pandemic, 66% of employees in the United States work remotely(part-time and full-time), and there are projections that up to 36.2 million Americans will be remote workers by 2025.
The HR departments across several industries and organisations have been pivotal in helping employees practice remote work to maximise productivity and organisational success. This article highlights ways remote work has helped HR teams stay at the top of their game, alongside challenges, innovations, and recommendations to help them blend remote work with organisational goals.
Benefits of Remote Work for HR Tech
Remote work provides HR professionals numerous benefits, enabling them to become more productive and proactive.
1. Ability to work from anywhere
Working from any location they choose is one of the perks HR professionals enjoy in the digital age, where remote work is becoming mainstream. Provided a stable internet connection is present, and the environment is conducive to work, HR professionals can leverage this opportunity to create a convenient workspace that aligns with their preferences and needs.
2. Flexible work hours
Remote work and flexible work hours are often like two peas in a pod. Employees who meet their deadlines, achieve milestones, and turn in deliverables when needed might have no problems attending to their personal lives. HR professionals will be able to create room for family duties, personal commitments, hobbies, and interests without impeding their work performance.
3. Lessened commuting time
When commuting time is slashed, it helps to reduce stress and allows employees to maximize their time. The time spent commuting to work can be used for other productive activities that could improve the employee’s work-life balance. Many people spend too much time driving to work or staying in traffic as they commute to work.
Some people also go through the rigours of moving from one city to another each day to meet the daily demands of work. When HR professionals don’t have to go to work every day, they tend to appreciate their job more, and they will be healthier and happier with themselves.
4. Broadened Talent pool
Remote work makes it easier for HR professionals to access talents worldwide. There are many skilled talents from different parts of the world looking for organizations to take a chance on them. Since HR professionals will be hiring remotely, they can leverage this feature to source and employ candidates with the right experiences, skills, and backgrounds for the given role.
5. Reduced costs
HR departments can spend less with the influence of remote work. They might not incur expenses like maintenance, office supplies, rent, furniture, equipment, utility bills, etc. Some HR departments can fully transition into virtual operations to avoid infrastructure-related expenses.
6. Work/Life Balance
Remote work benefits work/life balance because it gives employees control and increased flexibility over their daily routines. Employees will have increased freedom to control their schedules, thereby preventing their work and personal lives from suffering. Not everyone enjoys commuting to work each day because of the stress and time involved.
Remote work helps to reduce regular commuting, allowing employees to create more time for personal interests and activities. One of the highlights of the perks of remote work is the health aspect. Employees will have more time to prepare healthy meals, exercise, and practice self-care. They will also be less exposed to illnesses that quickly spread in a physical office.
Challenges Faced by HR Tech in Remote Work Environment
While remote work remains one of the biggest technology perks, HR managers often struggle with some problems in the workplace. Here are some challenges the HR department faces with remote work.
1. Low Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is pivotal to a business’s success. When employees are engaged, output and productivity increase. Some HR managers may find it tough to tell when an employee is engaged when they are not physically present in the workplace. Even though there are tools to help you monitor employee engagement, some employees end up finding a back door.
2. Poor Workforce Communication
In a remote work environment, communication can be strained when the right technology is not available. Some employees may be unavailable to promptly respond to emails, phone calls or messages on their work channels. HR managers need to evaluate their communication needs to ensure that interactions or conversations are seamless across board.
An insightful statistic from Zipdo reports that the average employee spends about 28% of their day sending, receiving and sorting emails, which affects efficient communication. Another statistic from Forbes Advisor stated that about 70% of remote workers felt burned out because of digital communication, thereby affecting their productivity in the long run.
3. Equity Management
While the idea of remote work screams comfort and flexibility for the average employee, some may get more flexibility because of the factors in their home environments or where they are working from. For instance, in a workplace with diverse talents, where some might be in locations with environmental distractions or poor internet connection, proper concern should be given to them.
In other cases, some of the workers might be parents who need to look after their kids and may require more flexibility. This can make other employees feel left out because they are not getting their required flexibility allowance. HR managers will need to create or review policies centred on employee compensation, ensuring that no one feels left out regarding ethical and legal obligations in the remote workplace.
4. Expectations Management
Employees in a remote setting tend to lose track of expectations, work processes and culture if proper follow-up is not done.
Not all remote workers feel connected and motivated to work harder, especially when the company’s goals and expectations are not adequately communicated to them. This makes it crucial for HR managers to innovate ways to communicate nuances of projects that are vital to the organization.
Surveys can also be sent out from time to time to ensure that everyone in the organization is conversant with the company’s expectations and values.
5. Training and Development
While remote work is ideal for employees to work from anywhere, it can be challenging when it comes to adapting to development techniques and training programs. Remote work helps employers save money that would have been spent to foot traditional training programs, but employees may face some challenges.
First, there might not be a solid engagement between employers and employees, which could result in negative feedback. It can also be challenging to monitor progress and discover if employees are finding the training program useful. Employees mostly face the following factors regarding training and development: learning platforms, communication channels, feedback mechanisms, scheduling flexibility, and engagement strategies.
Adaptations and Innovations in HR Tech for Remote Work
While technology continues to provide more innovations in the workplace, it is imperative for HR managers to infuse some adaptions for employees who do not work from the physical office. HR managers can use some of these initiatives to make remote work more rewarding and productive.
1. Virtual onboarding and offboarding processes
The remote work culture makes the onboarding and offboarding process less attractive than the physical workplace, and this is due to some reasons. First, unlike the physical office, where new hires can have an office tour, virtual onboarding lacks this luxury. The physical workplace allows staff to easily access their colleagues and superiors when they need help, which is more difficult in the remote workplace.
HR managers can make the virtual onboarding process as effective as the physical process if the right thing is done. They can begin by investing in remote technologies that aid training, knowledge sharing, effective messaging, etc. Other vital measures include creating a virtual onboarding/offboarding program schedule, setting virtual meetings to introduce new hires and proper follow-up with the new remote employees.
2. Remote employee engagement and team-building initiatives
With the upsurge in remote work, it is expedient for organizations to improve their remote employee engagement efforts. Organizations can invest in their employees’ long-term engagement by staying connected through technology. You can use proficient project management and communication tools to keep everyone on the same page.
Staff meetings can be scheduled, and video calls can be done regularly. Remote employees are likely to be lonely, which can affect their productivity. This can be combatted by incorporating video chats, social hours, and online team-building activities.
Ensure you communicate with employees and that they know their opinions are not ignored so that they feel valued. Overall, give constructive feedback and encourage employees to leverage development opportunities.
3. Performance management and feedback tools for remote teams
Performance management is a crucial aspect of employee relations because it realigns the employees’ input, expectations and goals with the company’s mission and vision, values, and strategy. The primary step to successful performance management is proper definition and communication of the expectations and objectives of each project, team and employee.
When giving feedback, it should be helpful and respectful. It is also important to build a collaboration and engagement culture among teams, where they can learn from each other and interact. Essentially, employees should be rewarded for their efforts, achievements and contributions no matter how little it is.
4. Enhanced data analytics and workforce planning solutions
Organizations need to ensure that they have the ideal people in the right roles, and this can be achieved with these objectives. First, it is imperative for HR managers to hire talents who align with the organization’s culture. Also, each employee should be encouraged to reach their highest potential with their skill sets. HR managers should ensure their staffing level aligns with the business model. HR managers can meet these objectives when their talent plans are based on reliable data sources.
