What is one obstacle that human resource managers may face with the increasing option to work from home?
Here are 9 obstacles HR managers face with increasing WFH options:
- Cultivating Camaraderie and Sense of Belonging
- Higher Demands from Employees
- Over-communicating Important Information
- Gathering Performance Feedback With Real Insight
- Building An Internal Culture
- Remote Work is Impacting Employee Engagement
- Compensation
- Burnout
- Adjusting to a Virtual Hiring Process
Cultivating Camaraderie and Sense of Belonging
One of the biggest obstacles human resource managers face with the rise of remote work is creating a sense of camaraderie, community, and cohesive company culture. Often, work from home employees report feeling lonely and disconnected from coworkers and the company. Luckily, facilitating ongoing virtual team building through methods such as Zoom events and asynchronous Slack icebreakers can help breed a sense of belonging and employee loyalty.
Michael Alexis, TeamBuilding
Higher Demands from Employees
Employees want more flexibility than ever before. If your company does not offer the option to work from home, you might limit your pool of candidates. In this case it’s important to set up good systems and processes to handle remote employees.
It does not have to be more difficult than in-person management.
Paw Vej, Financer.com Ldt
Over-communicating Important Information
Having both in-office and remote employees means that your methods of communication have to be worked out to a tee. The last thing you want is for important information, notices, and meetings to be lost somewhere along the way so having multiple ways in which to communicate these important notices is the way to go. Technology can really be used to your advantage, allowing you to communicate in one of the several work communication platforms out there, through email, a company digital calendar, and diligent calendar invites. You want to make sure you provide your employees with the tools they need for success whether their remote or working in person.
Tom Mumford, Undergrads
Gathering Performance Feedback With Real Insight
Performance management across hybrid and remote teams may be challenging. Performance is one of the most important metrics to follow within any business size. It reflects not only the quality of work but also employee engagement and satisfaction.
360-degree feedback helps individual employees gain insights into which aspects of their work they need to improve upon. This anonymous feedback typically comes from those working around the employee, including managers, teammates, and direct reports. However, in a hybrid-remote workspace, gathering insightful feedback will require HR managers to use a more holistic approach by including quantitative and qualitative answers. The questions you can ask should range from how well the team member prioritizes their workload to whether they embody the company values. A well-structured 360-degree review is a more holistic approach to helping employees know what actions to take to improve their performance and find more fulfillment in their work.
Chris Gadek, AdQuick
Building An Internal Culture
Building an internal culture is particularly challenging for remote managers, who may not be able to see their team in person on a daily basis. But human resource managers can mitigate this by using video conferencing, for example, to hold team meetings and check in with employees, hosting virtual happy hours, and creating other opportunities for team bonding.
Matthew Ramirez, Paraphrase
Remote Work is Impacting Employee Engagement
Although the remote work environment has provided employees with increased flexibility, it has been difficult for HR departments to keep company employees actively engaged. Without proper communication policies and technological resources in place, companies are seeing less face to face contact with HR departments and senior leaders, along with lower productivity overall. To combat this, companies should consider developing a workforce mobile application that will allow employees to consistently connect from any region or location.
Adam Shlomi, SoFlo Tutors
Compensation
Evaluating compensation based not only on cost of living, but based on the cost of living by geographic area for a dispersed workforce. While we may want to be able to adjust salaries based on location, compensation is much more likely to be driven by our competitors. Because many companies, especially those in the tech sector like Facebook, have shifted to a remote work model, retaining and recruiting highly skilled employees is going to depend on what you have to offer. From an employee perspective, they’re performing their job just as well and just as productively as they did when in office. If their position becomes 100% remote and they choose to move to a location that has a lower cost of living, how will this be received? This can directly impact retention and recruitment, which is already challenging in our current labor market.
Jessica Miller-Merrell, Workology
Burnout
Burnout is one of the biggest obstacles human resource managers may face with an increasing amount of work-from-home options. Remote employees are most apt to feel isolated, and there is more of a blurred line between work and free time. When employees don’t feel the same connection and support from their coworkers, they can lose motivation and burn out. Finding ways to support employees create boundaries between work and home life and utilizing creative ways to help employees feel connected will be the key to preventing burnout.
Sumeer Kaur, Lashkaraa
Adjusting to a Virtual Hiring Process
Human resource managers accustomed to working on-site can face challenges transitioning to new processes that accommodate the remote workforce. They need to adjust how they source, interview, and retain top talent in a remote environment. Human resource managers must also consider time zones, technical issues, and how to assess if candidates can work effectively in a virtual setting.
Benjamin Farber, Bristol Associates, Inc.
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