Working Remotely or working from home whatever you might term it is now adopted by all the companies worldwide as we stand amid a crisis. With corona-virus, there surely is a destructive impact all around the globe. It is not just affecting people but it is also transforming how enterprises work and communicate. Companies all across the globe are practicing social distancing to avoid the spread of the pandemic virus.
A large number of employees are now working remotely and enterprises are promoting remote-working policies and experiences to be more productive and engaging. The Human Resources in alliance with the top level of management shall plan the below-mentioned activities to ensure that their employees get all the required support and help and can give a productive performance during the roller coaster ride of the corona-virus pandemic.
1. Give them the right infrastructure to work:
The HR has to ensure that each employee is provided with the basic technological equipment like laptops, PC’s, a VPN, required software, phones, high-speed WiFi connectivity etc. To communicate with each other and do the required tasks virtually, Hr has to make sure that proper training for an employee shall be given. Not necessarily all your employees have seen such crises before and have an urgent need to be trained on your inbuilt applications for internal conversations and video conferencing solutions. This will create a big-time difference for remote work.
2. Ensure that the stressful time doesn’t create uneasiness and distress to your employees:
Look out for every possible conversation that you have with your employees and make sure that they aren’t facing any distress amid the crises. Stress-related to inability to cater to the business requirements, health issues, technological problems, job security, high intake of customer queries, etc can lead to burnout and thus the enterprise can lose valuable employees.HR has to form certain guidelines which they have to communicate to all the managers to penetrate conversations on the sensitive subjects emerging because of COVID-19 Pandemic to reduce the tension in the workplace.
3. Maintain the Trust:
The most beneficial advice that managers can follow considering the crisis is to hang on write your doubts & mistrust and put forward utmost confidence in your employees to implement a supportive arrangement. Managers will get frustrated with the fact that they were used to work which made every employee under his team visible and it was easier for them to track their performance, now remote working has created enough stress and fatigue. A manager has to lean himself according to the situation and work hand in hand with his employees and strive to work in accordance to meet the business requirements.
4. Don’t forget the virtual engagement initiatives:
Yes, it might be daunting for employees to stay at home, meet no one, work virtually, talk to nobody, just see their laptops etc. It’s not just the companies and enterprises that have been affected by the COVID 19 impact but yes many other collaborations like coffee shops, malls, etc are also closed. So operating remotely with almost no in-person contact or interaction for days is itself isolating and this can hamper productivity! HR should proactively make efforts to combat these consequences by taking important measures for all the employees to feel connected even when they are working from home. Employee engagement activities, virtual video coffee talks, virtual socialization activities, games and trivia can help towards achieving the goal. This will help to sustain a sense of fellowship until the crises end.
5. Recognize the efforts:
We all being amidst the crisis, work in accordance to meet organisational goals but the desire to be recognized for the contribution we make does not end. No matter at what level employees work, their collaborative contribution ensures the smoother running of the enterprise during crises as well. Competent attention to the contribution will not only motivate the employee but will also provide a strong sign to other employees on how they should also be recognized. Recognition shouldn’t always be in monetary terms but small tokens of appreciation work wonders as well.
The HR and managers have a very important role to play amid these crises to shape the future of how the enterprise works and to get inspired to work.
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