The shift to remote work continues to be a trend in human resources in 2022. However, though everyone seems to view the COVID-19 pandemic as the catalyst, telecommuting and other remote or hybrid work situations have been on the rise for years before this point.
According to Global Workplace Analytics, 5.7 million employees telecommuted half-time or more before the pandemic even began. Of course, since then, those numbers have certainly grown as many companies went remote when everything shut down due to COVID-19.
Now, we are seeing an unprecedented number of companies adopting hybrid or remote workplace policies to adapt to the increasing desire for more flexible and healthy workplace environments. Still, though remote work is becoming more and more commonplace, not all companies have easily adapted, especially when it comes to their policies.
Human resource departments have particularly struggled as they have had to rethink their strategies and even completely change how they work to accommodate remote work culture. HR leaders now must have a more engaging and collaborative role with employees at every level to adapt to the complexities of remote and hybrid workplaces.
Let’s take a closer look at how remote work has changed the role of HR, and how HR teams can adapt by implementing new practices and remote workplace policies.
Remote Work vs. In-person Work: How the Role of HR Is Changing
As more and more companies go remote or adopt hybrid workplaces, it’s crucial for the companies as a whole, but especially the HR teams, to understand that they can’t continue doing things the same way they once did. Remote work is more complex than in-person workplaces; thus, HR departments must adapt to accommodate those complexities.
While the HR department has and will continue to be responsible for managing the employee lifecycle, from onboarding to letting someone go, what exactly they are required to do has shifted quite a bit. Trends in remote work culture have changed the world of human resources.
Traditionally, HR departments would recruit candidates, maintain employee records, conduct disciplinary actions, process payroll, and enforce company policies. And while all of those things are still required of an HR team, there is now a lot more for them to take on, thanks to hybrid and remote workplaces.
When employees work in-office, it’s a lot easier to manage everyone, keep productivity and satisfaction levels up, communicate, and enforce policies. But with the remote setting, all of these things become a lot more complex.
Now, the overall employee experience, including employee engagement and satisfaction, is critical. While the happiness of the workforce has always played a role in the success of a company, it has even more of an impact now with remote work.
This is because it’s a lot easier to lose sight of employees and their well-being when they aren’t directly in front of you in the office. So HR departments must now work even harder to engage employees at all levels and ensure they are happy, satisfied, and thriving in their roles.
To do this, communication must be at its peak. Communication and policies must be even more clear, and check-ins should happen more frequently. The occasional drop-by in the office or quarterly email check-in just isn’t going to cut it. HR teams need to be much more involved and engaged with employees to keep them from feeling disconnected, unappreciated, and unproductive.
And what this ultimately means is that human resources must adopt new tools, systems, schedules, and overall new remote workplace policies that compensate for the loss of interaction, supervision, and engagement that typically happens in the in-person setting.
How HR Can Adapt and Implement New Remote Workplace Policies
The challenge of finding quality candidates and keeping retention rates up has always been a challenge that many HR teams face, but now there are even more challenges to overcome with remote work culture. It’s no longer about simply checking off boxes such as hiring employees, collecting paperwork, providing a handbook of policies, and processing payroll. The role of the HR team must be much more involved and engaging with all employees no matter what stage they are at with the company.
Below are some of the tips and remote workplace policies HR teams can use and implement to achieve a more successful workplace culture:
Fine-tune the Onboarding Process
A good onboarding process is key to maintaining employee satisfaction and good retention rates, but it’s especially important in remote workplace settings. Surprisingly, however, 22% of companies have no formal onboarding process.
So if your HR department lacks a formal process, you will need to implement one. And if you do have one already, it’s a good idea to go back and fine-tune or optimize your process to ensure it’s fully supportive of remote work culture.
A good onboarding process should include proper preparation, thorough orientation and training, helping employees integrate, keeping up with engagement, and conducting regular follow-ups.
Communicate Clearly and Frequently
Effective communication is another critical element when creating a more remote-friendly workplace. You essentially want to over-communicate when it comes to remote work settings. Employees can more easily feel disconnected, lost, or confused when they work from home, so the more communication, the better.
Encourage Collaboration and Socialization
Because employees are more prone to feeling disconnected when working remotely, it’s also important to encourage collaboration and socialization. The in-person work environment naturally fosters socialization and teams working together, but with remote work, this doesn’t come as easily. So you’ll need to work harder and use the right tools and systems to help employees better communicate, collaborate, and socialize with one another.
Listen When Employees Speak Up
Listening to employee feedback is always a good idea, but it’s even more important when supporting remote workers. It’s not uncommon for employees to feel shy, embarrassed, or guilty about speaking up for their needs, so if they have worked up the courage to talk to you about something, you should listen. Remote workers especially struggle to feel seen, heard, and valued, so make it a point to encourage open communication and give good consideration when someone does speak up about something.
Support Equity
With in-person work cultures, everyone is more on an even playing field because everyone has access to the same things in the office. With remote work, however, each employee’s situation could be different. For example, some workers might have children at home that they need to deal with, and some might not have the same tools and resources at home as others.
So HR teams must be mindful of the different challenges their employees face when working remotely and do what they can to accommodate their needs. It’s also important to show your employees that you care about their overall needs and wellbeing, so providing good benefits packages and encouraging a healthy work-life balance within your policy handbook is ideal.
Wrapping Up
Of course, the key to implementing new remote workplace policies and practices is making sure you are using the right tools and resources to support these new initiatives. Just because you have good working systems with an in-person work culture does not mean those same tools and systems will work for remote culture. So re-evaluate what technologies you use and invest in new ones if needed.
With the right technology and an adaptable mindset that caters to the employee experience, there is no reason why shifting to remote work should present as an impossible task. Undoubtedly there will be challenges, but by using the tips above, the hurdles you will face should be easier to overcome.
