Challenges to HR in a WFH environment

📌 What is Work from Home (WFH)?

Work From Home (WFH) is a concept where the employee can do his or her job from home. Work from home gives flexible working hours to the employee as well as the job for the employer is done with ease. Work from home is helpful to delivering work-life balance to the employee and parallelly helps the company to get the work done in this Pandemic situation.

📌 WFH with COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government advised full or partial work from home (WFH) policies to their government workers to continue the economic activities under this pandemic situation. For many businesses and workers, WFH practices are a new experience. Further, not all workers are able to effectively carry out work from home (Saltiel, 2020).

📌 Challenges to HR in a WFH environment

Managing a remote workforce is not a simple task. Mostly for HR directors and managers who must consider policies and procedures alongside personal conflicts and changes to office culture/dynamics. Here are some of the top HR challenges of working remotely.

① Increasing employee engagement and happiness

WFH environment can cause many complex problems to the workforce. For example

• Employees feel disconnected from their employers
• Managers may find it more challenging to detect when their direct reports are struggling
• Managers may struggle to offer the right level of support
• Employees may not feel like they’re receiving the right level of support

② Ensuring consistent communication 

Communication is the main issue that arises in a remote environment.

③ Maintaining optimum productivity

It’s very difficult to track or manage the time your employees spend on actual office work. That will really affect departmental or organizational productivity.

④ Focusing on training and development

It’s very difficult to have proper training programs without interacting with each other. Remote training programs are not productive as physical training.

⑤ Maintaining company culture

Creating and maintaining positive company culture is no easy feat. It’s even harder to cultivate when you’re managing a group of remote workers.

References:

Saltiel, F. (2020). Who can work from home in developing countries?. Covid Economics, 104-118.

MBA Skool Team (2020). Work From Home (WFH) Meaning, Importance & Steps. [blog entry] 15 December 2020. MBA School. Available from https://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/human-resources-hr-terms/16870-work-from-home.html [Accessed 17 December 2021].

Columbus (2021). Overcoming the HR challenges of a remote workforce in 2021. [blog entry] 06 May 2021. Columbus. Available from https://www.columbusglobal.com/en-gb/blog/overcoming-the-hr-challenges-of-a-remote-workforce-in-2021 [Accessed 17 December 2021].