Imagine this scenario – You are the HR manager of a company. It is the post-Covid world. Companies around you are lifting the work from home policy and asking their employees to return to the office.
As the HR manager, you are required to take the decision on the working arrangement. Whether to continue with work from home or call employees back to the office or work out a hybrid model.
The starting point of any decision-making process is to understand the aim, plan the approach, and the desired results.
In this case, the aim of the HR manager is to make sure that only is productivity and the mental health of the employees remain unaffected rather improves.
The desired result is the improvement and increase in the employees’ productivity. Also, a better work-life balance and overall attitude of the workforce.
Let’s take a closer look at the types of work schedules possible:
- Work from home – Continue the existing system of employees working from home full time for all 5/6 days.
- Work from the office – Revive the practice of employees working from the office as was the case pre- Covid.
- Hybrid model – Consider a 2 or 3-day work from the office and the rest of the days work from home situation. This will create a balance between both the work arrangement.
- Flexible working arrangement – Let the employees decide when and how long they wish to work from the office and schedule a roaster for different teams accordingly.
Many companies believe that working from home, hybrid or flexible working hours hamper the productivity of the employees. They tend to lose their focus and there is a lag in the communication process due to which the companies face the risk of their projects getting delayed. Companies also feel that tracking employee performance also becomes difficult.
This results in the loss of time, an increase in costs, and a collapsed system.
However, the role of an HR manager proves to be of prime importance in such scenarios. Proper planning and training of the employees to adopt and adapt well to the changing scenarios of work make managing employees a piece of cake.
Let’s see a few areas where the HR manager can help in upholding the flexible working arrangements without the organization getting adversely affected by it:
- Implementing a proper system and extracting the status report daily which is shared with the management for monitoring the work done by employees.
- Adopting software for team communication, arranging meetings, task mapping, and collaborative working. Undertaking the training and development of the employees to acquaint them with the software and how to make the most of them.
- Conducting productivity-improving, motivational workshops to boost the employee morale and renew the vigour to pump up the productivity.
- Counseling the employees to focus on achieving targets in return for the flexi-work approach undertaken by the management.
The benefit of such flexible working hours is mainly seen in the mental health of the employees. It has proven to reduce the stress and allow them to spend more time with their families, thus restoring the work-life balance.
It has also reduced the costs of sustaining the office infrastructure, commuting to the office, employee retention, and other overheads.
The world has changed post-Covid and so has the perspective of looking at the work structure, timing, and productivity. Due to the changes in the work structure, the role of an HR too is evolving. Understanding this evolution and upgrading skills as per requirements has become today’s need.
MIT School of Distance Education is an institute of management that understands the need to change. Hence MITSDE along with industry- stalwarts has developed Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) with a specialization in Human Resource Management. The PGDM – HRM is a unique offering that caters to the skill gaps faced in the industry today. It trains the learners to get quickly absorbed in the industry.
The PGDM program is aligned with the latest global human resources management practices trends. The course takes a flexi-learning approach which helps an individual easily and effectively manage their work-life and academics simultaneously.