Is remote working affecting organisational culture and day-to-day working?

Over a year ago, most employers would have balked at the idea of employees regularly working from home. We can all agree that remote working is in the spotlight because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has now forced the organisations to rethink their ways of working, for creating a sustainable, safe, productive and engaging work environment for creating the workplace of tomorrow. In US , weekly work from home through video call was a common scenario even pre Covid. Digitalisation is a boon which can support business operation, various communication channels, cloud for sharing documents etc. company can collaborate in real time basis.

The Workplace of Tomorrow:

Organisations of today, question the traditional assumptions about how work is to be done and the need of offices. The answer is that there is no one-size fits all solution. Every organisation has their own hiring requirements, critical positions, work location and most importantly the requirement for collaboration. To deep dive into this further, even within the same organisations the answer to that could vary basis Businesses, Functions and Geographies. Any change in style of working will require exceptional change management skills along with tough decision making, with continuous in-depth analysis on their effectiveness. 

Skilling and reskilling:

When most of the employees are working from home, companies should use technology for assessment of competencies and use this time to develop leaders by coaching and mentoring them, providing e-learning program or online courses so that these leaders get prepared for working as independent leaders, empower them and define scope of work with proper SOPs.

Employee Engagement:

Happiness is very important and engagement activities need no excuse. Arranging virtual team building activities, celebrating festivals, “Town hall” and most importantly maintaining “Two way communication” is important to keep the zeal and enthusiasm among the employees. Structured way of Rewarding employees for their achievements and maintaining the e-magazine with success stories of employees would motivate and enhance the productivity. The real time recognition during “Town Hall” works best among many.

Online Hiring:

Social media, mobile apps, job-portal and chat bot has been an important tool for online hiring from few years now and this has evolved more recently. There are many technical tools available in the industry which enable video interviews without intervention of human and candidate can follow the interview process by following instruction. This seems to be very effective and provides flexibility to candidate.

Culture

The important aspect of any company is Culture which does not build up overnight. It is important to hire right people who bring the values which are required by the company. Maintaining the ownership during remote working requires involvement and regular communication with employees, this could be morning alignment with the team and post that giving flexibility to employees to block your calendar for one-on-one interaction. Sustaining the “We Culture” would be a win-win situation for both organisation and employees.  

continuously align teams by have inter-departmental catchup’s on regular basis, promote a transparent culture by empowering employees to lead as Individual Contributors, while encouraging quality checks of defined processes for maintaining efficiency and scalability.

Employee Health:

Health of the employees might be getting affected, with the world reeling under Covid-19, there is a renewed focus for the organisations to constantly promote wellness programs. These are truly difficult times for everyone and is also the focal point for the organisations to display attentiveness towards their employees well-being. In the long run, this will not only garner loyalty from the employees, but also help to bring positivity into the lives of their loved one’s and also workplace. After all employees are the truest assets for any successful organisation. A great initiative for organisations would be to not only make reimbursement for Covid vaccine possible, but to also assisting employees with any medical or personal emergencies, in whatever ways possible, in the hour of need. In addition to this, conducting regular mental wellness programs, providing counselling to the employees in need would go a long way.