For many HR departments, working from home is a big novelty, but there are many multinational companies that have been following the remote working route for a long time and it works for them. For example, companies such as WordPress, the world's leading web development platform, Google, and social networking app company Buffer work primarily remotely and have their employees spread across the globe. Yet their HR departments are high-performing and their employees are satisfied in the long term.
For all HR managers who are now working from home, we have prepared some tips that are used by the above companies and allow them to perform HR well even if HR managers do not physically see their employees.
Pay attention to the company culture
First of all, traditional myths about corporate culture need to be debunked. It is often ignored in traditional environments because it is expected to form and shape organically. However, the problem arises when the general office climate is not healthy. In this case, if we let the company culture form automatically, it will consist of fear or laziness and it will be very difficult for HR and senior management to change the company culture setup.
The opposite myth is the idea that a loose corporate culture is a trick that will solve all employee problems. Some HR departments believe that all they need to do is buy a pool table or create a video game corner and employee satisfaction is guaranteed.
Company culture is actually made up of two main elements: respect and trust. Whether you work in an office or remotely. But how do you build these values if both the HR department and the majority of employees are working from home?
Set expectations and standards for communication
Most companies have set communication standards, but too often it is a one-sided affair. The company sets expectations and standards for working from home, including how much work employees are expected to do and when. However, the employee often doesn't know what to expect from management, but from other team members. He or she is given tasks but no longer knows the tasks of other team members and often does not know why he or she is actually performing a particular task.
Communication, whether personal or remote, is always a two-way street. Above all, employees need to know the following:
- What tasks are handled by individual team members.
- What tasks are handled by the supervisor and possibly other teams in the company.
- Who specifically will respond to his part of the tasks.
- Who they can contact if they need advice or consultation.
- Whether colleagues online are ready to answer questions or whether they are busy.
In the office, it's easy to get the information you need in person or to find out when a colleague is free, but when working remotely, we have to communicate all the above information in writing in advance.
Use remote communication tools
Use email for more complex communications that you want to record and are not particularly urgent. The Office 365 platform is most commonly used for email communication for remote working in the Czech business environment.
Cottages and videoconferences
Use chat tools for instant communication. Use video calls for multi-person discussions, typically departmental or divisional meetings. Their main advantage is the ability to physically see the participants and monitor their nonverbal communication, which is invisible in chat. Video calls thus reduce the risk of misunderstandings.
The most common tools used in this area are:
- Microsoft Teams, which is part of Office 365.
- Google Hangouts
- Facebook Workplace, which has implemented tools like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
- Slack, a chat-only tool.
- Zoom, a video conferencing-only tool, has the advantage of being integrated into Microsoft Teams.
At a time of declared coronavirus crisis, all of the above-mentioned pratforms offer the possibility of using basic functions free of charge.
Share documents
The ability to share documents online is very important, preferably with the ability to work on one document together. Working from home is easier and more flexible when using shared documents. Here again, you can use a variety of solutions:
- Office 365 with OneDrive and SharePoint: clearly the most convenient platform for sharing documents, but also updates and internal information.
- Google G Suite: a platform that brings together Google's core tools such as Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Hangouts.
Share your calendars
One central, shared calendar where everyone can see what individual employees are doing so they can more easily schedule meetings, chats and video chats is the foundation for successful remote collaboration. Shared calendars are possible with most remote communication platforms.
Regulate communication, but only in general terms
Of course, communication using remote platforms needs to be regulated, but only in general. The basic rules should be as follows:
- Employees should chat either individually in pairs or in small teams, don't create large chat rooms where anyone can type anything and communication is so opaque.
- Ask colleagues to always communicate their status, i.e. whether they are online, offline, busy, in a meeting, etc.
- Define the working hours when colleagues working in the home office should be on call and don't forget to set breaks, including a lunch break.
Avoid monitoring chats, individual communication should remain a private matter between chatters. Assure users that chats are private and do not prohibit the use of GIFs, emoticons, jokes, videos, memes in chats.
Use e-learning
If your company is not yet using e-learning, now is the time to change that. For working from home, e-learning is the ideal tool. Home office offers more time for creative or project work. Employees have the time to focus on one issue in detail, and e-learning can be a good opportunity for them to learn new information and advance their industry knowledge.
Prepare interesting e-learning courses for your employees in their field. If your HR department organises language courses, soft skills courses or regular professional courses, prepare study materials for employees and create tests to test their knowledge.
Automate HR processes
The HR department performs a wide range of administrative tasks that can be automated through the software solution and can be implemented even in situations where HR managers and specialists work from home.
In the case of remote work, we recommend automating the following activities:
- Recording employee information: thanks to HR software that is accessible online, you will have complete employee documentation with you, even in the home office, including records of assets transferred, training provided, employment law documents and complete contact details.
- Requests: online you will be able to deal with requests for holidays, medical leave, sick days, sickness, compensatory time off.
- Employee departure: the administrative part of the employee departure can be handled easily online.
- Onboarding a new employee: HR software allows you to handle onboarding faster and complete all administrative tasks online without having to physically see the new employee
- Anniversaries and birthdays: the HR software allows you to wish employees on work anniversaries and birthdays, even if they work in a home office.
Find a strategic partner for remote working
We'll be happy to help you set up remote collaboration. We are Pinya, a Czech company dealing with IT security, creating corporate intranet solutions mainly for SharePoint, Office 365, business applications PowerApps. We also specialize in custom software development such as Pinya HR, software for HR professionals. For the work from home area, we offer solutions for the following tasks in Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint environment:
- Sharing company documents between employees
- Planning and implementation of online meetings
- Central record of tasks
- Circulation and approval of invoices
- Minutes of meetings
- Project Management
- Supervision of work in homeoffice mode
- Training/e-learning
We have developed Pinya HR software especially for HR professionals, which can simplify HR work in the company. You can try Pinya HR for free and without obligation through a demo.
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