Before the work from home culture started recently, only a few years ago overseeing the workplace culture had been a big part of HR Management. The job of the HR workers was to embed the value, beliefs, and ethics of a company into the employees. As most of the workforces are now working from their homes, it is hard for human resource managers to interact with them regularly and enforce a work culture among them. Let’s talk about how to reinforce the earlier culture in virtual workplaces:
The good and bad sides of the virtual workplace
The virtual workplace is quickly becoming the new normal across the world. When you are working from your home, you can never be late for your work hours for being stuck in traffic. Working from the convenience of your home makes you more productive than ever. You can also take care of your personal responsibilities while working from home. You have a lesser stress level and can give your best in the virtual workplace.
Some of the cons of a virtual workplace are that it sometimes gets boring as you are working alone. The employees also miss the face-to-face interaction with their colleagues. Collaborating with others and judging the productivity of the employees can be difficult for HR in a virtual workplace.
But despite all these problems most employees and employers still prefer remote working. A 2018 employee benefits survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that almost 70% of companies are offering remote working and telecommunication benefits to the workers. They are able to hire people from different locations and have 24x7 work culture with the remote work culture. Their cost of running an office has also decreased without the need for a traditional office setup.
Best HR practices for a virtual workplace
With remote working the HR managers are now struggling to make their employees feel more associated to the company and have a sense of unity to achieve the same goal. It is important for HR managers to learn the newer ways of maintaining an organized workplace in the virtual plane. Here are the best tips to bring your virtual workplace to success.
1. Maintain regular communication
As an HR, you must maintain thorough communication with the employees in the virtual workplace as you do in a physical office.
- In a virtual work culture, you may have employees from different countries and cultures. The biggest challenge is to maintain steady communication with all the language and time barriers. You need to set clear guidelines outlining which type of messages would be sent, through which mediums, and how to respond.
- Keep your teams updated regularly and review what work they have done. Give them feedback and suggestions on their work.
2. Build trust among the employees
The employees need to trust the organization they are working for in order for the company to achieve its goals. Teambuilding is a common HR practice and it can be done virtually as well.
- People like to work for mission-driven companies. Your organization needs to show the world that is working towards the greater good of the community and the world. Make a mission statement and as the employees to join you on the work to achieve that goal.
- Define clear job roles for your employees. Each employee must know what their work is in the organization to do it successfully. It also develops a sense of familiarity among them
3. Track employee performance
In a virtual work environment, people work when they have time. It is not possible for HRs to work 24x7 and keep track of all of them. The best way to measure their performance is to observe the quantity and quality of work they have done. There are different tools available on the market that may help you track the true performance of the workers.
