Recent Trends in Human Resource Management

COVID-19 is so-called because it began in 2019. Fast forward to the modern-day and the legacy of the coronavirus pandemic still runs through the fabric of society – not least the way in which we conduct business.

Considerations over how to migrate entire workforces to a remote model have led to recent trends in human resource management (please see this website for further information on HR). Today, we’re going to take a look at some of those trends, keeping you in the loop with what’s going on in the world of online working practices.

Mental health, & psychological factors of WFH

Working From Home (WFH) creates a natural geographical barrier between staff and employers. While some tasks require group collaboration (mostly in the planning stages), there are significant portions of the working day wherein staff members will be expected to contribute towards task completion alone.

Working in a solitary environment – especially where the work involves a sedentary lifestyle, such as office work – can mean that staff begin to lose focus. They may even lose contact with other members of staff, introducing the psychological barrier of finding ways to re-establish a conversational friendship with colleagues via digital means before work can continue. All of which leads us to our next point…

Culture & inclusion

Finding ways to help lonely employees feel less isolated during the working day can be difficult. Not everybody prefers the same level of social interaction in the workplace, and not everybody is empathetic towards the loneliness of others (meaning you may face degrees of indifference toward any attempt to establish regular group activities).

Branded items in the mail, regular staff quizzes, online meetups to share business successes, and even a monthly award for employees who have gone above and beyond the call of duty can all help to create a positive and inclusive atmosphere.

Training (in a digital environment)

Where staff previously worked in physical close quarters to one another, any gaps in an employee’s work-related knowledge were more easily picked up. Where staff work remotely, gaps in an employee’s knowledge can be harder to spot.

If the employee feels as though they are expected to carry out tasks without the relevant training, they may begin to experience feelings of inadequacy, which may lead to spending their own time on gathering the information they need (which may benefit the company but will lead to the employee feeling overworked and underpaid).

The role of HR is to track each individual’s training and development, ensuring an ongoing progression of learning that leads to better-equipped staff and a more productive workforce.

And last but not least … establishing authority in a flexible workspace

Establishing authority, for the most part, means ensuring that individuals appreciate who to report to. Where certain staff members leave the company and others join, direct lines of communication with higher management can be broken. The result is a body of staff that feel leaned upon to come up with their own solutions to issues above their pay grade. Building and maintaining distinct chains of leadership is critical.