The work environment is changing rapidly. Since Covid 19 made its appearance, we've experienced a paradigm shift in where and when we work and how we measure the performance of remote workers.
The adoption of remote working or hybrid working models that started in 2020 seems to be here to stay. Even when returning to the office is now possible, many employers and employees prefer remote working or a hybrid working model, and many companies are implementing such plans if the nature of the work allows it. We have become accustomed to new ways of working and are seeing some positive impact on businesses, companies and their employees.
Of course, remote or hybrid working models have proved to present their own unique challenges, including:
- The need to ensure that employees and business teams continue to work effectively and achieve their goals
- The need for everyone to have secure access to systems, information and documents over corporate networks
- The need to maintain accurate information and records on HR issues
New problems require new solutions that today’s technology is able to provide.
This shift towards hybrid or remote working seems to be a major trend in the coming years and organisations and businesses need to be prepared to support it.
The HR department plays a key role and must be prepared to deal with the impact of the changing work environment with modern tools. It is now tasked with managing remote employees who may be in different locations or even time zones and ensure that they are healthy and can access HR services. In many ways, the remote/hybrid system may represent a new opportunity for HR to redefine its role.
However, beyond the issues that are purely related to staff management, there are also issues of project management and work performance as well as the achievement of goals. From the point of view of managers and supervisors, it is more difficult to monitor employee performance and the achievement of desired results within specific timeframes when people are not working in the same place.
Remote working has significantly changed the ability to monitor employee efficiency and productivity. Modern technology tools and applications that help monitor the performance of remote employees are now essential. Rethinking how goals are set and identifying key performance indicators is vital to managing remote workers in the new norm.
At e-On we have the solutions to help businesses meet the challenges of the new work environment with tools like e-On MyWorkplace and e-On RIX Projects.
E-On MyWorkplace is an integrated personnel management suite that offers remote access to employees to handle their issues in a fully collaborative environment with process automation through workflows. But it is also a strategy tool that ensures that business objectives are achieved. It supports planning and critical decisions for all operational and strategic business planning and answers questions related to the medium and long-term plans of the business.
e-On RIX Projects provides functionality for the administration and financial management of any kind of task and project. It is a collaborative environment and a single information source for all parties involved, available and accessible from anywhere and anytime. It links persons and actions for each task or project and includes, among other things, time reports or time sheets, so that it is clear who worked on each task or project, how much time, what was the cost they added and of course what was their contribution to the financial performance of the task or project.