Published on October 30th, 2020 | by Renuka Shahane

Long-term Remote Working: A joint effort by the HR and IT teams

Before COVID-19 hit, remote working, telecommuting or working from home in general was a unique phenomenon and was considered a luxury. The pandemic hit and changed the dynamic of working- people were pushed into their homes and the forceful work from home was imposed. Not that employees were complaining, they got to save time on the commute, there was more time for the family or personal hobbies and it all seemed merry in the beginning.

As remote working continued, the initial hesitation along the productivity was shed off and at the same time, the enthusiasm around remote working was fading away too. Employees are taken over by monotony, several of them are missing going to office, the team spirits are at all time low because no one has seen each other or has a rendezvous over a cup of coffee. As remote working seems to be happening for long-term, it is clear that if companies want their employees to be engaged and productive, a joint effort from the HR and IT teams is a must.

Role of IT Teams

The IT teams are incremental in strengthening the core of remote working. With the effort of IT teams, companies can enable smooth remote working where employees have access to the business resources, the threats to corporate data security over unknown networks are minimized and the employees can stay in constant contact with their teams using a team communication app.

The IT teams are the support system that make remote working possible since it also means that the devices have to be provisioned, managed, maintained and fixed for issues remotely, so as to ensure seamless productivity without hiccups.

The IT teams can make use of a mobile device management system that aids in remote device provisioning, security, management, tracking as well as remote troubleshooting.

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Role of HR teams

One of the biggest challenges that remote working brings in, is employee engagement. The HR teams have to think out of the box to create employee engagement programs, arrange one-to-one sessions with the employees to understand their concerns, extend rewards in form of training, courses and well-being that are relevant to the current times where employees can’t easily leave homes or go out for a vacation.

Another important element that the HR teams have to be aware of is remote hiring and onboarding. The hiring process has to be made remote friendly, keeping all the hiring managers abreast of the new methodologies of online interviews. Further, the training and induction curriculum has to be modified to suit remote onboarding and special efforts have to be taken in order to accommodate the new hires in the company process remotely.

Closing Lines

Remote working is here to stay. Even after the impending threat of COVID-19 is over, several companies will continue to work from home and some positions will be remotely permanent. The HR and the IT teams together, of course with the direction of the organizational management need to bring forth and uphold a cultural change to be future ready. With the right remote working tools, communication tools and a mobile device management tool, it is achievable.

Tags: hr, IT teams, joint effort, long term, remote working

About the Author

Renuka Shahane Renuka Shahane is a Sr. Content Writer at Scalefusion - a leading Mobile Device Management solution. An engineering graduate, an Apple junkie and an avid reader, she has 5+ years of experience in content creation, content strategy and PR for technology and web-based startups. Renuka is keen in learning new trends surrounding cybersecurity, repercussions of remote working and the evolution of enterprise mobility.