Companies having a robust BCP process must be thanking their lucky stars. All the precautions taken to face any calamity or emergency have helped and supported them at this point. The pandemic has forced many employees to work from home or remote locations to avoid human contact as much as possible. A good BCP plan will ensure employees who are managing critical jobs have the right equipment, connectivity & access to operate from anywhere at any time. Time and again, technology has come to the rescue of organizations by providing workable solutions.
While it is true that an office atmosphere brings about a lot of bonding and energy and provides assurance and support to employees, long-term remote working is a new environment for many. It can sometimes lead to anxiety and uncertainty due to a lack of communication or transparency in what is happening outside of their house's four walls.
It is the task of HR to keep the employees motivated at all times and support them and their families in these situations. How can HR and HRMS software solutions help, and how much should they be doing?
Employee engagement
HR should make full use of modern technology by creating easy-to-use portals for employees to connect with them or register their concerns. Chatbots or online streaming modules can also be used for online chatting and resolution of issues. TAT can be defined for more complex problems and to ensure employees are responded to within reasonable timelines.
Remote Counselling
As is customary, one of HR's primary mission is to sustain reasonable levels of employee satisfaction. Happy employees create better organizations, goes the saying. In the prevailing situation, it is quite possible that managers could be anxious about their team members' productivity due to various domestic distractions or poor connectivity. Equally, employees could be worried about any perceived lack of guidance or scarce team support or attention. All this can be resolved with a reliable system that provides excellent and real-time connections, data accessibility, and progress reports for both Managers and HR to review regularly.
Training
Upscaling of skills is an integral part of the HR function. An organization can boldly venture into a new business or take courage to dwell into new turf only with the explicit support of its employees having requisite skill sets. HR must understand the new requirements, identify any available skills within the organization, identify gaps in skills, and provide appropriate training. The HR system can be used to track mandatory training compliance too.
Performance reviews
Every employee anticipates a very transparent & fair performance assessment process within their organizations. HR systems need to be designed so that both employees and managers are fully aware of their responsibilities, timelines, and methodology in this process. Goal setting or targets need to be very achievable, reasonable and matching to the employee skillset and experience. Reviews can happen regularly or annually, as per company policies. Systems will ensure there is no ambiguity in goals and achievements.
Working/support groups
HR can create project-type working groups or support groups within the organization and at any level. Some companies allow a specific number of employees to follow their leaders (called Shadowing) for a fixed period to learn leadership skills. Like-minded groups can be formed with HR's help for any support during this pandemic period with employees from various teams collaborating or sharing best practices. This support can be extended to employees during any sickness or for health conditions too.
Company business updates
That could be one major cause of anxiety to employees while being away from the office that they might not be aware of any organization's happenings or progress. HR should step in to publish company business update bulletins or announcements regularly to keep employees engaged and fully aware of any new events.
Payroll, Claims, and Reimbursement Leave and Attendance
Of course, not to be left out of the many such advantages of HR software solutions, employee payroll, reimbursements, tracking of expenses, cost/funding approval process, dashboards, leave and attendance management, employee queries, etc. can all be managed seamlessly.
If you are looking for the top HR software systems and providers, you may want to know this: greytHR, a web-based cloud software, supports many organizations in the above functions.
