The year 2020 began with business as usual for most organizations. Companies had big plans not just for the year but for the new decade too. However the worldwide spread of COVID-19 has landed the entire business community into a state of uncertainty. This sudden turmoil caused by the pandemic will have a long-lasting impact on the way the companies will operate and manage their employees.
While people and businesses have accepted that it will take a long time before employees can return to work in an office full time, there are a plethora of challenges they face in the current scenario. As everyone tries to adapt to the 'new normal'. businesses are transitioning their work models and redesigning their business operations.
Work from Home for a Longer Time Period
In the absence of a promising vaccine for COVID-19, companies are unable to resume normal operations. This also means that traditional office spaces will not be used regularly. Employees all over the world will need to adapt to working from home at least until the end of the year 2020. While the employees face the challenge of setting up office space at their home, they also miss out on camaraderie with their teammates as well as spontaneous brainstorming over coffee and much more.
It is pretty evident that until there is a promising vaccine for COVID-19, the offices are no longer going to frequented. People who are working with companies need to adapt themselves to work from home and have to set up their office space at home for at least the end of the year 2020. Employees miss out on camaraderie with their teammates, spontaneous discussions over coffee and much more.
Effective Management
For the HR department and team leaders, this new normal has changed the way they were monitoring the performances of the employees. The phase for micro monitoring is over. Now is the time where the team leaders access the overall efforts and performance of the employees working remotely and motivating them to work harder and in the right direction.
New Way of Measuring Productivity
Now, as everybody is working from home, the parameters on which the work was assessed have also changed. Managers should no longer monitor the employee productivity within the traditional office hours. Employees should be allowed to complete the agreed-upon goals within a given deadline but companies need to be flexible and allow employees to work when they are most productive instead of adhering to normal work hours. This way employees can get more work done at times that best suit their schedule.
While these are challenging times, companies need to be agile and quickly adapt to the changing circumstances. The faster organizations and employees adjust to the new normal, the more they will be able to retain productivity and achieve their goals.