Just want to start a conversation!
Is Work from Home (WFH) going to be something that carries on past this lockdown?
There are many reasons why I think this will now be the case. Not the least being that employees (especially in our case) seem to be more productive and supportive of other team members during this time. Our SunFish HCM and GreatDay HR teams are not seeing each other as threats but as partners in this time of crisis.
Prior to this lockdown, I personally did not really take to the idea of WFH. For info, I am a Baby Boomer, so it is a generational thing with me. Based on the last two weeks, my thinking has changed dramatically.
Confidence was an issue for me. I was thinking “Can Millennials work from home without close supervision?” Proud to say that they have really proven that they can.
“Could they be productive?” Yes, again they have proven this to me.
We also really need to consider the quality of our Managers and Supervisors. Are they up to the task?
Some advantages of WFH for the Employer to consider are:
Just imagine that one of your employees takes 1 – 3 hours to get to the office in the morning. In many cases, before he can even get to sit on his office chair and open his computer, he is already tired and distracted. His productivity, surely, is lowered. While an employee who gets up in the morning (without thinking of the road traffics he is going to endure), has his breakfast and then goes to his workspace at home, is fresh, lively, and undoubtedly productive.While WFH is not suitable for everyone, this crisis has shown us that it is suitable for many more employees than I previously considered.
Office space savings? Many years ago, the large firms like the renowned IBM recognised this WFH policy and managed to close many of their regional offices. With the better internet and Webinar services available to us today, we find this has reinforced their findings about the suitability of this program.With strong HR programs like SunFish HCM and GreatDay HR to back up and support both companies and employees, another obstacle has been overcome. We really have geared our programs to support WFH with huge investments of money and time to speed up enhancements. All HR activities can now be done remotely. There is no need to go to the office to run the payroll or hire an employee face to face. Our basic features in the system and mobile app – Attendance Recording, Activity Recording, Company Announcements, and Employee’s Attendance – are all here, with Facial Recognition, Geo Tagging and much more. We also have several new and very innovative features due for release in the next few weeks.
While not advocating a full week of WFH for our staff, I am considering at a minimum two days per week for suitable employees on a rotational basis. I still think we need to have that physical bonding that comes from being in the office with our workmates as an essential part of human existence. Also new ideas flow better across a table in my opinion.
In my next post, I will discuss the benefits and or disadvantages for the employees.
Please share with me your thoughts at wfh@dataon.ph
To see more about our HR programs that fully support WFH, visit https://greatdayhr.ph or https://dataon.ph