HRMT11011 Human Resource Management

HRMT11011 Human Resource Management
Assessment task 2 – Academic Essay (Individual task) – 40%
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HRMT11011 Human Resource Management
Assessment 2:
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The Role of HR
Reshaping ‘Remote Work’ or ‘Working from Home’
The New Normal in the Post COVID-19 Australian Workplace
Lecturer: Dr Fazluz ZAMAN
Word Count: XXXX words out of 1600 words ±10%
(excluding cover page, reference list)
Submission date: Week 8 - 11 January, 2021
REMOVE ALL BELOW INSTRUCTION AFTER
COMPLETING YOUR ASSESSMENT 2
TENTATIVE STRUCTURE – ESSAY PRESENTATION GUIDELINE
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Introduction
Efficient human resources are needed for all sizes of business. Human resource refers
to the people who are employed in an organisation and the department accountable for
handling all matters associated with those people or employees who are considered as the
most important resources in an organisation. It is a process of managing people for achieving
the best results. The purpose of the study is to understand the process of human resource
management during the current situation of working from home or remote work for the
outbreak of this pandemic. The scope of the study is to understand the various ways the
human resources of a company are to be taken care of so that they can enhance their skills
and knowledge within the business organisation. This essay will highlight the ways of
managing human resources in this situation of working from home. In this essay, the role of
the professionals associated with human resources will be discussed to understand the various
HR policies, procedures, and programmes that are used in this situation.
Body
The outbreak of coronavirus changed the style of living and work all over the world.
Since the starting of 2020, people all over the world are fighting together against this harmful
virus. Many countries have undergone a full lockdown of their economy as people were
advised to stay at their homes to reduce the risk of this infection. During that time, many
business organisations have started following the policy of work from home so that they can
safely work at their home to reduce the spreading of this infection caused due to Covid19.
The remote work or work from home concept is the new normal accepted by most of the
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companies of the world since the beginning of 2020 (Arora & Suri, 2020). I think this is the
best way for the business organisation to resume or continue with the business operations in
the pandemic situation.
The change in the nature of work has affected the socio-demographic of the real world
as people of age group 45-60 years old suffered the most in adopting into new changes or
new normal such as remote work situation. They had to learn to use various technical things
to adapt in this change. Working women are affected badly due to working from the situation
as they had to work for their family and their office work. The remote work has affected the
technology as the company is putting more importance on the better system of
communication and protection of data. The companies are increasing their investment in
improving infrastructure and data security. The change in the working environment has
affected the performance level of the employees, as at home they cannot be productive like in
an office environment. The workstation set up, design of the equipment, space, furniture
provide a positive work feeling as the employees can share with their colleagues and discuss
the various areas of work (Chanana, 2020).
The change in the nature of work in Australia due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus
has affected the social demographic factors such as employment, level of income, age,
education gender, and migration background. There has been a decrease in the rate of
employment as some of the companies have cut off employees, which led to a decrease in the
level of income. The migration of labour back to their home state increased as the economy
was going through a lockdown situation. The Covid19 has affected the use of technology in
the workforce by increasing the use of refined digital technologies such as messaging
platforms and video conferencing, reinforced by traditional email. The change in the work
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environment has affected the performance level of the employees or workforce as the
environment at home decreases their level of motivation to work (Shahi & Neloy, 2020).
The current remote work or working from the home situation has changed the
responsibilities and working methods of HR with a business organisation. During this hard
time, when employees are only meeting each other virtually it is important for HR to
undertake various functions that will help in motivating the employees in enhancing their
performance (Dirani et al., 2020). The three different functional viewpoints that will be
discussed here are talent attraction and retention, training and development, and remote
workforce communication.
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Talent attraction and retention
According to Carnevale & Hatak (2020), the focus is on the human resource
implications on employee modification and their well-being. The employees in the time of
Covid-19 are facing new challenges in accepting the new normal and it is the responsibility
of HR to undertake various ways to overcome those challenges. Talent attraction and
retention will help in overcoming the challenges employees are facing as they are working
from home. I think the talent attraction and retention will help in speeding up the process of
recruitment as various technologies like Calendly, Zoom and Skype call can be used for
interviewing the right talent in the organisation. The HR can also use creative job title, as it
will help in boosting the pride of the employees and reducing expenses. Nisha and Sangeeta
(2020) have discussed the importance of changes in employee engagement during the
COVID-19 lockdown. The remote working has affected the business organisations of
Australia; many companies such as Wesfarmers Limited have undertaken measure for
retention of the old employees and attracting new talents.
Training and Development
According to Nisha Chanana (2020), training and development are one of the
important measures that the HR department of an organisation needs to undertake no matter if
the employees are working remotely or from the office. It helps not only to enhance the skills
and knowledge of the employees but also in boosting up the confidence level. I think training
and development are needed more during this time as employees are working remotely away
from their working space and environment. Akingbola (2020) has categorised the influence
of COVID-19 into employee-level impact, organisation-level impact, and team-level impact.
The training and development by using instructor-led training (ILT) is the most effective tool
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used for remote training purposes. I think the strategy the HR needs to use is by conducting
more question and answer sessions, more polls, more videos, engaging them in visual aids,
and breakout sessions for engaging the employees and boosting their level of skill.
Remote workforce communication
The key to a prosperous business organisation is a proper system of communication
from the top level to the bottom level employees. The current situation has changed the
system of communication and methods of working within the organisation. The HR of a
company has to look after the areas of concern for its employees. Kaushik & Guleria (2020)
opine that the remote workforce communication via, email, phone call, zoom call is the new
normal as the employees are working remotely all over Australia. As Carnevale and Hatak
(2020) tell that HR needs to survey the employees to understand that, they are well equipped
to work remotely. The HR needs to communicate daily by sharing good news, fun quizzes,
daily tips for boosting up the morale of the employees. I think HR can engage the employees
with a virtual celebration alert every month to motivate the employees.
The challenges and opportunities of employer and employee
The employers investing in the employees for enhancing their skill and knowledge
will help in improving the quality of work and the performance level of the organisation.
Business organisations in Australia invest in the wellbeing of the employees especially during
this hard time for boosting up the morale of the employees as they are working remotely. The
investment in training and development, the process of communication will help the
employers in extracting premium quality work and reduce the cost of improper work within
the organisation (Kooij, 2020).
The productivity of the employees is disturbed as the work pressure increases. In
some of the organisations in Australia, it can be seen that employees are facing issues such as
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work pressure, extra work expectation, and job security. The work from home has affected
the productivity level of the employees as the employers are giving extra workloads as the
employees are working from home. The job security of the employees is at stake as the
companies are laying off the employees as the aftereffect of lockdown in the whole economy
(Ahmed et al., 2020). I have seen that employees are given extra work pressures as the time
of commuting is saved; the employers ask the employees to work even after working hours.
This leads to a decrease in the level of productivity of the employees as the employees are not
getting job satisfaction.
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Conclusion
The HR department needs to look after the employees, as they are the main resources of
an organisation. A business organisation needs to implement new strategies for engaging the
employees in a remote working environment. The outbreak of the pandemic all over the
world has changed the working nature of the business organisation, which is affecting the
social-demographic, technological, and work environment in all parts of the world including
Australia. The employers and employees are working as a team for bringing out the nest
within each other. The three different functional viewpoints discussed here are talent
attraction and retention, training and development, and remote workforce communication-
which will help in boosting up the morale and productivity of the employees in this
challenging situation. These measures of employee engagement will also help on decreasing
the feeling of loneliness, social exclusion, and fighting the mental wellbeing of the
employees.
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References
Ahmed, T., Shahid Khan, M., Thitivesa, D., Siraphatthada, Y., & Phumdara, T. (2020).
Impact of employees engagement and knowledge sharing on organizational
performance: Study of HR challenges in COVID-19 pandemic. Human Systems
Management, (Preprint), pp. 1-15. <https://content.iospress.com/articles/human-
systems-management/hsm201052>
Akingbola, Kunle. (2020). COVID-19: The Prospects for Nonprofit Human
ResourceManagement. Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy
Research. Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring. pp. 16 – 20
<https://www.anserj.ca/index.php/cjnser/article/view/372>
Arora, P. and Suri, D., 2020. Redefining, relooking, redesigning, and reincorporating HRD in
the post Covid 19 context and thereafter. Human Resource Development
International, 23(4), pp.438-451.
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13678868.2020.1780077>
Carnevale, J. B., & Hatak, I. (2020). Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of
COVID-19: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Business
Research. Vol. 116, pp. 183-187.
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296320303301>
Chanana, N. (2020). Employee engagement practices during COVID‐19
lockdown. Journal of Public Affairs, e2508.
<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pa.2508>
Dirani, K. M., Abadi, M., Alizadeh, A., Barhate, B., Garza, R. C., Gunasekara, N., ... &
Majzun, Z. (2020). Leadership competencies and the essential role of human
resource development in times of crisis: a response to Covid-19 pandemic. Human
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Resource Development International, Vol. 23, no.4, pp. 380-394.
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13678868.2020.1780078>
Kaushik, M., & Guleria, N. (2020). The Impact of Pandemic COVID-19 in
Workplace. European Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 12, no. 15, pp. 1-
10. <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Meenakshi_Pandey8/publication/
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Kooij, D. T. (2020). The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on older workers: The role of self-
regulation and organizations. Work, Aging and Retirement, Vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 233-
237. <https://academic.oup.com/workar/article/6/4/233/5908119?login=true>
Nisha Chanana, S.(2020)Employee engagement practices during COVID‐19
lockdown. Journal of Public Affairs.
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7536939/>
Nisha, C & Sangeeta. (2020). Employee engagement practices during COVID-19 lockdown.
Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. e2508, pp. 1-8.
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7536939/>
Shahi, K., & Neloy, H. (2020) Global transition of HR practices in covid-19 pandemic
situation: a systematic review through 5P's model of HRM.
<
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HR-PRACTICES-IN-COVID-19-PANDEMIC-SITUATION-A-SYSTEMATIC-
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