TH O UG H T L E A D E R S HI P A RTI CL E
Empowering managers to effectively manage a remote workforce By Rob Bothma, Strategic Business Solution Architect at Oracle
year ago, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations were forced into the situation of having their staff working from home. Most organisations anticipated that this situation was temporary and would be short-lived. Now, nearly 12 months on, working from home has evolved into the norm, with many organisations having a more formal and permanent workforce working from home.
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With the now seemingly long-term expectations of needing a remote and digitally enabled workforce, organisations are being challenged to become more agile and resilient to the risks and challenges this pandemic has brought upon us.
Rob Bothma, Strategic Business Solution Architect at Oracle. Fellow of the IPM. Co-author of the 4th Edition of Contemporary Issues in HRM
It should be noted that gearing up to become a resilient organisation requires the implementation and embedding of iterative processes and not just some once-off knee-jerk reaction. This requires a change in the culture of the organisation, especially when looking at how to empower managers in managing their teams remotely.
Usually resilience within an organisation is built over time, in times of crises, such as what we are experiencing today, forcing organisations to think outside the box and take immediate actions to avoid disastrous consequences.
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Business Day - Focus 4.0
One of the biggest impacts the pandemic has had on the workplace are the challenges now facing line and middle management. The job of a manager has predominantly been to manage office-based teams. All their processes and procedures have been modelled within this framework.
Even within an office-based working environment, many managers have paid scant attention to conducting true talent management with their subordinates. Many of the HR staff I speak to admit that the amount of time they spend chasing management to complete their HR functions is limited. Such functions include: • Workforce planning and scheduling • C reation and completion of the Annual Performance process • Ensuring succession plans exist for key jobs • C onducting meaningful career planning • Ensuring all team members have a proper learning and development plan in place.
With employees and managers working remotely, this challenge has now become even greater. Fortunately, we have had the simultaneous advent of sophisticated HR solutions with embedded emerging technologies, which are now designed to keep all the various end-users needs in mind, as opposed to traditional designs that catered only to the needs of core HR users.
