1.0 Introduction
Human resource management is very critical in a business environment. It’s a practice of hiring, recruiting, and managing employees of an organization. Besides, human resource management is responsible for formulating and overseeing human resource policies that govern the relationship between employees and an organization (Torrington et. al., 2017). Human resource management majorly sees employees as company assets, and they are liable to effectively use their assets to maximize return on investments and reduce risks. Moreover, human resource is essential in a business because it improves business health by monitoring the state of job markets to enhance its competitive edge and ensure highly skilled employees are recruited to the organization.
Human resource management varies in size, nature, and structure for different organizations (Roundy & Burke-Smalley, 2021). Depending on their size and nature, human resource management objectives are to ensure strategic functioning, train and develop their employees and ensure better compensation packages. However, human resource management faced challenges and opportunities with the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic. The human resource managers were quick to adopt different measures to safeguard the interests of both companies and employees (Roy & Pullen-Sansfaçon, 2016). Companies’ human resources adopted hybrid working models to ensure company operations were done effectively (Roundy & Burke-Smalley, 2021). In that regard, this essay will analyze the opportunities and challenges organizations face from adopting a hybrid working model.
Human resource policies govern human resource management. The policies are broken down into different segments to meet the needs and want of the organization (Roy & Pullen-Sansfaçon, 2016). The policies are guidelines that managers set out regarding local employment laws. The key elements addressed in human resource policies should be liable to law: salaries and wages, compensation and benefits, recruitment and selection, scheduling, use of company equipment, training and development, confidentiality agreement, and disciplinary actions (Roundy & Burke-Smalley, 2021). These elements ensure that employees’ rights are met, boosting their motivation and job satisfaction. The employees’ motivation and satisfaction enhance business growth in both short-and-long-term.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, companies quickly adopted new measures to facilitate smooth company operations. One of the ways companies enhance their business operations is by adopting the hybrid work model (Roundy & Burke-Smalley, 2021). The hybrid work model mixes both remote and on-site working. The hybrid model aims to gain the best from both worlds. For instance, a worker can work at home for two days and three days in the office (Torrington et. al., 2017). The hybrid workplace would result in a flexible working culture where workers will have the freedom to choose their best working mode either at the office or remotely. According to Lenovo research, two-thirds of the global labor force feel more productive working remotely than on-office. The benefits of the hybrid work model have promoted workers’ flexibility, improved well-being, increased mobility and ability to change culture, better cost and expense management to both employees and employer, high retention rates, improved employees productivity, and a bigger talent pool. For instance, the model promotes employees’ loyalty due to better working conditions under the hybrid working model leading to high retention rates.
2.0 Hybrid work Model Opportunities
2.1 Increased Employee Satisfaction and Productivity
The hybrid work model provides work flexibility. Workers are free to work both remotely and in the office. In the hybrid work model, the employees are more empowered and capitalize on their strengths. The remote work model is essential to a company because employees can work in environments that suit their work-related needs, and sometimes they may thrive working at home. Some workers also feel that working remotely enables them to work without distraction than in-office. The autonomy of working remotely improves employees’ satisfaction and productivity because trust between employee and employer is enhanced. In addition, the hybrid work model promotes an enhanced work-life balance necessary for improved employees’ satisfaction.
2.2 Provide Learning Opportunities to its employees
The hybrid work model enables employees to engage in other activities outside the working space, which results in more learning (Kowalski, 2022b). By working both remotely and in-office in the week, employees can utilize the remainder of the time to develop their personal goals, which lead to growth and better job performance.
2.3 Improved Relationships
A hybrid model is made up of working remotely and in the office. Unlike remote working, employees under the hybrid work model can meet with their peers and engage in face-to-face collaboration and communication, which improves team management and the relationship between employees (Torrington et. al., 2017). The face-to-face communication amongst employees will make them have strong work connections and relationships, leading to a positive work environment. In addition, the hybrid work model encourages mentorship, knowledge, and developing professional relationships (Torrington et. al., 2017).
2.4 Market Penetration
The hybrid work model has enabled the human resource to increase their labor force which is critical in increasing company productivity. The increased number of workers employed will ensure the company products reach more customers, promote production efficiency and effectiveness, and lead to easy control of overhead costs. In addition, the hybrid model has enabled human resource management to increase the number of resources in marketing and advertising to enhance product penetration in the market (Torrington et. al., 2017). Also, the hybrid model has led to reduced operational costs since most workers work remotely. The lower the operating costs, the higher the demand for company products due to reduced prices leading to company growth.
2.5 Market Development
Also, the hybrid work model enables the company to employ researchers to work remotely (Thornton, 2017). The human resource management will invest in research and development critical in identifying consumer segments and new markets. All these developments are crucial in the company’s growth, both short-and-long-term.
3.0 Challenges Faced by Human Resources in Organizations
Despite the hybrid work model being advantageous to organizations, its human resource faces some challenges in administering their responsibilities.
3.1 Recruitment and selection challenges
The human resource procedure in an organization shifts due to a hybrid workforce. The Covid-19 pandemic forced organizations to change their recruitment approach and strategy, highlighting procedural challenges. Different human resource managers adopted remote recruitment processes to enhance their hybrid working model (Torrington et. al., 2017). According to the Mindedge survey, over 40% of 800 senior-level human resource managers encountered challenges in remote recruitment processes (Steever, 2021). For instance, remote interviews are less productive compared to in-person interviews.
Also, the remote interviews require less commitment where recruited sit down and face the screen, which might appear as the interviewee is less serious than the effort and time required for an in-person interview (Roy & Pullen-Sansfaçon, 2016). Also, the newly hired can feel neglected and sidelined due to a lack of feedback and social norms in a remote setting (Torrington et. al., 2017). Other challenges faced with online recruitment are that companies still use legacy software that makes it difficult for firms to humanize and personalize their recruitment experience forcing human resources to juggle from one software to another (Torrington et. al., 2017). The adoption of video interviews makes it challenging to create a social connection, but it increases recruitment work.
In addition, the human resource will change their team selection methods to suit the hybrid work model (Steever, 2021). The human resource would have to analyze the recruited communication, accountability, discipline, trustworthiness, and critical thinking (Sharabi & Harpaz, 2020). For a hybrid work model to be efficient and effective, there is a need for human resources to select employees that fulfill these skills (Steever, 2021). However, human resource faces challenges in this area (Torrington et. al., 2017). The current selection strategy and structure cannot uphold the hybrid work model selection making it challenging to ascertain if the selected workers can fully meet the remote working conditions (Steever, 2021). For instance, the selection structure should change and classify jobs requiring remote roles and job profiles to aid in the selection process. The current psychometric assessments do not meet the new culture; hence when used can lead to the faulty selection of talent (Review, Harvard Business et al., 2022).
3.2 Performance Management
Human resource managers evaluated their employees’ performance accurately during the on-office work (Sharabi & Harpaz, 2020). In the hybrid working era, it can be challenging for the organization’s human resources due to increased cases of inequality and exclusion (Roy & Pullen-Sansfaçon, 2016). The work’s hybridity damages relationships by creating power differentials (Review, Harvard Business et al., 2022). For instance, some people of color may lack internet, which might lead to more minor contributions to online meetings (Roy & Pullen-Sansfaçon, 2016). Therefore, human resources need to create a balance at work by providing necessary resources (Steever, 2021). For example, in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, employee performance development was neglected, leading to poor workers’ productivity and performance in the organization affecting company growth both short-and-long-term (Sharabi & Harpaz, 2020).
The human resource managers in an organization did not have resources to track their employees working remotely (Sharabi & Harpaz, 2020). In the hybrid working model, the employees are sometimes not at the same roof as human resource managers, which makes it challenging to evaluate and appreciate good work (Roy & Pullen-Sansfaçon, 2016). Over time inability to manage the performance will lead to employees’ poor productivity (Steever, 2021). For instance, hybrid work models limit human resource managers in analyzing workers’ time management, response-ability, and whether workers have any difficulty in addressing tasks (Steever, 2021). The current outdated performance management models are outdated hence failing to capture performance data and derive ways to improve them (Steever, 2021). Also, the dependency on technology in the hybrid work model alters performance management because it is difficult for human resource managers to determine the worker’s emotions and personal relationships necessary in quality production in the organization (Roy & Pullen-Sansfaçon, 2016).
3.3 Pay Inequity
The human resource is majorly tasked with compensating their employees in salaries, wages, and other benefits such as health insurance and stock options. Other benefits enjoyed by workers are housing allowances and lunch. Since time immemorial, compensation and benefits packages have been critical in employees’ commitment and retention (Torrington et. al., 2017). However, the onset of Covid-19 led to firms adopting the hybrid working system (Sharabi & Harpaz, 2020). Remote working is significant to employees because it enables low housing and transportation costs (Steever, 2021). However, traditional compensation policies can lead to payment inequality in an organization (London, 2021). Some of their benefits are flagged as irrelevant for employees working remotely compared to in-office employees (Review, Harvard Business et al., 2022).
In the hybrid working model, remote employees do not enjoy benefits such as catered lunch, leading to the inconsequential allocation of benefits (London, 2021). To add to this list, the remote workers have not reimbursed commuting costs and other costs related to the company indirectly. For hybrid workplaces, the commuters’ benefits can be a problem to the human resource and, in most cases, can lead to disparities and resentment, which is unhealthy for an organization. However, the human resources management can formulate compensation strategies that will ensure compensation and benefits are fair within the organization, which is vital in employees’ performance (Review, Harvard Business et al., 2022).
3.4 Training and development challenges
Training and development are essential in an organization since it enables employees to meet the needs and wants of its customers and ensure maximum production. Training and development improve workers’ skills in the workplace by subjecting them to training programs. However, with the onset of Covid-19, companies were forced to adopt a hybrid work model.
This model enables workers to work both at home and in the office (Review, Harvard Business et al., 2022). This hybrid work model has been successful but creates challenges, especially in the training and development of workers (Kowalski, 2022c). Companies cannot gauge employees’ comprehension of the training programs or keenly follow them while working remotely (Review, Harvard Business et al., 2022). Also, human resource managers are incapable of knowing areas that employees need to improve on, especially their physical and emotional state. This is a challenge to human resources, and they should stop using traditional training methods and adopt modern training methods, especially regarding remote working (Review, Harvard Business et al., 2022).
3.5 Disconnected workforce
Pre-Covid-19 outbreak employees in organizations with strong human resource management policies recorded high work satisfaction and better engagement by gauging their sentiments (Torrington et al., 2017). However, with the adoption of hybrid working, human resources are faced with communication barriers as a big challenge. Communication can be an issue in the hybrid work model since employees work remotely or in the office. In the hybrid work model, the human resource finds it challenging to foster better employees’ relationships, especially when it boosts teamwork and better well-being in the workplace. As a result, employees become disengaged due to them working in silos.
Moreover, human resource management has to ensure employees have close working relationships (Torrington et. al., 2017). However, adopting a hybrid work model limits chances of employees integrating, which is a significant concern to human resource management (Asante & Wong, 2018). The hybrid work model reduces workers to having essential communication through the digital web, unlike in-office working where they have intimate and casual conversations.
3.5 Maintaining organizational culture
In every organization, employees often work based on the company’s mission and vision statement, core values, and objectives (Review, Harvard Business et al., 2022). These values and objectives develop an organizational culture critical to inefficient productivity (Torrington et. al., 2017). However, human resource management faces difficulty in embedding the organizational culture in embedding the hybrid work model (Asante & Wong, 2018). Also, their chances of embedding the hybrid work model can be difficult without the right strategies and adjustments. The difficulty in embedding the organizational culture in the hybrid working may lead to employees being disconnected, leading to poor performance and productivity.
4.0 Recommendations
A hybrid work model is beneficial to an organization. However, the human resource has encountered several challenges, especially on adopting organizational culture in the hybrid model, training and developing their employees, payment inequality, and employees’ engagement. For the human resource manager to control overcrowding at the workplace, they ought to adopt a flexible working schedule where employees are assigned days to work remotely and on-site. Also, they should adopt their training and development techniques during the day’s workers are on-site (Kowalski, 2022c). The training and development of employees should include customizing the content taught, enhancing their communication skills, and improving their training skills.
Moreover, human resources in any organization should implement new policies in alignment with the hybrid working model to ensure every employee is engaged to the company and they are reimbursed fairly (Kowalski, 2022c). Also, human resources should ensure their workers are safe and protected while working remotely to promote their commitment to the organization (Roundy & Burke-Smalley, 2021).
5.0 Conclusion
In summary, human resource management is responsible for recruiting, training, developing, and promoting their workers’ welfare at the workplace. With the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic, companies adopted the hybrid working model where workers work both remotely and on-site. The adoption of the hybrid model has come with its benefits and shortcomings, especially to human resource management. The benefits enjoyed by human resource are increased relationships amongst employees, increased productivity, employees satisfaction and market penetration. Human resource management challenges are recruitment challenges, training, and development challenges, maintaining organizational culture, pay inequality, performance management challenges, and underutilization of on-site organizational space.
References
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