Companies are more difficult to manage than ever before. Now that many of them have adopted the solution where some employees work part or full time from home, it is complicated to link everyone together under one umbrella of values. Nevertheless, this is quite important in order to move forward, and that is the work of the HR manager. This situation also affects the brand image, especially in large firms. Here is how it works.
New Monday Morning Scenario
Imagine the scene: Monday morning, everyone is in the conference room where the COO is giving out tasks for the week, to each head of departments. Once it is done, some have a coffee together and talk about the tasks, while two skip out for a smoke or a bit of fresh air, before they all get to work. Now, if you repeat the same scenario with employees working from home, the COO’s presentation will probably be the same, except that afterwards, some will go back to bed, while others will catch a late breakfast, and none of them will probably cross path again, during that day or even throughout the week.
How do you make sure that everyone remains on the same level, when it comes to sending out one image to the public? In reality, being all together in the same building, made it much easier for brands to be strong. Today, it is partly the HR manager’s job to remind employees what the values, are and how they need to respect them. Sometimes, in this situation, it is better not to use words, but actions instead. Thankfully for HR managers, they have programs like Mint HR to help them keep everything in order. Otherwise, it would be quite difficult for them to remain organized, while they ensure that employees remain methodical, at the same time.
How to keep the company’s Vision Alive?
There are technical elements to HR, that are easy to keep up with, if you are a well organized person and use HRMS (Human Resources Management Software). But keeping the vision alive, in all of the employees, is a much bigger task. That is particularly true when they are all located in a different place during the day. That is when an HR manager needs to become creative. Forcing people to meet online at a given time, more than once a week, can become a nightmare for everyone involved. It will start feeling like HR is babysitting the employees. It is much better to do impromptu meetings with one or a few at a time, for the purpose of solving technical problems (time off, training, or expense management, for example). That is the best time to remind people of the companies objective and the vision of the brand. It brings them back in the fold and reinforces their belief.
The level of difficulty for an HR manager keeps growing with the years. It is not sufficient to hire well anymore: You have to make sure they remain in the fold. One wrong move or sentence from any of the employees on social media, and the brand could lose a lot of its credibility. That is where HR’s responsibility level is at, today.