It's been almost 2 years since many companies have had to apply for the Work From Home policy to their operations for the safety of their employees where each company may have different policies but will have the same aim; to keep employees working efficiently or as close to the performance they had in the office.
Work From Home 1.0 and 2.0
In the early stages, also known as Phase 1.0, most employees were probably excited about working from home since there are many advantages including:
- Saves Travelling time because going to work at the office requires us to wake up several hours before the departure time and the office hours in order to do personal tasks such as getting dressed, having breakfast before going to work (in hot weather and traffic congestion in Thailand).
- Save money since people don't have to travel. Therefore, there is no need to pay for the fare as well as extra accommodation.
- More flexible because we can be comfortable in terms of our working hours or the dress code as well and being able to spend more time with loved ones or pets.
But there are also disadvantages in relation to work from home:
- Easily Distracted because there are many things to attract you at home, such as the bed that is very comfortable, or a warm sofa and television with entertainment
- Unclear working hours as many people feel more exhausted or takes longer time to work since they don’t set a specific time to turn off from work
- Miscommunications that lead to mistakes despite the fact that technology has come to help in communication, the communication through text or virtual communication may lack some sense to deliver a clear message.
- Demotivated because of the lockdown. When we are not able to go out and relax as before plus with the exhaustion from and the mistakes caused by poor communication making it more lack of inspiration to work
Feeling Demotivated?
When the situation of the world has changed, organizations and employees are forced to change the way they work as well. For instance, when all work has to be moved online where employees in the organization will need to start learning new tools. Moreover, during the need to modify the way of working. Employees will face a lot of certain limitations in many circumstances especially with technology where communication through text and letters may limit the understanding of the tone which leads to inaccuracies or misunderstandings, increasing the symptoms of burnout or being easily distracted.
Last year in 2020, a lot of employees have experienced burnout or demotivation at work. (Read more at:
https://getlinks.com/blog/burnout2020-2) Many employees are in a state of lack of motivation at work, feeling tired will all the problems that must be faced without being able to see a clear goal or not even knowing what they have to do each day.
As a result, many companies, especially human resources (HR) departments, have had to consider the factors that are causing this condition from all dimensions, before applying various policies under different conditions that will encourage employees to work effectively and also feel happy to work at the same time.
Culture Transformation to cope with change
Culture Transformation is the change of organizational culture from their traditional ways of working into a new corporate culture since the traditional organizational culture may not be the appropriate driving force to achieve the objectives or goals of the organization at the moment.
The reason why employees do not want to work or unable to work out effectively may be caused by the community rejection or do not feel like a part of the corporate culture as much as they should. The HR department therefore needs to create an atmosphere for employees to feel connected to the organization, share the same goals with each other to create motivation and when a company needs to adapt to something new, it is important to create a growth mindset as well as a healthy learning environment as much as possible in the organization.
When employees have enough communication as well as seeing clear goals, ready to learn and solve problems at the same time, these actions will be passed on and shape a good corporate culture. When any organization has a good culture employees will be ready to drive the organization to voluntary goals without any doubt.
Case studies from big companies
dtac
dtac has a communication tool called OpenTalk that all employees can log in and give feedback about the work and their name will be kept anonymous so no one knows who wrote the feedback. Then, the management team will answer the topics that employees are concerned about. as open profiles.
When it's time to brainstorm ideas, dtac will try to bring out employees' ideas not only from one person's mind alone but will be a group discussion to find the best solution for everyone.
In addition, overall organization engagement will focus on EES that will measure how many employees engaging with the organization and how enablements are being made by the organization. It's like a survey of employees on how they feel now and if there are feedbacks that many people think the same way, HR will consider how to manage or improve to make employees feel happy with their work
Bangchak Corporation
Bangchak Corporation introduced the ‘Oracle Human Capital Management’ software according to their e-HR policy and 14 modules were introduced as a user-friendly application where all employees will be able to access all data anywhere and anytime.
The 14 modules include Human Resources, Global Payroll, Time and labor, Candidate gateway, Talent acquisition manager, e-Compensation, e-Compensation manager desktop, e-Profile, e-Profile desktop, e-Development, e-Benefits, e-Pay, e-Performance, and HRMS Portal pack.
These features can be accessed through one place where top management can also retrieve information to make decisions in real-time, helping to increase efficiency in organization management and employee development to meet goals.
However, there were difficulties in technology adoption. Bangchak wanted to decrease the generation gap by embedding the application usage into their everyday lives in order for them to learn the process naturally and to not feel the sudden change instead of having one big learning session. As a result, Bangchak values a continuous ‘growth mindset’ for employees to keep learning and updating their knowledge on the new technology and holds frequent training called the ‘TGIF (Think Great it’s Friday) Project’ every Friday afternoon where working schedules will be cleared.
The sessions use the principles of Design Thinking through the "Crazy Ideas Workshop" activity, allowing employees to brainstorm ideas together in large groups to encourage diversity through their innovative hours and to learn by actually making as well as to enhance the culture of always being open to new technologies that can benefit the organization.
Source1, Source2, Source3, Source4, Source5, Source6, Source7
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