The Importance of HR for Hybrid Workers Explained

Sharing is caring!

The firms that have accepted that hybrid work is a part of their new approach to both work and workers have also realized that they need a specific types of skills if hybrid work is going to serve their business needs.

This article describes the key role that human resources will play, both to hire and manage as well as to retain the hybrid worker in this new age.

It’s a differentiated analysis in that several firms seemed to have neglected their HR during the recent pandemic, and yet it is this HR that has served to onboard remote employees to keep them motivated and driven as well as ensure that firms are able to bounce back with the right staffing complements of the right people.

What is Hybrid Work?

Known by some as blended work, this is where the employee splits their productive work time between the office and a remote workplace (generally their homes). As companies have begun to return to the office, there have been many such firms who have been faced by workers who have no intention of returning to a fully office-based way of work.

The employee work-life balance has become way too precious for many to give up, and many will not return to the office at all. The result is the hybridization of work as employers look to retain talent and acknowledge the technological strides that make hybrid work both possible and productive.

Why Remote and Hybrid Businesses still need Human Resources?

Businesses need human resources. No matter what they do, HR is essential to understand the new hiring requirements to suit a hybrid business model.

As long as your business needs staffing and employees to drive business processes and functions, you will need someone (HR) to deal with these employees.

• Workers and new talent need to be more adaptable and flexible if they are to fit into a hybrid way of working. This flexibility may also be for those who want and need to work from an office.
• Multi-skilled employees are now seen as essential. If they’re working from home or remotely, you would do well to employ those who will be able to sort their own IT, understand their mobile technology and be able to follow data protection and cyber security requirements.
• All workers and employees are expected to be honest and trustworthy, but these specific requirements must be more pronounced in the remote or hybrid worker as they spend more time away from the office and without direct management.

It is clear that if businesses are going to make the right kind of inroads onto the hybrid way of work, they will need a professional human resources function.

The lessons learned so far in the transition to hybrid and remote work have been that it is best to have a dedicated change agent who looks to implement the changes that you will need from an HR point of view to move to hybrid work.

Hybrid workers still need HR to

• Discussing and implementing the changeover to remote for those who already work for the business and have contracts of employment can be a very difficult proposition and should be handled by human resource professionals.
• To maintain flexibility and productivity, hybrid workers need to set clear parameters for measuring their success and productivity. There is also a need to ensure that their productivity Is maintained and there is a system of monitoring and ongoing evaluation of work.
• Ensure that contracts of employment are current and as up-to-date as possible. The remote or hybrid work setup has been seen to create a fair amount of uncertainty, and it’s in the provision of clear contracts of employment, job descriptions, and a code of conduct for hybrid workers that will serve to maintain the standards that your business needs.

The best advice is to be able to keep the HR function close and local, like looking for an HR Dept in Sutton, its human resources, not remote services they don’t have to be placed within the business, but they do need to be able to have face to face sit down with you when planning or when workers need advice and support.

Concluding Remarks

Many businesses have made the fatal error of assuming that because they now work remotely and have a team of hybrid and remote workers that they no longer need to have a permanent HR department. Human resources are just as important, if not more so, in a work and business environment that is becoming so flexible.

Just as has been discussed in this article, the success of the hybrid worker and company alike will both be determined in large part by the skills and ability to manage and direct their human resources, whether this is taken care of in-house, or outsourced.