The coronavirus pandemic has thrown up the concept of remote working which managers in public, corporate organisations and small/ medium enterprises have to embrace to achieve productivity in the face of current realities.
Human resource professionals during a webinar with the theme “the future of work, remote work, lessons from the lockdown,” have stressed the need to focus on employees’ productivity in remote work as the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic continues to take toll on organisations.
The webinar organised by BusinessDay in collaboration with Danne Institute of Research last Thursday, acknowledged that remote working has become a critical factor which employers should adopt and implement if they want to achieve workforce creativity and productivity.
The recent lockdown in Abuja, Lagos, Ogun and other cities to contain the spread of the virus, took a lot of businesses by surprise and forced organisations that were initially reluctant to adopt remote working to buy into it.
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Speakers during the webinar agreed that human resources managers have to rise to the occasion at this period to help organisations respond effectively to the situation that Covid-19 has created. The webinar was moderated by Esther Akinnukawe, chief human resource, MTN Nigeria communication.
The reason most organisations refuse to imbibe remote working before the lockdown was because of the mindset, said Gbemiga Owolabi, organisation and human resources director, Lafarge Africa who spoke as one of the panellists
Owolabi, however, observed that before remote learning can be effective, organisations need to ensure that the infrastructure to support the employees is put in place. “Employers cannot ask workers to sit at home without providing the tool to work,” he stressed.
According to Owolabi, “remote working will essentially reduce the number of vehicles on the roads. In the public service, if they practice remote working, we will experience a reduction in the volume of traffic on the Lagos roads”.
He called on organisations to consider the option of adopting office hubs located at a place where the majority of workers commute from to ensure closeness to the workspace. Also adding that with time flexibility, managers will essentially ensure that employees deliver a productive output.
A survey conducted by Danne Institute during the lockdown period in Lagos showed that 70 percent of respondents were open to working from home
According to the survey, some of the advantages of working from home include saving in commute time and respite from Lagos terror of traffic, flexible schedules, work-family balance was interesting which enabled the family to bond and increased productivity.
Commenting on how SMEs can benefit from the work from home plans, Franca Ovadje, founder and executive director, Danne Institute of Research said the concept of working from home was about productivity.
According to her, “the cost of working from home has to be weighed against the benefits. If organisations look too closely at the cost, they may forget the benefits.
“It may be a little short-sighted for SMEs to allow their workers to spend valuable man-hours in Lagos traffic and are tired of doing the same routine work without creativity rather than work from home and be more productive,” Ovadje said.
On her part, Tolulope Agiri, chief human resource, Interswitch group said as a solution to embracing the new normal of the future of work, line managers need to be trained differently on how to manage employees working from home.
She, however, observed that working from home may not necessarily become the new normal if a vaccine to Covid-19 is found as some employers will go back to physical working, adding that what will happen is that work from home would be increasingly acceptable now by organisations.
The survey also showed that what helped employees work productively from home are personal and organisational factors such as a positive mindset which is essential for working from home and time management strategy.
