“The coronavirus has pushed everyone into working from home,” says economics professor Nicholas Bloom from Stanford University in California, who has lectured on telework for TED Talks. .

In Vietnam, we see the e-commerce giant Tiki apply a remote working policy for thousands of its employees from March 2020. Soon after, the online car-hailing business BE GROUP also applied similar measures.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing is mandatory, businesses are gradually shifting from the co-working model in the office to working from home, also known as remote working. .

Working from home - Good or bad?

The pandemic has pushed the need to work remotely now more than ever. Many businesses are responding to COVID-19 by moving their services to digital platforms and building a work-from-home policy for employees.

The most recognizable advantage, working from home gives employees the comfort and freedom that anyone desires. This freedom comes from not having to follow the rules of the office environment about dress, style, time and location. Besides, working from home helps save a part of travel and food costs. Employees have the right to choose a private space to be creatively free, avoid a lot of stress and pressure, thereby have more conditions to balance personal and work life.

Working from home also has a positive impact on the environment, the peace of the whole society and each employee. Traffic accidents are reduced, traffic is less congested and the amount of waste is also reduced because people move less to the workplace, the pressure on the public transport system is also partly relieved.

The benefits of working from home cannot be denied, but most businesses only see this as a solution to an unavoidable external situation, not a viable long-term option. This is completely grounded. Working remotely makes it more difficult to supervise employees, lack a community of practice, less face-to-face interaction with colleagues and customers, low productivity and reliability, poor communication due to distraction or waiting receive too much information.

To work from home is not just a solution

While it is a challenge to traditional business operations, leaders should still consider making working from home part of their long-term strategic operating model.

For the most effective form of remote working, businesses need to prepare both physical and human resources, in which cloud-based information technology infrastructure and getting employees to be digitally ready are two main factors.

Some steps to make working from home more successful:

• Change leadership mindset: One of the common ways of thinking of many managers is to use the presence of employees in the workplace to measure performance. Instead, management should shift focus to set goals, allowing employees to be flexible in the workplace as long as they don't guarantee work efficiency. Traditional management methods sometimes backfire or inhibit the creativity of employees. Managers need tools to help them always understand all information as well as the work of employees. Instead of wasting time worrying about employees' time or performance when they can't directly supervise, superiors can easily manage and evaluate the work of subordinates, from which they can rest assured to focus. develop your organization.

• Communicate effectively without interruption: Communication in the organization is very important, communication between colleagues, between employees and management. Communicate regularly so as not to lose connection at work. But when communicating on social networking platforms, employees are often prone to getting caught up in extraneous information, which can cause information overload or work interruption. A professional environment with job information, where employees can easily interact and exchange with each other, focus on work without being distracted by external information.
• Good technology platform for teamwork and remote communication: Applying technology software to work has become extremely popular. With the wide variety of collaboration software on the market, many factors need to be considered to ensure that the new software integrates and works well with existing platforms, especially for large-scale teamwork. . An integrated platform with full internal working and communication features ensures coherence and security.
• Build trust and train employees: It is important when adopting the remote working model on a large scale that management has confidence in their employees, in their self-discipline and discipline. But the reality is that not everyone is suitable for working from home because this form requires high discipline and self-organization. Guidance and support from the organization is necessary for employees to become more self-aware and productive.
• Equipping employees with digital skills: Working from home requires employees to have computer skills and the ability to apply technology. Some people may find it difficult to use teamwork software or apply complex technologies. Organizations can support employees by providing digital skills training and timely information technology support.
• Cost management: Applying technology to work is the only option to work from home effectively, which requires investment from both employees and businesses. To work smoothly, employees need to be fully equipped with computers, good Internet connection and necessary software. Organizations can invest money in collaboration software and security measures to ensure employees can easily use online resources and prevent the risk of abuse at the site. from the organization. It will save costs and be safer for businesses if they apply technology platforms that include full features of work as well as human resources services.

The remote working model poses challenges for any business, requiring each organization to define its operational goals, complete the information infrastructure, and fully equip the necessary skills. employees and plan carefully and flexibly.

Working from home - remote management, Humax always accompanies human resource management businesses in the time of Covid. Based on Cloud platform, with internal social network - where to connect and communicate between personnel levels, manage and evaluate work performance, monitor work progress remotely, easily approve applications online and securely store information, Humax will be the solution to improve the operational ability and recovery of businesses from disruptions caused by the epidemic.