The HR staff cite team communication and morale (42%), followed by remote performance management (28%), as the biggest working life challenges in the COVID-19 era.
Adapted
Employment law partner Ger Connolly says: “Organisations have adapted very quickly to remote working, using the available technology to maintain communications.
“However, the results of the survey point to the fact that it is hard to replace human contact with technology solutions, and we all need to work a little harder to maintain contact with our colleagues during this time.
“It’s interesting that performance management comes in as the second-highest challenge, and it could be that difficulties around communicating while working remotely can lead to performance issues.”
“The next six months may see more focus on redundancies as organisations are in survival mode,” he said.
A full 37% of those surveyed also believe that there may be redundancies in their organisation over the next six months, displaying a shift from short-term lay-offs in organisations to longer-term rationalisation of the workforce.
Re-opening dates
On re-opening, the majority (63%) believe their centralised workplace will not re-open fully until after April 2021.
A full 24% believe that it will be in the January-March 2021 period, while 8% are more optimistic and think an October-December 2020 re-opening is feasible.
Centralised workplace
Some 5% believe their centralised workplace will not re-open fully at all in 2021.
“When we asked this same question of HR professionals at a webinar in May, 78% of those surveyed stated that they felt they would be back in the office within two months, and only 2% believed it would be 2021 before they returned.
“This shows a major shift in sentiment as we continue to grapple with the pandemic, and cases continue to rise,” says Connolly.
“For HR teams, even when working remotely, your policies still apply and should be followed carefully. Timely communication with employees will become even more important, so it’s important to use all the tools at your disposal for this,” Connolly concludes.