Keeping feet on ground with ‘up in air’ workforce

DIGITAL technology creates unprecedented opportunities for the workforce.

Its effect is manyfold: The repetitive, manual tasks are replaced by fast and intuitive applications that provide quick and standardised results.

Just think of the times when accountants had to punch in the numbers in mechanical calculators.

Now think of computers and Excel spreadsheets which quickly calculate large rows of data to return accurate results.

Digital technology supports many aspects of work life. It not only enhances the productivity in the office but broadens the definition of the work space.

Decades ago, it was unimaginable that an employee who is located many kilometres from the office can participate in the organisational business as much as their colleagues who are physically at work.

The available technology and global spread of the talent has created opportunities for establishment of virtual teams for groups of co-workers who are not co-located in the same building, or even the same city or country.

Those co-workers use technology that enable communication and co-operation despite the physical distance.

Such collaboration presents many benefits for the workforce and the organisations.

It broadens organisational talent pool, which is no longer constrained by physical proximity. For the prospective employee, it gives more employment opportunities not limited by office presence.

While attractive and beneficial, virtual collaboration also requires certain criteria be satisfied. Some challenges will arise that need to be addressed to provide a mutually beneficial relationship for employer and employee.

Obtaining the equipment and technology to support virtual collaboration seems to be the least of the problem. The strongest challenges arise from the management of this employment relationship that, if not addressed by the employer’s human resource management (HRM), can grow to insurmountable obstacles that can outweigh the benefits.

The organisational HRM needs to have skills and policies in place to manage and/or support the line manager in managing such employment relationship. Its complexity includes virtually managing the performance and motivation of each team member. The virtual world can be a lonely place and going without a face-toface contact with teammates for longer periods could impact team dynamics, atmosphere and performance.

There is an additional challenge in the legal context, particularly if an employee is not from the same country. Hiring a foreign or expatriate employee necessitates that HRM is well informed of the legal issues and requirements of the employee’s home country and understands the local context and culture.

This is how the human resource management team can best support line managers in the important work of fostering collaboration within the diverse, technologically enabled, “up-in-the-air” team.