Labor relations at a distance: Practices for monitoring employees when working remotely
The COVID-19 pandemic has made serious changes in the life of a modern person, and one of the most significant is the spread of remote (remote) work. Despite the fact that the problems of remote work were comprehended by scientists and researchers long before the pandemic, the extent of its prevalen...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ekaterinburg Academy of Contemporary Art
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Управление культурой |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://managing-culture.eaca.ru/archive/2022/2/4 |
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| Summary: | The COVID-19 pandemic has made serious changes in the life of a modern person, and one of the most significant is the spread of remote (remote) work. Despite the fact that the problems of remote work were comprehended by scientists and researchers long before the pandemic, the extent of its prevalence in organizations where there were no remote work practices before, exacerbated the issues of building effective labor relations. After the pandemic, Russians working remotely or hybridly could not unequivocally assess remote work (they estimated the pros and cons of such a mode of work approximately the same), however, maintaining remote labor relations actualizes the issues of interaction between managers and subordinates who perform work tasks. Working remotely for the personnel of organizations had negative effects (irregular working hours, excessive control by management, failures and complication of communications, etc.). The remote work format forced managers to deal with issues of effective team interaction, maintaining the production process, monitoring the work of employees, maintaining and increasing staff motivation and involvement. The main control strategies of managers in labor relations can be described as the strengthening model, or formalization strategy, and the weakening model, or the strategy of reducing formalization. However, both models increase the workload on the participants in labor relations, either for filling out and preparing reports (formalization), or an increase in the number of meetings, communications (decrease in formalization). The effect of using the two models is different in terms of the impact on employees - in the first case, alienation increases, in the second, motivation increases. Researchers note common mistakes in organizing interaction and control in labor relations: ignoring the specifics of a distributed team (for example, different time zones), blurring the boundaries between work and personal time for communication, lack of feedback, limited information, immersion in the current state of affairs in the organization . In addition, an important negative aspect in the interaction between managers and subordinates is the difficulty in setting goals and assessing the success of its implementation. The ability to correctly formulate tasks is an important skill of a leader, but in conditions of remote work it becomes decisive for ensuring high-quality and efficient work. Tasks may be set by the manager in writing, and employees may not have the opportunity to clarify the necessary information; communications in a remote environment are lengthened, which leads to difficulties both in building mutual understanding and in the effectiveness of employees and teams. One of the main ways to increase the effectiveness of interaction in remote labor relations is setting SMART goals, providing convenient communication tools, clear work planning and agreements on the rules of interaction within the team. |
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| ISSN: | 2949-074X |