Introduction

HRM or human resource management is a proper strategic approach to the most effective management of individuals within an organization so that the business gains maximum competitive advantages (Noe et al. 2017). One of the major sectors of human resource management is employee engagement. This type of engagement is responsible for providing a positive or negative attitude towards work, so that the organization is able to understand whether that particular employee is getting work satisfaction or not from his or her work.

It is required for organizational changes to ensure that a balance of such practices are arising from collective bargaining as well as governmental laws (Breevaart et al. 2014). A remote employee is an organizational member, who is employed by any organization, however works outside of a traditional office environment. It could be in any place, apart from the office. Employee engagement is extremely vital for the organization, especially for the remote employees, as it helps in reducing staff turnover and improving efficiency and productivity. Moreover, customers at high rate are retained to a major level with such engagement (Saks and Gruman 2014). The following report outlines a brief analysis of employee engagement for remote employees. The probable issues for such engagement will be described majorly and proper application will be done in this report. Moreover, the final part of the report will be providing few suitable recommendations for the company for improvement of HR practice area.

2. Discussion

2.1 Clear Description of the HR Practice Area

Employee engagement can be referred to as the extent to which employees feel passionate regarding their jobs. It is being checked that they are committed to the company and also are putting discretionary effort into work (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra 2014). This type of engagement is not similar to employee satisfaction. This type of engagement is the fundamental concept for the effort to understand for describing the qualitative and quantitative nature of relation within employees and the respective company (Anitha 2014). Any engaged employee is that particular person, who is completely absorbed and are enthusiastic about the work for taking positive action to organizational reputation. It is being observed that an engaged employee comprises of a positive attitude towards organization as well as its value (Bedarkar and Pandita 2014). However, a disengaged employee might range from someone doing bare minimum at work, to an employee, who is actively damaging the organizational reputation and productivity.

It is being observed that the employees in any organization have to overcome several challenges for keeping the remote staff retained (Albrecht et al. 2015). Moreover, the engaged employees are extremely happier, for both in their professional and personal lives. For the remote employees, it is needed to set clear expectations in the company. It is even needed to treat the remote employees as local so that they get equal motivation and chance to get all types of chances in their works. An engagement with remote employees on a regular basis via any type of communication is quite effective for ensuring that they are retained to the business (Karanges et al. 2015). A constant involvement and engagement with the remote employees help them in feeling included within the organization and work.

According to Kłopotek 2017, remote employees have better potential towards work and they get more advantages such as flexibility of working hours and saving of time. As a result, productivity and engagement of young remote employees are quite higher than traditional employees. It is being analysed that presently, remote employment is becoming extremely prevalent, due to involvement of better and advanced technologies. Although, communication has always been a major issue for such employment; however with proper utilization of technologies, such issues are being resolved successfully (Bedarkar and Pandita, 2014). These remote employees even get freedom from interruptions and thus energy and enthusiasm towards work are increased. As a result, they have a growth on their career progression (Kłopotek 2017).

2.2 Probable Issues in the Area

In spite of having several distinctive and important advantages, there are few issues and challenges as well, which make this particular aspect extremely problematic for both the professional and personal lives of the employees (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra 2014). These employees hence can exceed performance expectations. However, few probable issue are present wile engaging remote employees that make the entire process quite slower, in comparison to others. The major and the most significant challenges for this aspect are given below:

i) Lack of Communication: One of the major challenge or issue for this aspect is lack of communication (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra 2014). It is often checked that due to the presence of remote locations, not every employee gets opportunity to share their views and ideologies, in front of other employees or staffs. As a result, they become high demotivated and they have the tendency of leaving that particular organization. According to Kłopotek 2017, although, these employees are highly concentrated with free from office politics, flexibility in relocation, improved morale and productivity; lack of communication often becomes a significant issue as all the basic and vital amenities required by the employees for work, are not provided by the organization due to remote location.

ii) Not Getting New Opportunities and Changes: Another significant issue that challenge that is quite common for remote employee engagement would be getting new opportunities and changes in their work (Bedarkar and Pandita, 2014). They are often unable to identify as well as develop newer capabilities which are needed for delivering a strategic plan in the organization. Social and professional isolations are few important factors that are demonstrated as drawbacks of the remote work and hence such employees are often reluctant in engaging amongst each other (Kłopotek 2017). It reduces social networking and makes the employee less noticeable in the industry, thus he or she often does not get any new opportunity or challenge.

iii) Lack of Team bonding Skills: Due to the presence of remote location, the remote employees often do not comprise of any type of team bonding or team building skills (Saks and Gruman 2014). They do not get the chance of creating connectivity by celebrating collaboration and establishing proper platform in the business. It is yet another vital reason for lesser employee retention for remote employees. Due to social and professional isolation, these employees have low sense of social status and hence they are unable to gain skill of team bonding (Kłopotek 2017).

2.3 Application with Experience for the Area

Employee engagement is required for dealing with external and internal pressures on work places. It helps in improving productivity and make sure that the respective work force is engaged for work. Moreover, it is required for better competition in the organization and have growth (White 2017). The major pressures on work places are as follows:

i) Rapid Changes in Technology: The first and the foremost work place pressure that denotes that employee engagement is extremely important, would be rapid changes in technology. As employees have to work in remote locations, it is evident that the changes in technology are rapid and should be adapted by all employees (Bedarkar and Pandita 2014).

ii) Short Termism: Another distinct work place pressure that is needed to be treated is short termism and cost pressures. The employees are unable to deal with these pressures often and they have the tendency to not to get engaged with the rest of the employees.

iii) Global Competitors: Having global competitors in a business is yet another significant pressure that is common in work place and that requires employee engagement (Healey and Kucharski 2015). Moreover, the new competitors are also required to be counted for especially for the remote employees.

iv)  Trust and Fairness: It is required to maintain trust as well as fairness in the work and it is significant pressure from people at an organization. For this purpose, it is important to ensure that all the employees are working ethically, under every circumstance.  

v) Increasingly Diverse: Maintenance of creativity and diversity in work is yet another significant and noteworthy pressure that is being obtained from people in the work. The remote employees often find themselves in immense pressure, while bringing diversity and hence productivity is hampered.

There are 4 key enablers for understanding employee engagement, which are the strategic narrative, engagement of managers, employee voice and maintaining integrity. These 4 enablers ensure that the engagement is appropriate and does not involve any type of negative aspect in the organization (Painter 2017). Moreover, the remote employees are able to remain visible and empower their leadership.  

2.4 Recommendations for Organization improving HR Practice Area

Recommendations for an organization to improve the HR practice area of employee engagement are as follows:

i) Recommendation for Communication Gap: One of the most basic recommendation for reducing communication gap of remote employees is to establish a baseline. The employees would require a baseline for successful measurement of progress. Moreover, to improve communication, it would be vital for the organization to arrange for audio and video conferences and also to adapt proper strategies for regular communication.

ii) Recommendation for not getting New Opportunities: Inclusion of new approach for the employees would be extremely advantageous for the remote employees. It would help them in building their self-confidence and they would be able to recover from social and professional isolation.

iii) Recommendation for lack of Team bonding Skills: The remote employees should become part of virtual team, by means of telecommunications and technological advances. It would help them in building team bonding skills.

3. Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that employee engagement for remote employees can be possible, after keeping good contact with the remote employees for increasing engagement. Various communication strategies are being used for proving their ability of increasing engagement, such as virtual face to face meetings by Hangouts, Skype and other conferencing tools. According to a research, it is shown that remote employees can easily reduce stress and have a better balance in work and life. However, they even face certain issues, related to social and professional isolation and hence, it often becomes a major issue for their job. The above provided essay has clearly outlined a detailed analysis of employee engagement for remote employees with proper description of issues and recommendations to resolve these issues.

References

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