Remote Management and HR

Future of Human Resources

The role of human resources in the future will increasingly be to manage a remote workforce as more and more employees work from home or in areas that are some distance from the office place environment (Stone, Deadrick, Lukaszewski & Johnson, 2015). Remote management of a workforce will be the new norm thanks to advancements in technology and computer usage (Navimipour, Rahmani, Navin & Hosseinzadeh, 2015). With the Internet and could-based frameworks that can be used to share knowledge, skills of human resources, monitoring, and updating, human resources personnel will have more opportunity to do all of the tasks they would normally do with staff working in-house. The Internet has ushered in the Digital Age, which has in and of itself changed the way people work and communicate all over the world (Colbert, Yee & George, 2016). As such, more people are more connected than ever before, and businesses are recognizing this along with the fact that they can cut costs by employing people in remote locations as opposed to having workers report to an office or relocate to do a job (De Smet, Lund & Schanginger, 2016).

Colbert et al. (2016) show that digital technology is altering the way both employees and employers think about the workplace: “digital and mobile technologies are shaping individual behaviors such as creativity, information overload, and employee well-being as well as organization challenges of managing data pervasiveness and the strategic costs of information” (p. 731). The expectations surrounding the implementation of digitalization are that there is a great deal more utility and flexibility for workers, and for human resources this means adapting to a changing environment, learning to manage remotely, and understanding the benefits and challenges associated with this evolution.

De Smet et al. (2016) note that “this coming digitization of the workforce—and the powerful economics of automation—will require a sweeping rethink of organizational structures, influence, and control” (p. 30). The speed with which information can be shared, sent, and recorded has increased, and the nature of communications allows for new remote management possibilities throughout virtually every sector of business. Human resources leaders have already recognized that the “combination of platforms, markets, and deeper engagement with digitally enabled workers holds appealing implications for managing human capital” (De Smet, 2016, p. 34).

Thus, the future of human resources will be one in which more workers are freed up to do their jobs in ways that are convenient for them and expedient for management. This can help to facilitate the workplace culture and grow positive relationships in digital environments that are free of workplace environment related stresses and tensions (De Smet, 2016). The key to the future for human resources goes through the innovation that remote management affords.

The Digital Age will put an end to one-way communication systems but challenges will still remain for human resources—such as the problem of impersonal and passive interaction and the issue of artificial distance created by remote management (Stone et al., 2015). Nonetheless, the advantages of using digital technology to manage remote workers is still very enticing for businesses and the main task of human resources departments in the future will be to find ways to utilize this technology so as to make the company more effective all, make workers more effective, and connect the right workers with the right jobs.