Meetings, remote working, outside appointments… employees are spending less and less time at their workstations. Professional nomads have become a way of work recognized by companies but without the oversight of Human Resources. A gap that must be closed.
This phenomenon of professional mobility is well ingrained in companies. It now affects close to one billion people worldwide and comes in two forms. It can first be within the company when the employee is away from his station, at a meeting, videoconferencing or does not have a fixed office (desk-sharing). More and more companies are not assigning a spot dedicated to one person, preferring to offer them to settle wherever they wish. In another form of professional mobility, millions of employees and supervisors are currently affected by external nomads. In France, for example, 47% of employees work remotely at least once a week, according to a survey sponsored by Mobilitis and Green Working at the end of 2014.
Training managers
Developed empirically without involving the HRDs, nomads are also defining a new work relationship and a change in management practices within organizations. It lets employees take responsibility while offering them considerable freedom, cooperative work and management by objectives. Because of this, it is essential that human resources are involved with its implementation to ensure proper functioning of the business. According to a study entitled “Observatory of HR and e-transformation” conducted by Arctus last year, 90% of HRDs believe it is necessary to transform the management method in companies in order to implement remote working. Managers must therefore learn, through training, how to manage these mobile employees. To maintain team cohesion, some businesses do not hesitate to requre a weekly face-to-face meeting.
Good digital practices
HRDs must therefore support the practices of professional nomads. This can include collaboration with the IT departments, implementing a charter of best practices of dedicated digital tools. On the other hand, it is essential that Human Resources monitors that the balance between employees’ professional and private life is maintained so that this new practice benefits both the organization and employees.