We need a hero: HR and the ‘next normal’ workplace

Abstract

During the first few months of the COVID‐19 pandemic, employees worked from home in record numbers and enjoyed extraordinarily high levels of autonomy. Now, as employers reopen their doors, we can build on those gains to create better workplaces than the ones we left behind. HR has a window of opportunity in which to develop psychologically safe workplaces, trust‐based employment relationships and socially connected workforces. But progress towards better workplaces hangs on a few critical adjustments in the HR researcher–practitioner relationship. HR researchers must work with HR practitioners to identify organization‐level interventions and examine their simultaneous influence on employee and employer outcomes. HR practitioners must create sandboxes where those interventions can be pilot tested, and resist their instinctive urge to establish formalised structures and develop monitoring systems.

Remote work and the COVID-19 pandemic: An artificial intelligence-based topic modeling and a future agenda

“…The findings of these studies indicate that because the prolonged crisis and COVID-19 induced remote working, employees faced many stressors concerning their time management and performance ( Cameron et al, 2021 ), often leading to emotional exhaustion ( Lee, 2021 , Leroy et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, these developments have skewed employees’ perceptions of their bosses when it comes to exercising control or allowing staff to work independently ( Antonacopoulou and Georgiadou, 2021 , Kulik, 2022 ). Finally, some researchers argue that the adoption of digital technologies for remote work has a detrimental effect on employees’ psychological and physical well-being ( Bennett et al, 2021 , Shockley et al, 2021 ).…”

“…For instance, providing the necessary technological tools to facilitate task and process interactions is often considered crucial ( Abelsen et al, 2021 , Karl et al, 2021 ). Offering psychological support in developing relational interactions is also critical ( Kulik, 2022 ) and can be enabled through techniques such as mindfulness ( Toniolo-Barrios & Pitt, 2021 ) and reactivation of network ties while working from home ( Wu et al, 2021 , Yang et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Remote work has gained considerable prominence as an integral work method for organizations during the last few decades ( Olson, 1983 , Staples et al, 1998 , Gilson et al, 2015 , Kulik, 2022 ). There is no standard definition of remote work in the literature; instead, a variety of terms such as virtual work, hybrid work, distance working, telework, teleworking, working from home (WFH), and work from anywhere (WFA) have been used to characterize this phenomenon ( Athanasiadou and Theriou, 2021 , Garrett and Danziger, 2007 , Martínez-Sánchez et al, 2007 , Bailey and Kurland, 2002 ).…”

The effects of firm financialization on human resource management: How financialization affects the design of managerial jobs

“…Posthuma et al., 2013). In addition, our findings suggest that the agency of HRM managers and professional might have been often overrepresented in extant literature (e.g., Kulik, 2021), as HRM practices are deeply influenced by the socio‐economic context in which they are embedded (Delbridge & Keenoy, 2010).…”

Strategies to manage working from home during the pandemic: the employee experience

“…Importantly, evaluation of implemented policies and procedures is required to ensure a fit for evolving ways of working and responsiveness to the needs of both employees and employers. An adoption of an organisation-wide mindset to embrace WFH as a standard ongoing practice, with a reliance on trust-based work as opposed to surveillance, provides opportunity for optimisation of productivity and employee wellbeing 37,38) . Policies will need to capture employee choice in WFH given the range of employee preferences identified in the current study and by others 39) .…”