The outbreak of COVID-19 was such a surprise for everyone across the globe. No one have thought that this new kind of coronavirus, which originated from just one country, would spread this rapidly and affect everyone including our workplaces this year of 2020.

Honestly speaking, this pandemic is very challenging for all HR professionals. HR needs to be agile to keep up with the needed rapid change: the shift of the traditional work environment to remote work. Given the onset of digital age, remote work set-up or telecommuting is not really a foreign concept in the working community. The millennial generation did influence great changes in shaping the current working scene; with the prevalence of freelancing and demand for flexible time.

Here in the Philippines, even our government regulations in relation to labor as lead by the Department of Labor and Employment, enacted the "Telecommuting Act of 2019" as response to the current work trend. The department released the implementing rules and guidelines in ensuring fairness for workers under this alternative working arrangement.

Working for an agency with a young set of workforce, we started the year with this new HR project of slowly introducing the concept of telecommuting in our organization. To convince the management, we thought of ways on how to measure the effectiveness of this alternative working arrangement, in helping our employees lower their stress levels, save time and money on travel and increase their work productivity at the comfort of their homes or even from their favorite coffee shops.

However, due to the onset of this pandemic, we had to ensure the safety and health of our employees. Hence, the planned concept of slowly introducing telecommuting became a rapid and continuous arrangement. There's an emergency need of shifting to a remote work environment. Honestly speaking, our company is not really prepared for this, as same with other companies across the globe; but the management understands that we do need to adapt quickly. We had to make significant changes in our work processes and policies, making business decisions while considering both sides of the equation: the business and the welfare of the employees.

So as the sole HR of the company, first thing I had to do was to think of effective ways on checking attendance and rendered work hours of our employees daily, making use of current available tools online. I also had to suggest new policies on proper attendance and leaves filing, given the absence of the HRIS. As part of the cost saving measures that the company adopted, we had to temporarily suspend our cloud based HRIS and revert to manual HR processes. Then, we took advantage of free online tools such as Google Sheets and Google Forms. As for the communication aspect, it's not that much of a new thing for us since we mostly make use of our company emails and the viber app for communicating. The adapted change would be the shift of normal face-to-face meetings to Google Meet calls. Since I'm also handling recruitment, I also had to do some adjustments. First interviews are done via viber calls and the following interviews with the hiring departments are done via online video calls. 

Another challenge is the economic impact of this pandemic to the business community. In response to this, the Department of Labor and Employment released timely labor advisories, allowing companies to reduce work days and implement rotational work schedules. These are released as cost saving measures and to help preserve everyone's job. Since our company depends on other businesses as our clients, we also had to adopt the rotational flexible working arrangement allowed and suggested by the labor department. With the help of our department heads, we assigned rotational work schedules for everyone in the company. Tracking of attendance with this kind of schedule turned out to be really difficult on my part so I had to create work schedule calendars as my guide.

Fortunately, our company remained stable when it comes to our cash inflow and acquisition of clients so we were able to shift back to our normal work schedules after just 2 months. Another good thing is that our management became really considerate of its employees. They allowed the use of pro-rated leave credits to cover the non-work schedules and also advanced the release of our pro-rated 13th month pay. Money is definitely a necessity during this time of uncertainty. As the HR, I made sure that salaries are released on time despite some challenges of working remotely.

Considering the well-being of our employees including their mental health, the management held regular virtual townhalls, to keep everyone updated of the status of the company. We also had weekly virtual activities and games to at least make sure that we still have "play time" and for everyone to stay socially connected. There are also times that we sent surprise snack treats to all employees and had it delivered to their homes. Since this remote work set-up took longer than expected, we also had the office chairs of our employees delivered to them to ease their aching backs while they work from home. In support of the campaign for mental health, we had surprise mental health break days for everyone. A company-initiated holiday where they can simply devote the day for their hobbies, catch up on their sleep or spend quality time with their families. Simple gestures like these are truly appreciated particularly at this time.

As the pandemic continues, so does our current remote work set-up. Being confined at home also have a negative impact to everyone hence, we decided to conduct an employee engagement survey. I created this online employee survey form so that we can get feedback from our employees and to help the management get a better understanding of how we can provide support for everyone.

Honestly speaking, this pandemic can be likened to a thrilling roller coaster ride for me as an HR professional. The first shift of the work environment, with all the planning and execution, was very stressful and challenging. Despite all, still I am grateful to be given this experience and opportunity for I really learned a lot. I realized that to effectively shift to a remote work environment, the most important aspect is trust. Even without the pandemic, trust is actually a proven motivating factor for everyone and more so during this time. 

Our organization is not perfect and we are trying our best to provide that smooth transition experience for our employees. Same with me as an HR person. I am still striving to improve my skills and provide better service and support to my fellow employees. I do hope that this pandemic will leave us valuable lessons and gain skills that can be of big use in the future. As most people say, the remote work scene is here to stay even after the pandemic. I am hopeful that all these remote work policies and processes that I initiated and helped on, will continue to work effectively for everyone in the organization.