REMOWA
REMOWA - Remote working management skills for HR professionals
Description

The Covid-19 virus outbreak in late 2019 - early 2020 led to a surge of remote working, where the majority of EU white collar workforce was compelled to work in an out-of-office setting; this comes to a sharp contrast compared to past years, where just 5-10% of EU employees have been working remotely. Nevertheless, such a rise in remote working has not been unprecedented; there has been a steady, yet minimal, increase through the years in the numbers of remote workers (esp. in the ICT sector), with a similar spike during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak and other similar cases of business interruptions. The difference this time is that the increase in remote working due to Covid-19 virus outbreak has been fuelled both by more flexible and decentralised management practices, as well as more widely available technologies. Moreover, people are more used to it, be it for work or for personal communication. This led to an immediate and creative adaptation of workplaces to a remote work mode, where in many occasions the entire workforce worked from home.

Challenge
The most pressing issue and challenge that became obvious is the possibility of a lasting workplace change, where a greater part of the workforce works out of premises in the immediate future. In addition, clear and consistent policies on remote working are missing from many companies, exposing a lack of HR preparations on the topic in many companies (e.g. remote work company-wide policies, management & contingency plans). HR professionals need to be able to address these new challenges by redesigning processes, and retraining / supporting their colleagues on how to manage an increased remote workforce. From redefining goals and roles of staff, to redesigning personal interactions and normalising the new work environment, HR managers are faced with new tasks that were not part of their portfolios so far, and were rather a small part of the training they had undergone. 

 

Academic Research Impact
The project aims to document the emerging skills gap for managing a remote workforce & to develop corresponding Open Educational Resources (OERs) and a training course for the continuous professional development of HR professionals, trainers, supervisors, consultants and managers of organisations and teams. In particular, the project will: 
  1. Document the skills required for managing a remote workforce, improving skills intelligence at the EU level
  2. Define learning outcomes for a C-VET course for HR professionals on remote work management
  3. Make available a sector-validated online course for HR professionals
  4. Provide ready-to-use tools for the workplace to support the role of HR professionals as trainers and mentors
Internal Partners
Research Centre Research Group Role in Project Begin Date End Date
BRU-Iscte Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Group Partner 2020-11-01 2021-10-31
External Partners
Institution Country Role in Project Begin Date End Date
PAIZ Konsulting Sp. z o.o. (PAIZ Konsulting Sp. z o.o.) Poland Leader 2020-11-01 2021-10-31
Innovela sprl (Innovela sprl) Belgium Partner 2020-11-01 2021-10-31
EXELIA E.E. (EXELIA E.E. ) Greece Partner 2020-11-01 2021-10-31
Strukovna udruga djelatnika u upravljanju ljudskim resursima - Centar HR (Strukovna udruga djelatnika u upravljanju ljudskim resursima - Centar HR) Croatia Partner 2020-11-01 2021-10-31
UNIVERZA V MARIBORU (UNIVERZA V MARIBORU) Slovenia Partner 2020-11-01 2021-10-31
Project Team
Name Affiliation Role in Project Begin Date End Date
Aristides I. Ferreira Professor Associado (com Agregação) (DRHCO); Integrated Researcher (BRU-Iscte); Local Coordinator 2020-11-01 2022-10-31
Ana Margarida Soares Lopes Passos Professora Catedrática (DRHCO); Integrated Researcher (BRU-Iscte); Researcher 2020-11-01 2021-04-11
Filomena Almeida Professora Auxiliar (DRHCO); Researcher 2021-06-01 2022-10-31
Project Fundings

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Publication Outputs

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With the objective to increase the research activity directed towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the possibility of associating scientific projects with the Sustainable Development Goals is now available in Ciência_Iscte. These are the Sustainable Development Goals identified for this project. For more detailed information on the Sustainable Development Goals, click here.

REMOWA - Remote working management skills for HR professionals
2020-11-01
2022-10-31