Human Resource Management: Remote Work Impact at Amazon Case Study

Introduction: Remote Working Challenges and Benefits for Amazon Employees

The Human resource management includes recruiting, managing, coordinating and allocating the human capitals for the achievement of organizational goals. Within business unit, HRM manager ensures employee safety, training & well-being and manage the aspect of staffing via hiring to development. For the report the chosen organization is Amazon, an American multinational technology organization, which focuses on the cloud computing, e-commerce, AI, digital streaming. The organization has become the best and iconic instance of the electronic commerce. The report will highlight the importance of remote working in the context of both employee well-being and organization's productivity.

Evaluating the impacts of remote working on wellbeing of employees and organization productivity

The concept of remote working has been increased during and after Covid-19 pandemic. Referring the current trend Amazon has increased the remote working even after the crisis as well. The majority of people currently working from home, this doesn't harm their productivity. However due to remote working the organization has to face many challenges and need to take some actions to make sure about supporting their employee adequately. Even before the coronavirus crisis the steady increase has found in the workers to choose remote working. Organization has moved to numerous of flexible workplace models. Due to research it has found through the statistical in between 2013 and 2018 before the pandemic started there was 24% increase in the work from home at least day per week or half day. Furthermore, after the pandemic, the remote working has also been increased to 50%. Along with this, now large number of employees gives priority to the organization which offers work from home opportunity (How Covid-19 contributes to a long-term boost in remote working, 2023). By keeping in mind business trends Amazon is focusing on providing work from home option to the personnel and thereby enhances their satisfaction. The rise of the Work from home is crucial at workplaces, in the today's dynamic remote work is being in the trend. This is the approach to improve the productivity. Improvement in the technology is the backbone of the remote working with the seamless collaboration. The prevalence of the remote working in the today's era is about the external forces with the strategic choices.

• Increase autonomy and flexibility: One of the main benefits of remote working is about increasing the autonomy and workers flexibility. Through eliminating the daily travel and adhere to inflexible hours of office. Amazon has recognised the remote workers having the great control on the work schedules. The studies have shown that increase in the remote working leads employees' satisfaction towards job and decrease the stress. Meanwhile, this concept puts positive impact on the wellbeing of workers. On the other hand, Amazon is facing issues related to the remote working; this is increasing the loss of the work life balance (Bratton et al, 2021). Due to which some can work better at home and some can't work better as before. This can put impact on the productivity of the employees and leads to decrease the quality of work.
• Improve work life balance: Due to the remote working in the Amazon, it empowers the better work life balance. Moreover, through this workers would become able to work from their places which allow workers to spend most of the time with the families. The workers can focus on their personal hobbies and can balance their personal responsibilities without the comparison of the professional work (Galanti et al, 2021). This leads to improve the job satisfaction and improve the wellbeing of every employee. On the critical note, it may result into unproductive work condition of the employees and worker gets lazier due to the remote work. This can decrease the work as employees start to focus more on their personal life.
• Reduction in commuting related stress: Workers of amazon have been associated with the stress and it can reduce the productivity. By utilising the remote work, workers can avoid the daily issues of commuting which can reduce the stress of employees and improve the metal health. This results into high focusing and productivity during the hours of work (Charalampous et al, 2019). On the contrary hand, Due to the work from home it can increase the negative health effects of the employees and which can increase the diseases. After the Covid-19 the employees are more comfortable with the WFH policies which increase the issues in their health.
• Impact on productivity: The effects of productivity within the employees of Amazon have been a main topic of the debate. Several studies suggested that the experience of the remote workers has improved the productivity. Since, the workers get the comfortable environment and comes with the fewer distractions (Grant et al, 2019). On the other hand, some factors as blurred boundaries in the personal and professional life, feeling of isolation and getting difficulty in the communication which can put effects on the negative productivity.
• The role of technology: Due to the success of Amazon's remote work relies on the large scale of the technology. Some devices has plays the vital role to reducing the gap between the remote teams such as platform of project management, conferencing software, communication tools. The organization is investing in the robust and technology which is user friendly that can help in enhancing the collaboration and productivity. This can promotes the positive experience of the remote working for the employees (Tuzovic and Kabadayi 2021). On the critical point of view, the organization has found out that the remote working is difficult to manage. The team may face technical glitches and no one is there for helping them due to the remote working. The employees of Amazon have faced some challenges related to the technology which in turn impact their productivity on daily bases.
• Addressing the social isolation: This is the biggest challenges of the remote working the employees are facing the social isolation. Since the human are social creatures, due to the decrease in the in- person interaction, it can increase the feeling of disconnection and loneliness (How Covid-19 contributes to a long-term boost in remote working, 2023). The workers of Amazon have to address the concern of increasing the activities of virtual team building, online collaborations and regular check-ins which can increase the enhancement of the workers well-being.
• The Hybrid work model: Due to the Amazon's remote working, it is embracing the mode of hybrid work, with the combination of the office work and remote. The approach offers to the employees of best of both worlds. The organization is allowing them to work from home for certain days with the face-to-face interactions. This model is about the balancing the wellbeing of workers and productivity. This caters to the preferences of the individuals and demand of the work. On the critical point of view, Amazon is facing difficulties in maintaining the culture of company and consistency with the remote workers. This can increase the complexity in the communicating and managing the dispersed with the team members. The workers also suffer with the equipment and technology challenges for the remote workers.
• Inability to switch off: The remote working becomes a hurdle between the personal and professional life. It is the uncommon for the employees of Amazon to work from home. Due to this the employees always have the mind-set about the working more in their free times. In the result they can't properly decompress from the stress of the work day and not able to spend the quality time with the friends and family. The work life balance is not easy to handle with the personal works (What's The Impact of Remote Working on Employee Well-Being? 2023). Due to the Covid-19, the remote work has on the hike due to which the organisation is providing the work from home policies.
• Lack of workplace communication: The key factors of the well-being of workers are linked with the communication which builds with the co-workers of the Amazon. The team of Amazon have common goals so they all can work for it together. Whenever the problems occur the team can work together for find out the best solution for the issue. Every aspect of the interaction replaced into the video calls and messaging, which can't be clear as compared to physical interactions. Every problem can be resolved better with the face to face interactions. Due to the research Amazon's employees has faced the lack of support due to the WFH.
• Loss of purpose and vision: The organization can face the inefficient communication which leads to the loss of vision and purpose of the employees. The daily habits of the employees are vastly changed due to the WFH routines. This leads them to leave the professional identity and reduce the development. The workers can't have the training opportunities as well due to the work from home schedules. This is hard to learn by being at home and it can decrease the development factors of the employees. Due to the work from home policy, some workers have loss the motivation to work and start disengaging to the people and their families (HOW DOES REMOTE WORKING AFFECT EMPLOYEE WELLBEING? 2023). The wellbeing of workers can be linked with the working better and improve the productivity.
• Technology hurdles: The Amazon has the best power of the technology, this is the main reason of the success of the remote working the advancement of the technology is been crucial for the organization. On the other hand, some employees are facing some problems due to the technology, glitches in zoom meeting, power outage and poor internet connection. Apart from the issues related to the technology, the workers face the lack of necessary devices such as printer, mouse, large monitor and computer. These kinds of challenges lead to the anxiety, frustration and lack of productivity.
• Poor WFH environment: This is the important point which affects the worker of Amazon and their wellbeing. This is not possible that each of the workers has the quiet and isolated rooms at their home (Ralph, et al, 2020). Employees might not have proper lighting, desk and chair due to this it workers feel exhaustion and physical strain. However, all workers can't be provided with the essential equipment. Some employees can't afford and can't manage to have the functional office at home and face struggle and remain unproductive.

The impact of the remote working within the Amazon has multi-faceted with the wellbeing and productivity of the employees. With the remote working it offers numerous of factors such as work life balance, flexibility and decrease the stress of the employees. It also provides challenges such as isolation and impact on the productivity (Narayanamurthy and Tortorella, 2021). The Amazon's policies can address the challenges and have benefits with the remote working. The successful remote working can be depending on the effective proactive approach, communication and technology support. By promoting the positive work culture can be both physical and virtual space. By striving the balance the Amazon can empower the workforce to thrive, work satisfaction, lead to the enhancement of productivity and overall well-being.

Get Extra 10% OFF on your WhatsApp order!

use my discount

Conclusion

By summing up the report, it delves into the impact of remote working on the workers wellbeing and productivity. The Amazon has increased the remote working after the Covid-19 pandemic. The remote working has both the sides positive and negative in terms of organization's productivity as well as profitability. It can be summarized that Amazon focuses more on employee flexibility and autonomy which proves to be beneficial for the organization. This can improve the work life balance of the employees but it might results into the reduction of the work on their comfort zone. The Amazon has the advance technologies due to it some issues occurs regarding the glitches and power outage can be biggest challenges of the remote working.

References

Books and Journals

• Bratton, J., Gold, J., Bratton, A. and Steele, L., 2021. Human resource management. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Charalampous, M., Grant, C.A., Tramontano, C. and Michailidis, E., 2019. Systematically reviewing remote e-workers' well-being at work: A multidimensional approach. European journal of work and organizational psychology, 28(1), pp.51-73.
• Galanti, T., Guidetti, G., Mazzei, E., Zappalà, S. and Toscano, F., 2021. Work from home during the COVID-19 outbreak: The impact on employees' remote work productivity, engagement, and stress. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 63(7), p.e426.
• Grant, C.A., Wallace, L.M., Spurgeon, P.C., Tramontano, C. and Charalampous, M., 2019. Construction and initial validation of the E-Work Life Scale to measure remote e-working. Employee Relations, 41(1), pp.16-33.
• Narayanamurthy, G. and Tortorella, G., 2021. Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on employee performance–moderating role of industry 4.0 base technologies. International Journal of Production Economics, 234, p.108075.
• Ralph, P., Baltes, S., Adisaputri, G., Torkar, R., Kovalenko, V., Kalinowski, M., Novielli, N., Yoo, S., Devroey, X., Tan, X. and Zhou, M., 2020. Pandemic programming: How COVID-19 affects software developers and how their organizations can help. Empirical software engineering, 25, pp.4927-4961.
• Tuzovic, S. and Kabadayi, S., 2021. The influence of social distancing on employee well-being: a conceptual framework and research agenda. Journal of Service Management, 32(2), pp.145-160.

Online

• How Covid-19 contributes to a long-term boost in remote working, 2023. Online. Available through https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/human-capital/articles/how-covid-19-contributes-to-a-long-term-boost-in-remote-working.html
• HOW DOES REMOTE WORKING AFFECT EMPLOYEE WELLBEING?, 2023. Online. Available through <https://www.thegrowthfaculty.com/blog/remoteworkingemployeewellbeing>
• What's The Impact Of Remote Working On Employee Well-Being?, 2023. Online. Available through https://elearningindustry.com/whats-the-impact-of-remote-working-on-employee-well-being