BAM4014 Academic and Professional Skills Assignment Sample

Exploring the Rise and Impact of Remote and Hybrid Working Models on Employee Performance and Business Operations

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Introduction to Academic and Professional Skills Assignment

Remote work refers to the working method where employees perform their job duties from places outsides the office, usually their homes. Whereas; hybrid working system is combination of remote and in-office work, providing employees flexibility to carry out their job. After Covid-19 pandemic, the demand of remote and hybrid working is increasing rapidly. The severity of pandemic has forced the different business industries to adopt and apply the remote and hybrid working model to operate business in tough circumstances. But post-pandemic, most of employees started preferring new working way because of its greater flexibility and other benefits. The number of workers working remotely worldwide is increasing from 20% to year 2020 to 28% to year 2023 (Sherif, 2024). Although, remote and hybrid work also came with different challenges that affect the performance of employees and business.

In this regard, the report will focus on particular industry which is ‘Healthcare. Like other business industries, healthcare organisations has also embraced and applied the remote and hybrid working to stay relevant with the changing market trends. It is crucial for the business organisations to change own working ways according to latest market trends to survive for long-term. The evolution towards the hybrid/remote work model has transformed how healthcare workers operates (Adekoya, Adisa and Aiyenitaju, 2022). It considerably affected the efficiency and accessibility of the healthcare services, particularly in the rural regions. However, there are many issues faced by the workers and healthcare organisation while offering the remote and hybrid. The issues involves communication disruptions, upholding organisation culture, data protection and security issues and leadership challenges. The industry have to address these issues in order to improve business efficiency and profitability.

The report is going to identify and analyse the impact of remote and hybrid working on healthcare industry. Further, the report will provide three excellent recommendations regarding how healthcare industry should response to increase in remote/hybrid working system so that they can leverage its benefits and accomplish the goals and objectives. If healthcare industry applies the recommendations appropriately then it will be useful to manage healthcare workers and services in an effective manner.

BAM4014 Academic and Professional Skills Assignment Sample
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Findings

Recommendation 1

Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the healthcare industry adversely and changed their working ways. After pandemic, healthcare industry is adapting to remote/hybrid working models to offer services to patients. Remote and hybrid working impact the healthcare organisation in both positive and negative manner. These working models provider greater flexibility to the healthcare workers through allowing them to choose where and when they work. The opportunities of doing work from their preferred locations worked best and directly affect the employee’s performance and productivity (Oleksa-Marewska and Tokar, 2022). It allows the healthcare professionals to provide services like prescribe medications, offer treatment and care plan and offer guidance virtually. It also allows the patients to know their health conditions, take guidance and know their treatment plan without going hospital.

Although, communication and collaboration is one of the major challenge faced by the healthcare workers. Managing efficient communication and cooperation among healthcare teams that working from home and office is difficult for the company. Insufficient physical proximity restricts the informal communication and leads to unstructured brainstorming sessions that hinder the team unity as well as knowledge sharing. Lack of personal interaction and absence of visual context raise the problem of misunderstandings and confusions among virtual teams, particularly in online meetings. It raises the question in front of the healthcare industry regarding hybrid and remote models (Grzegorczyk et al, 2021). To leverage the benefits of working models, healthcare organisations should address the problem properly. The organisations should build the clear communication rules and standards to effectively interact with virtual team. Healthcare organisations can also use different communication tools to embrace new working methods efficiently. Different communication tools will allow the hospitals, clinics etc. to connect with their workers anytime and convey their message and relevant information.

Healthcare workers also feel difficulties to work as a team and collaborate with each other when they work from different locations. Remote teams highly depends on the technology when they have to talk with the other team members. But issues like technical faults, network errors, untrustworthy internet connections and poor audio and video quality can adversely impact the communication process. Healthcare workers face problems to interact with each other when urgent that leads to delay in work. It is major issue experienced by healthcare organisations as without proper communication, doctors, nurses and care cannot offer medical services to the patients on time. It is highly recommended to the healthcare organisations to review their communication and collaboration strategies and find out strategic solutions and policies to overcome problems. Without effective policies which set clear expectations for the virtual teams, the workers can feel more disconnected from the other team members which can prevent the organisations to achieve goals and objectives and at the same time fulfil needs of the patients. In this case, the organisations should make strategies to solve the network connections so that workers can easily interact with each other when required and complete work with more accuracy on time.

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Recommendation 2

Several studies on remote/hybrid working shows that these working models lead to improve the job satisfaction among healthcare professionals. It is obvious when workers get flexible work conditions, it directly enhances the engagement of the employees in their work. These working systems offer good work-life balance and help to reduce the stress due to heavy workload. When healthcare professionals work from their home and other locations, they easily manage multiple work. Professionals do their work efficiently which help to improve profitability and revenue of the healthcare sector (Wontorczyk and Rożnowski, 2022). Remote working model enables the healthcare organisations to hire talented and skilled doctors, nurses and physicians from wider geographical area which is one of the major advantages of remote/hybrid working. But it is not easy for the organisations to manage the people from different time zones. Further, making sure the quality of treatment and care of patients in virtual settings needs strong strategies and careful planning otherwise it can affect the patient’s health conditions.

When workers do work from their home in excessive manner then it directly affects the interpersonal relationships with managers, senior doctors and other team members. Remote/hybrid working settings can increase feelings of loneliness and isolation which further leads to anxiety, depression and stress. It can gradually reduce the interest of the workers in their job and they experience problems to complete tasks and activities. Some employees also are not capable enough to manage the office work at their home as it can distract them. Even, remote work can increase mental health problems. It is most crucial for the healthcare organisations to address the issues when they offer remote or hybrid working. The organisations should carry out the risk assessments for all staff members, including workers who are working from home (Hopkins and Bardoel, 2023). By risk assessment, the healthcare organisations can overcome the issue. The upper management should focus on team-building activities and encourage remote teams to participate in sessions. It can be helpful for the management to reduce the situation of being alone and isolation and increase the employee engagement and their wellbeing.

Further, unequal access to different resources and technological tools is another challenge of the remote and hybrid working. It is not necessary that all workers have essential tools and resources at their home to perform their duties. Workers who have sufficient resources easily do their works then those who do not have resources. Moreover, remote or hybrid work settings might unintentionally lead to disparities, inequalities and biases among the healthcare workers. It is most essential for the organisations to make proper strategies and arrange computer systems and other resources so that all employees have equal accessibility to resources. The organisation can experience challenge to offer training to the workers when they work outside of their office. When employees do not get proper training, it can affect their performance and overall performance of organisation. So, upper management should invest in online training programs which not only helps to improve skills and knowledge of the employees but also help to reduce isolation.

Recommendation 3

Remote and hybrid working models are implemented by healthcare industry as it offers the benefits like cost savings. It reduces the need of physical or office spaces as well as lower the travelling costs. When employees do job from both home and office, it minimises the electricity bills. Additionally, food expenses also contribute to monthly expenditure for the office management. Eventually, taking care of the staff members in the organisation need money that can increase the average cost per employee. The healthcare industry can reduce operational costs and save huge amount of money by applying flexible working ways. The hospitals and clinics can use the money on other essential work like purchasing machinery or equipment or invest in research and development to increase the patient outcomes.

Conversely, the healthcare organisations can face the data security and privacy issues if they allow for flexible working. Because of upsurge of remote work and acceptance of hybrid working systems, the attack surface has increased which make it difficult for the organisations to the secure confidential information related to patients and workers. It is quite difficult for the organisations to maintain security when employees work remotely (Parra, Gupta and Cadden, 2022). Hackers or unauthorised person can easily access and hack the personal information and can misuse. It can increase the problems for the patients and reduce trust towards the hospital. It is highly recommended to the healthcare organisations to pay attention on data security issues. The organisation should implement the robust cyber-security system to secure the information and data. The organisations should focus on the data encryption which is a kind of security technique that changes readable data into unreadable format by utilising algorithm, making sure that only management or authorised people can access the original data.

Solving data breaches issues should be the priority of the healthcare organisations. Healthcare organisation’s database is filled with the private and sensitive patient information and data. Once hackers get access to patient’s information, it can be challenging for the organisations to solve the issues. Compliance with data protection is also necessary for the public and private hospitals as well as small clinics. If they avoid the rules and regulations then it can lead to legal problems which directly harm the reputation of healthcare industry and trust of people towards hospital (Juchnowicz and Kinowska, 2021). It is crucial for all sizes of healthcare organisations (small, medium and large) to provide education to the doctors, nurses and other workers on relevant data protection laws in order to avoid any kind of legal penalties. Further, it is most important for the conduct the regular audit and safety inspection to find any kind of errors and faults in security systems. By early detecting issue early, the management can take corrective actions to solve the problems.

Conclusion

As per above report, it can concluded that remote and hybrid working offers many benefits to the healthcare organisations but it also comes with several challenges. Because of Covid-19 pandemic, remote/hybrid models became new normal for employees in all over the world. Healthcare sector has adopted the changing requirements of healthcare workers and service users. From cost savings to improved productivity and work-life balance, remote and hybrid work arrangements offer considerable advantages. This is the reason that organisation are now routinely offer the flexible working conditions. However, employees faced many problems while working remotely that directly affect the task completion process. The major issues faced by the healthcare sector involved communication and collaboration issues, isolation and disconnected and data privacy. The report has presented the excellent recommendations for the healthcare organisation so that they can positively respond to growing utilisation of remote/hybrid working models. To leverage the numerous benefits of the hybrid and remote working, the organisations have to adopt and apply the recommendations in proper manner.

The report suggested that healthcare sector should focus on improving the communication system and must make strong communication strategies to reduce the communication and collaboration problems. Through utilising different collaboration tools like video conferencing, email etc. healthcare professionals can connect with each other efficiently and manage the multiple duties. It is also recommended to the healthcare sector to implement tactics to reduce the isolation situation faced by employees while working remotely. The organisations can invest in training programs and team-building activities where all workers work together. By training programs, the organisations not only eliminate the situation of isolation but also improve skills, competencies, knowledge and abilities of the professionals. Addition to recommendations, it is duty of the healthcare organisations to invest in the strong security system to prevent the confidential data from misuse. The organisation can implement data encryption so that only official parties can access and use patient’s and other data and information. If, the healthcare industry would pay attention on effective execution or implementation of recommended strategies then they can manage the remote/hybrid working arrangements without any difficulties.

Recommendations

From findings, it has analysed as a responsible field, healthcare industry should adopt some strategies to manage the hybrid and remoter working. Three excellent recommendation on the basis of findings are given elucidated below:

Establish open communication channels: It is highly recommended to the healthcare sector to concentrate on establishing different communication platforms. The organisations should use instant messaging, email, audio calls, video conferencing, in-person meetings etc. to connect with the employees who work virtually. By communication openly with virtual team, healthcare organisations can maintain team cohesion, make sure efficient information flow and improve collaboration (Kerrison, Jusak and Huang, 2023). It can facilitate manager to improve the relationship with team members. By interacting with each team member, the organisation can enhance the productivity, establish trust and increase chances of achieving success in remote/hybrid working arrangements. It can also allow the employees to share the relevant information with others and carry out necessary tasks.

Offer online training programs: Because remote and hybrid working limit the training and development opportunities. This leads to lack of performance and productivity among virtual teams. Also, due to lack of interaction, employees feel isolated which raise stress and anxiety. It is recommended to the healthcare organisations to offer the online training programs where employees can book course according to the preferences and improve their skills (Chin et al, 2021). The management can also conduct team-building activities in which people work with each by using online platforms. It is important to note that healthcare organisations should provide computer systems, internet and other resources so that remote team can do tasks efficiently and participate in team activities and training.

Implement strong security system: The healthcare organisations should apply the strong security measures, data encryption powerful access control to protect data (Wu et al, 2021). The organisations can perform the security audits and inspection on the regular basis in order to identify any bottlenecks at early phase. It can help management to make strategies to solve the issues. By offering training related to data protection policies, the industry can reduce the risk of data breaches. The organisation should also make the inclusive incident action plan to discover and recover from the data breaches.

References

Books and Journals

  • Chin, K.E., Kwon, D., Gan, Q., Ramalingam, P.X., Wistuba, I.I., Prieto, V.G. and Aung, P.P., 2021. Transition from a standard to a hybrid on-site and remote anatomic pathology training model during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, 145(1), pp.22-31.
  • Grzegorczyk, M., Mariniello, M., Nurski, L. and Schraepen, T., 2021. Blending the physical and virtual: a hybrid model for the future of work (No. 14/2021). Bruegel Policy Contribution.
  • Hopkins, J. and Bardoel, A., 2023. The future is hybrid: how organisations are designing and supporting sustainable hybrid work models in post-pandemic Australia. Sustainability, 15(4), p.3086.
  • Juchnowicz, M. and Kinowska, H., 2021. Employee well-being and digital work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information, 12(8), p.293.
  • Kerrison, S., Jusak, J. and Huang, T., 2023. Blockchain-enabled IoT for rural healthcare: Hybrid-channel communication with digital twinning. Electronics, 12(9), p.2128.
  • Oleksa-Marewska, K. and Tokar, J., 2022. Facing the post-pandemic challenges: The role of leadership effectiveness in shaping the affective well-being of healthcare providers working in a hybrid work mode. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(21), p.14388.
  • Parra, C.M., Gupta, M. and Cadden, T., 2022. Towards an understanding of remote work exhaustion: A study on the effects of individuals’ big five personality traits. Journal of Business Research, 150, pp.653-662.
  • Wontorczyk, A. and Rożnowski, B., 2022. Remote, hybrid, and on-site work during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the consequences for stress and work engagement. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(4), p.2400.
  • Wu, F., Qiu, C., Wu, T. and Yuce, M.R., 2021. Edge-based hybrid system implementation for long-range safety and healthcare IoT applications. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 8(12), pp.9970-9980.

Online

  • Adekoya, O.D., Adisa, T.A. and Aiyenitaju, O., 2022, "Going forward: remote working in the post
  • COVID-19 era", Employee Relations, Vol. 44 No. 6, pp. 1410-1427. < https://doi
  • org.ezproxy.bolton.ac.uk/10.1108/ER-04-2021-0161 >
  • Sherif, A., 2024. Work from home: remote & hybrid work - Statistics & Facts. [Online] Available through < https://www.statista.com/topics/6565/work-from-home-and-remote-work/#topicOverview >

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