REMOTE WORKING AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO ORGANIZATIONAL FLEXIBILITY (Essay Sample)

REMOTE WORKING AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO ORGANIZATIONAL FLEXIBILITY Student’s Name And Registration Number University Coursework C19RT- Resourcing and Talent Management Submission Date Word Count 2278 Extent To Which Remote Working Represent An Importance Means To Achieve Organizational Flexibility Remote Working Remote working entails performing or organizing work using information technology. The work is usually done away from the employer's premise consistently. The same work could have also been done at the employer’s premises. Homeworking or working from home (WFH) is when a worker works from their place of residence, apartment, or house rather than working from the office (O’Donnell, 2021, 6). Most organizations provided guidance to work from home at the start of the pandemic unless it was necessary to attend in person. Flexibility refers to the quality of having the capacity to conform or respond to new or changing situations (Sharma, Sushil and Jain, 2022, 52). Organizational flexibility refers to the ability of an organization to enhance the shifting of execution to a new initiative quickly. The strategic response is composed of parts linked to institutional agility. Organizational flexibility comprises of institutional ability to implement adjustable processes and institutional plans. Therefore, organizational flexibility is related to the implementation of strategic practices linked to the organization. This essay seeks to explain the extent to which remote working has influenced an organization's flexibility to access a large pool of talents and diverse pool of talents and work-life balance. Remote working has led to the development of a large pool of talent. Hence, it has enhanced the flexibility of organizations to hire these talents to work for them and reduce employee turnover. All companies face significant workforce problems as some industries are labor-intensive. One of the pertinent labor problems is an increased rate of turnover. The turnover has resulted in a dramatic impact on organizations. Hence, money and a great deal of time are spent by industries to attract new workers. Remote working has promoted flexibility in organizations to access, retain, motivate, and attract new (Johnson, Stone, and Lukaszewski, 2021, 40). The strategy has enabled industries to hire talented workers and decrease the time required to replace them. Sytch and Greer (2020) argue that remote working has helped organizations be flexible to retain and attract competitive talent. The organizations gained a competitive advantage through the access to distributed talent that is fully remote. No matter where they were located, the company's flexibility could easily tap the talents. Remote work eliminated geographical boundaries and allowed employers to search for talents outside the normal commuting areas with a lack of worry concerning relocation costs (McCausland, 2020, 105). Additionally, it levels the playing field between industries that are competing to hire top talents by providing remote work and attractive benefits. Therefore, remote working has been beneficial to companies because it has availed a large pool of talent. Remote working has resulted in diversity. For instance, it has made it easier for women to remain in the workforce. Currently, there is an increased number of women that are working remotely. It gives them the much-needed time they would have lost commuting. Most women juggling elderly care and parenting during the pandemic made millions of them leave the workforce in 2020 to engage in caretaking. The largest percentage of women that left work were women of color. Secondly, remote work has raised opportunities for disabled workers. For most individuals who have some form of disability, traveling causes huge barriers to employment. Therefore, remote working has opened job opportunities for disabled people to join organizations and meaningfully contribute to the growth of organizations. Moreover, remote working has caused some types of disabilities to be less evident to other employees. Thus, they have been freed from stigma. Hence, remote work provides significant opportunities to boost inclusion and diversity. The opportunity to work from home helps in creating more inclusivity in organizations. When firms make it mandatory for employees to commute to the workplace, it hinders recruiting and harms marginalized workers. Remote working enabled flexibility in the organization to access a large, diverse workforce that they could not achieve earlier. For example, companies are currently able to hire a large workforce of women who had left their job initially to take care of children and the elderly. Moreover, remote working has geographical breakdown barriers allowing people of diverse backgrounds to be recruited by firms. Remote working has also helped companies meet the challenges of collaboration (Sundermeier et al., 2020, 35). The flexibility of companies has enhanced remote collaboration and remote working with team members who function in geographically diverse locations. The lack of diversity in organizations has been resolved through remote working. Firms have benefitted through a large pool of diverse workforce. For example, organizations have been able to recruit disabled workers, which they found to be difficult earlier (O’Donnell, 2021, 6). Initially, employment opportunities for people with disabilities were not taken into consideration by organizations. These individuals were not employed due to their disabilities despite having appropriate skills and being well-educated. Consequently, they are left at home without job opportunities leading to professional exclusion. However, remote working has solved the issue of lack of inclusivity by enabling organizations to promote inclusivity by employing disabled employees to work remotely. Hence, it has worked well in eliminating professional exclusion. Das et al. (2021) postulated that remote work and the flexibility of organizations to adopt remote working have led to better employment for disabled people. In a significant number of cases, individuals with disabilities are more inclined to do jobs compared to non-disabled individuals and have the correct skills. Hence, organizations have shifted to tap these valuable human resources who lack any difference from fully non-disabled individuals. Organizations have established that disabled people are able to perform professional activities effectively and face complications in finding jobs (Chajduga and Ingaldi, 2021, 6). Therefore, remote working has enabled organizations to recruit these individuals and get the best services that they have been lacking from the other workers. Eikhof (2020, 2) argues that organizations have shifted to remote working to address the inclusion and workforce diversity challenges. Workers with caring responsibilities, disabled workers, are not highly represented and established to be more challenging to maintain a career. Hence, organizations are taking inclusion and workplace diversity as a priority. Earlier, geographical barriers halted organizations from achieving priority. Nonetheless, the development of remote working has enhanced the organization's address to the issue of lack of workplace diversity. The lack of gender balance has been a huge problem for organizations. There has been a low number of women working compared to men. Remote working has thus played a critical role in ensuring organizations solve the issue of gender imbalance. The access of women workers remotely has helped the institutions boost gender balance. Women have been provided with work options in STEM fields, such as mathematics, engineering, technology, and science, where they have been underrepresented. Therefore, organizations have raised women's recruitment and retention, facilitating an increase in diversity. Remote work has further eliminated bias toward remote work in gendered workplace cultures (Laat, 2022, 2). It has positively identified the advantages of remote working in solving gender issues. Remote working has led to the development of work-life balance. Work-life balance entails the process of giving priority to professional and personal activities in an individual's life and the level to which their job activities in the home are available. Work-life balance has become a predominant problem in a society filled that is with conflicting responsibilities and commitments in the workplace. The lack of work balance has been attributed to interest in personal life, the competitive business environment, and the evolving variations in the workforce. The definition of Work-Life Balance is diverse. Every worker tries to justify his most important priorities with an employer according to his position, in accountability, grade wrapped, and being a part of the family to enable them to spend a good quality time as opposed to being fully professional life. It postulates that professional life is a portion of social life and cannot influence each other. However, in case someone is willing to make it occur with such happening, it can do so with a wise approach. Work-life balance concerns the interaction between other activities and paid work. These additional activities are personal development, unpaid work in families, leisure, and the community. It is fundamental since it promotes a healthy working environment. Hence it is an essential aspect. The Maintainance of a work-life balance helps reduce stress and helps prevent burnout in the workplace. For an employer, promoting work-life balance may seem a daunting challenge (Sytch and Greer, 2020, 477). The objective of work-life balance aims to offer satisfaction and efficient functioning both at family and work to avoid role conflict. Organizations have, for a very long time, faced challenges of promoting work balance among employees. Remoting working has thus helped reinforce the organization's strive to p...