Remote and Hybrid Working during Crisis: Challenges and Implications for Employee Development in Africa

Abstract

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the associated lockdowns imposed by governments exposed disparities in how organisations on different continents were prepared for unplanned uncertainties. While the global north organisations, with their advanced adoption of 4IR technologies, quickly moved in to find affordable ways to ensure business continuity, adjustments by organisations in the global south were challenged by lack of modern advanced affordable technologies. The abrupt adoption of technologies associated with the fourth industrial revolution [4IR] in the global south meant an increased emphasis on remote working - a concept that has been taboo, especially in South Africa. The adoption meant fitting into a new world of work, which requires agility, re-learning, and de-learning of skills. The chapter aims to unpack the work challenges organisations face in times of crises and what it means for employee development in an African context.

1. Introduction

The new world of work, which has evolved mainly due to globalisation, the internet and the evolution of 4IR technologies, has generated an altered reality for both organisations and employees. Broad trends that have emerged in the new world of work include increased virtualisation and digitalisation, more part-time employment [or gig work], people working from home or any other location and employees being more frequently connected to their jobs than ever before [1]. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown of economies have brought about increased remote and hybrid working. Current realities in the new world of work will subsequently be unpacked, as well as the concepts of remote and hybrid working followed by the need for continuous employee development in the African context. The chapter is informed by a literature review and desktop search of the current realities that inform the complexity of remote and hybrid working in an African context.

2. Current realities in the new world of work

In the 1980s telecommuting became a way of helping employees manage and balance work and family responsibilities. Over the years, telecommuting grew as technology advanced and economic systems evolved as a result. With the advent of COVID-19 global remote working became the new universal ‘norm’. Prior to Covid-19 remote working was not a common practice, especially in the African context. Reports on South Africa indicate that 21% of professionals worked from home before the pandemic. The number increased to 79% during the pandemic [2].

The Gartner poll indicates the likelihood of more employees working remotely either full-time and/or part-time. According to Lavelle [3], 74% of CEOs interviewed planned on shifting at least 5% of employees to remote working. Amazon also announced its intention to create 3 000 work-from-home positions in South Africa [4]. Amazon is experiencing a boom due to increased online shopping, which has led to the creation of work-from-home jobs on a global scale. This shows that companies are contemplating remote working to a greater extent than before the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Gartner poll surveyed 145 CFOs and senior financial managers during April 2020 and found that most (51% of respondents) were expecting up to 30% decline in revenue. The respondents also showed caution in contemplating long-term investments. The findings further indicate that 55% of organisations intend to redesign roles, supply chains and workflows and that geographic diversification and investment in secondary markets were envisioned to mitigate and manage risk in times of disruption. These developments imply that a more complex business environment is likely to evolve, which can impact the operational models of organisations [5].

Results of the Gartner poll further indicate that 32% of companies were contemplating the replacement of full-time workers with contingency workers [6]. This places more emphasis on the prevalence of gig workers, which is already a trend in the new world of work. Gig employment, something that has not really existed in the African context is likely to become more prolific. This implies more part-time work as opposed to fix-term employment. The notion of gig work and/or part-time work is a contentious issue in the South African context where workers and especially unions push for full-time and fixed employment contracts.

Working remotely requires integrated and customised information technology (IT) systems to enable companies to not only enable remote working but also to track the work employees are performing. In this sense, the Gartner poll also showed that companies are increasingly using technologies to assist them - 16% of employers indicated that they have increased the use of technology to track work, computer usage and the emails and internal communication of employees.

This notion is supporting the central role of IT in organisations – which is likely to become more pronounced given that organisations require customised IT systems to run their operations [7]. Also, the IT and engineering professions are propelling the new world of work. Engineers are devising technologies on various platforms, e.g. nanotechnology, building rockers and spaceships for galactic travel (notably Virgin Galactic and SpaceX), autonomous vehicles (e.g. Tesla) including the planned Mars expedition of 2022 spearheaded by the tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk [8, 9]. These engineering advances need IT professionals to programme the systems. In fact, the programming of smart and integrated systems drives innovation on a global scale (e.g., Amazon) and programming is a key skill.

Remote work has implications for managers. Apart from the people skills required from managers, they need to be flexible and have the necessary soft skills to motivate and support staff. Managers also need to have digital skills to comprehend the systems involved in remotely managing and supporting staff. Employees also demand increased transparency—this was already apparent prior to COVID-19 [5]. In fact, the ways in which managers and organisations treated employees during COVID-19 can have implications for the employer of a choice strategy of organisations and ultimately talent management.

According to the research of Bersin [10] deep layoffs, especially in times of crises, have dire consequences for the future sustainability of organisations. This is mainly due to the loss of critical skills. A loss of critical skills impacts negatively on customer and stakeholder relationships, thus affecting the future viability of organisations. In addition to this, employees that were not retrenched go through a ‘survivor syndrome’ where they contemplate whether they will be next. This creates a less than conducive work environment where employees experience psychological stress that can have a significant impact on their engagement, motivation and commitment. It is thus pertinent that leaders show they care for their employees. Digital transformation driven by the various 4IR technologies is the future and organisations do not have any other option but to adapt to its demands, thus necessitating leaders and managers that are able to act as change agents spearheading this new reality.

3. Remote and hybrid working

Remote working can be characterised by working in a highly flexible environment where telecommuting, teleworking, virtual work, distributed work or distance work is the norm [11]. Remote working involves flexible work arrangements that allow employees to work from home or any other locality but not the central office. With this arrangement, employees do not have physical contact with their colleagues except for an online connection. Hybrid working is when employers expect workers to commute to the workplace during specified times – thus incorporating remote working and at times being office-based.

Remote working is not something new and has existed for decades, especially in the United States of America [USA], where around 3.9 million employees were working from home before the outbreak of COVID-19 [12]. An engineer Jack Nilles is believed to have coined and introduced the term ‘telecommuting’ in the 1970s. This was necessitated by the oil crisis that hits the USA in the 1970s and the idea that employees could work remotely to continue with production [13].

3.1 Challenges of remote and hybrid working

Remote and hybrid working can be an exciting prospect for employees who seek flexibility, but it can also result in psychological well-being challenges for others. Research by Russell [14] indicates that remote working has the potential to result in ‘no work boundaries’ that might ultimately lead to increased job stress, depression, anxiety, loneliness and isolation mainly caused by a deprivation of social contact [15, 16, 17].

Remote working can, however, benefit employers as the best talent can be sourced in an international sphere. Working hours are flexible and employees have greater autonomy and less office interruptions [18]. Pertinent challenges related to remote working involve the likelihood of higher costs due to having a home office, employees that lack digital skills may find the work challenging, and team spirit may suffer as there are limited network opportunities that may cause psychological health to suffer as a result.

Compared to traditional employment, modern employees are expected to work in technological advanced environments. This means the nature of jobs changed from using predominantly manual approaches to performing jobs that are more mentally and emotionally demanding [19]. These realities are likely to have significant implications for organisations. The post-COVID-19 world is likely to generate more gig work, as well as more employees working from home. Gig work is based on skills and individuals that work from home need to have the proper systems in place to perform their jobs, notably internet connectivity, laptops, etc. Gig work is likely to exacerbate already existing inequalities, especially in the South African and African context.

Further challenges include managing one’s own schedule and time, blurred lines between personal and professional life, distractions, reduced supervision and direction, social isolation, working in pyjamas and lack of motivation and long-term vision. This will be discussed below.

According to Al-Habaibeh, Watkins, Waried and Javareshk [20] managing one’s own schedule and time is one of the many challenges faced by employees working from home. Remote workers have the freedom to manage their own time meaning they need to take responsibility for performing their jobs. The concept of ‘normal business hours’ remains a global business practice for most organisations as it relates to efficient time management. Specified work hours create personal and work boundaries for employees, which separates work from personal interests. Furthermore, without proper time management and scheduling, many employees are likely to relax more and work less hours as expected by the employer. Employees might procrastinate and postpone work to ‘later’. This can create work and personal conflict. Therefore, employees should try to have time structures in place for each day of the week working from home [21].

Gibbs, Mengel and Siemroth [22] note that blurred line between personal and professional life is a challenge as there is no geographic division between work and personal space. Ideally, home is a place where employees relax, feel safe and have security. As far as remote work is concerned, employees can easily forget the work and not meet work deadlines. Furthermore, Janza [23] mentions that some remote workers have indicated that they are never ‘off the job’. This means they feel a compulsion to always check emails or get ‘just one last thing done’. In other words, some remote workers might not find it easy to knock off and relax whilst others might continue working.

Another challenge identified by Nyberg et al. [24] is distractions. Employees can have a schedule or workspace but being productive during work hours can be a challenge due to unplanned or unwanted distractions. Home surroundings such as television, favourite books, laundry, dishes, child responsibilities and many more can easily become distractions. Noise cancelling headphones can help avoid auditory distraction and should therefore be considered. It is important that employees create and maintain a firm barrier between work and home life. Family members should respect working time at home as they would respect working time at the office.

Reduced supervision and direction is a challenge for some remote employees identified by Toniolo-Barrios and Pitt [25]. Many employees at the office complain about the supervision and direction from their managers but managers serve a crucial role in directing employees on what should be done including timeframes, supervising tasks and daily job responsibilities. Direction and supervision are important so that managers can provide effective feedback to employees on their progress and job execution. Employees working from home receive less supervision and direction, which can influence job performance. Parker et al. [26] mentions that 29% of managers question whether employees have the required knowledge to do their jobs from home while 27% noted their employees lacked essential skills to properly execute their jobs from home. Male managers were also found to be warier than female managers. Fifteen per cent (15%) of female managers indicated that they lacked confidence in their remote employees whereas 36% of male managers had little trust in their remote employees’ skills [26].

Toniolo-Barrios and Pitt [25] further state that social isolation is a challenge that cannot be ignored. Humans are social beings that need to interact with others. However, working from home takes away the social aspect of the workday and this might result in loneliness and/or psychological frustrations. Technology, such as Zoom, can make remote work more interactive but it cannot replace face-to-face interactions. Working in pyjamas is a challenge that many remote workers take for granted. Working in pyjamas is easy for most employees because they do not have to wake up early and dress for the office. A study conducted by Adam and Galinsky [27] in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that people perform job tasks better when wearing clothes with ‘symbolic meaning’. For example, doctors perform better at their jobs while wearing lab coats. Thus, working in pyjamas is not recommended for any employee because pyjamas and sleep are strongly connected in most people’s minds. Moreover, bathing and feeling clean improves most people’s professionalism and performance.

Davis [21] reckons that lack of motivation and long-term vision can also be a challenge to the remote workers. Being surrounded by the career-driven energy of ambitious and passionate colleagues around the office rubs off and can inspire colleagues to be more productive and motivated. However, working from home eliminates this energy and some employees might become lazy, unmotivated, and thus underperform.

3.2 Challenges of remote and hybrid working in Africa

The development of Africa, which has always lagged makes it difficult for hybrid or remote working. Remote working requires technological resources that are efficient, yet, for example, many African countries have complexities in terms of power and subsequent internet connectivity [28]. Electricity in Africa is not constant. Half the time it is not available, and this eventually affects the notion of effective remote working and productivity. The provision of other alternatives to electricity, such as generators, power banks and solar-powered devices is often regarded as an add-on to the already struggling companies compared to government-provided electricity, which seems to be cheaper. In addition, many African countries rely on the western world for technological development. As such their financial muscle to establish and adopt advanced technology for remote or hybrid working is often hampered. In South Africa, for example, a study by [29] revelated that several organisations were caught off guard by the pandemic as they had to adjust budgets and ensure employees had access to laptops and other aids. In addition to this, many employees lacked the requisite technological skills to ensure effective working from home. This lack of technological skills made organisations working in the African context have concerns about risks to security systems and privacy rights as employees worked remotely.

According to Osoba [30], many large parts of Africa still do not have wide coverage of networks at the same time the existing connectivity access is riddled with low bandwidth. This is exacerbated by the socio-economic environment in the African context, where workers do not own homes in urban areas but in rural areas. During the last two years (2020 to 2022) where COVID -19 was a menace in the whole world, remote working has seen many African workers drifting to rural places to save costs, yet, in those rural places, there are added challenges including poor location, affecting network connectivity. This has made it difficult for organisations to even fathom hybrid node of work or manage employee and in some cases team performance.

The African way of living is such that families live together in a household. Remote working for an African worker means disruption of family-set up and dealing with challenges one does not often confront when they are at the workplace. The set-up of many African homes where never meant to accommodate someone working from home - hence, during a crisis like Covid-19, very few African workers were fortunate enough to make temporary arrangements. Those who could shift to home set-up meant unavoidable distractions by children or other cohabiters [31].

In Africa, with remote working comes along the fear of employees working long hours and claiming to be compensated for overtime, the legal as well as health and safety issues. Chetty [32] reports that organisations in Africa have often failed to attract top talent because of their reluctance to adopt remote or hybrid working as a result of poor technological advancement and strict legal issues. However, the risk is failing in competitiveness, productivity levels and investment losses. Africa still has a long way to go when it comes to hybrid or remote working as it must grapple with the inherent infrastructural inequalities compared to the global north countries. In addition, inequalities experienced by workers, especially women and workers in low-income employment mean the need to have strategies that will enable the employers to embrace digitisation that will recognise inequalities among employees and allow working from anywhere.

3.3 Support strategies for remote and hybrid workers

It is important that employers offer support to their employees especially when they are working from home. The impact of remote working will vary from person to person due to differing needs. Generally, employees require safety, security, stability, trust relationships and social cohesion as well as the need to experience purpose and meaning in their jobs [33]. Management should support employees with flexible policies and procedures as well as provide work-related and personal support to employees. An integral part of this is to emphasise psychological wellness for both employees and managers [33]

Evanoff, Strickland, Dale, Hayibor, Page, Duncan, Kannampallil and Gray [34] in their study revealed that perceived low support from a supervisor predicts a range of negative psychological consequences, including anxiety and depression. Therefore, employers can develop managers’ skills, offer progression, set clear expectations, and offer choice to employees.

These techniques will be discussed below:

• Develop manager’s skills: line managers must be suitably skilled for remote working to be beneficial for employees. Managers need to develop skills to manage remote workers through easy communication, monitoring and motivating them as effectively as they would if they were at the office [35].

• Offer progression: employers should always consider career development opportunities for employees even though they are working from home [36].

• Clear expectations: remote working can improve employees’ well-being if managed properly. Therefore, employers should clearly state what they expect from their remote employees in order to mitigate the potential effects of work-related stress [37].

• Offer choice: where possible, remote working should be optional because it is not a suitable work arrangement for all employees. If remote working is the only option, clear guidance on alternative co-working spaces should be provided [36].

3.4 Advancing the psychological well-being of remote and hybrid employees

Employee well-being should be a priority and promoted within the organisation because it is not only beneficial for employees for even for the organisation itself. Employee well-being incorporates all aspects of well-being, it is about optimising both physical and psychological health [38]. Aldana [39] recons a healthy and happy workforce is more productive and engaged and that work life has a big impact on general employee happiness.

Feeling painful emotions disappoints or failure is a normal part of life and being able to manage these emotions is essential for long-term well-being. Psychological well-being is, however, compromised when negative emotions are extreme and interfere with a person’s ability to function in his/her daily life. Effective psychological functioning involves the development of one’s potential, having some control over one’s life, having a sense of purpose and experiencing positive relationships [38, 40].

García-Moya, Brooks, Morgan and Moreno [41] suggest that psychological well-being can be promoted through positive experiences. Employee well-being can be promoted by focusing on the following issues: senior leaders’ participation, raising awareness of psychological well-being, promoting employee dialogue and decision making, developing a culture of openness, inspiring work-life balance, learning and development, positive working relationships and social activities and peer support and buddy systems. These measures will be discussed below.

• Senior leaders’ participation: Employers should send a clear message that employee well-being matters and that it is a priority for management. This also includes an emphasis on psychological well-being. For example, when the CEO addresses the importance of psychological well-being, it is likely to make a huge impact [38].

• Raising awareness on psychological well-being: Many if not most organisations treat psychological well-being as a stigma and often employees are not comfortable to speak up about their well-being challenges. This means such problems can quickly spiral out of control. Employers need to raise awareness, hold discussions on psychological well-being and proactively challenge any possible impact on the organisation’s culture and work-related relationships [41, 42].

• Promoting employee dialogue and decision making: Employee dialogue and involvement in decision-making are highly encouraged. When employees feel involved and well informed about new developments within the organisation, they are likely to experience increased motivation. Furthermore, leaders should include employees in decision-making processes, not only regarding their jobs but in the organisation’s vision and direction as well [36]. Additionally, management should manage organisational changes such as implementing new systems in a collaborative and inclusive way [38].

• Develop a culture of openness: It is important that managers regularly communicate with their employees on whether they are coping especially when remote and hybrid working apply [41]. This will help identify some issues that might be contributing to their stress levels if any. If employees are comfortable, this can be conducted in a group setting and allow each employee to talk about their well-being. This is likely to promote positive attitudes and behaviours, help normalise conversations on health challenges and encourage employees to think more about their own well-being [36].

• Inspire work-life balance: long work hours might seem manageable to most employees, but sustained pressure and a poor work-life balance can easily lead to increased stress and burnout, reduced levels of productivity and performance and lack of creativity and critical thinking. Therefore, employers should encourage employees to work sensible hours, rest, recuperate and find a balance between their work and personal lives [41].

• Learning and development: Research by Riasudeen and Singh [35] on employee engagement revealed that employees need and want to feel valued, supported and to perform meaningful work. An organisational culture that values its employees and supports their growth and development should thus be evident. Development opportunities should be made available to employees where possible. This can be done cost-effectively through existing skills and knowledge within the organisation to develop coaching, mentoring or training opportunities. Moreover, managers should avail themselves of regular work-related interactions with employees.

• Positive working relationships and social activities: positive working relationships are partially encouraged by a mutually supportive environment created by both employees and employers. For healthy work relationships, employers should encourage and support teamwork, collaboration and information sharing. It is equally important that employers encourage regular social events amongst employees to boost their health, teamwork and psychological well-being [41, 43].

• Peer support and ‘buddy systems’: Employees might often feel the need to speak to a peer or a colleague. Peer support allows employees to support each other outside the line management structure. It also offers a great way to maximise teamwork, employee interaction and promote unity. Buddy schemes are used by many organisations and are mostly beneficial for new employees. Through this system, new employees understand and relate with the organisation better and quicker and are likely to feel supported and encouraged by the organisation [36, 44].

4. Employee development for remote working in Africa

With barriers to digital adoption and inequalities in employment and infrastructure, African employees need to be continuously kept abreast as the world enters a new era of high-tech, remote and hybrid working. With a high population of youth unemployed, Africa’s growth will depend on the employment of these youths provided they have a great degree of digital technology skills. For example, Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to require digital skill knowledge by 2030, presenting an opportunity of around $130 billion for investors and education providers to train the future workforce and those already in the employment space [45]. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught Africa that there is a need to shift the frontier of skills that are essential for the future world of work, which is influenced by technology and automation. From an African perspective, this means disrupting the cultural barriers to working by emphasising the urgent need for digital and socio-behavioural skills for employees to enable them to effectively work from anywhere.

The rurality of Africa with its richness in natural resources is suitable for the development of socio-behavioural skills and digital skills of its human capital, thereby disrupting the traditional notion of firms and expanding global supply chain by allowing rural clusters of firms to emerge, grounded on traditional cultures fused with digital technologies for global relevance purposes. In tandem with the notion above, studies [1, 46] have pointed out that many new skills for the future are those that would require agility in terms of how employees work and adapt to new ways, as opposed to what employees know. Employers in Africa, therefore, need to keep pace with technology, and see the re-learning of new skills, thinking and behaviours of employees as a transformative vehicle for remote and hybrid working going into the future world of work. The anticipated envisaged continuous transformative development of employees to enhance remote and hybrid working in Africa in the future world of work cannot be achieved when the continent does not deal with the issues of power supply and internet access [47].

5. HR implications for remote and in working in Africa

With an existence of work that is uncertain as crises come one after the other, digital technology continues to be the vehicle that will ripple away the traditional ways of working and embrace remote or hybrid working. This new wave of change presents an opportunity for human resource practitioners to elevate themselves from just being operational to strategic through being proactive and demonstrating what they can offer in this digital era. For example, during crises situations, the role of HR in seeing significant training and upskilling of employees is imperative. The future world of work emphasises critical skills versus roles [48]. While this might be the case, in the African context, specifically, this emphasis cannot be done in isolation but must be complemented by good, improved electricity and internet connection availability in remote rural areas and townships as well as taking into consideration the gradual adoption of technology in workplaces of the continent. The African concept of ‘ubuntu’ – ‘am because we are’ must not be seen to be dehumanised because of remote working.

Linked to this, the ‘ubuntu’ concept is for HR leaders to determine how productive and efficient employees can be given a history of strong unionism and fighting the employer as a solidarity group (physically present) and not from isolated remote working environments. In addition to this, most workers in Africa, especially in countries like South Africa are known for deriving their power in their numbers flexible working is a new concept developing in Africa, HR leaders need to also consider how it affects the mental health of employees. The implications are that resilience coaching to curtail the much-anticipated added strain to employee engagement, culture and value propositions should be prioritised. This means activities such as onboarding will be remotely done, but the question then is, how HR leaders will embark on such activities remotely, to ensure that there is bonding among team members to make new recruit’s part of the organisational culture virtually.

6. Conclusion

The chapter unpacked the COVID-19 challenges in the African context, specifically those pertaining to remote and hybrid working. Support strategies were proposed to advance the psychological well-being of employees as well as to assist employee development in the African context.

One of the top priorities for HR departments posts any crisis is to establish a balanced structure to foster a thriving workplace culture that is suited to flexible working conditions. The challenge for HR leaders is to maintain the social dynamics between employees within an increasingly dispersed workforce.