REMOWA project

REMOte Working  manAgement skills for HR professionals

The E+ REMOWA project is the result of a strategic partnership of 6 European countries, aiming to document the emerging skills gap for managing a remote workforce & to develop corresponding Open Educational Resources and a training course for the continuous professional development of HR professionals.

The Challenge

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; 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 normalizing the new work environment, HR managers and professionals managing remote working teams 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 undergo.

Goals

The main objective of the project is to document the emerging skills gap for managing a remote workforce. The REMOWA project also aims to develop corresponding OERs, as well as a training course for the continuous professional development of HR professionals,  trainers, supervisors, consultants and managers of organisations and teams. REMOWA is also expected to offer the opportunity to third parties, at an international level, to identify which aspects of the project would yield significant benefits if transferred to their own framework of activities.

The Partners

The partnership comprises 6 organizations from 6 EU countries (PL, GR, PT, HR, SI, BE) with complementary skills from the worlds of training ( PAIZ Konsulting Sp. ), higher education (University of Maribor and University Institute of Lisbon), research (EXELIA), sectoral representation (Professional Association of Human Resource Management Employees - Center HR), and consulting (INNOVELA). The partnership is further strengthened through the involvement of a national association of HR professionals (Portuguese Association of People Management - PT) and an HR networking organisation for businesses (Lublin Business Club – PL), as associated partners.