It has been nearly two years since the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic. Many companies across the globe have had to adopt a new style of working, that is, the work-from-home (WFH) arrangement. It is now being regarded as “the new normal”.
One of the biggest advantages of WFH is the time saved in commuting to and from office. Regardless of whether one’s office is close or far, one needs to go out, be stranded in rush hour gridlock and bear the temperature outside. But during work from home, travelling time is zero and that time can be invested in work or life domain for the productive results during the lockdown situation. One can invest this time in health also to keep oneself fit and fine. A peaceful mind boosts energy to perform well (Kaushik, 2020).
While WFH seems to be preferred by many, it does however have some disadvantages that may have a ripple effect on the successful execution of projects, seeing that the Project Stakeholders will have to be engaged and managed virtually. In a virtual environment, communication is paramount. While this is the case, most virtual teams tend over communicate and have lesser time for the actual execution of the project. In other cases, when a new member is introduced to the virtual team, it takes them longer than usual to acclimatise to the culture, processes and behaviours of the new Project Team. This results in certain Stakeholders being less engaged.
It is imperative that every single stakeholder in the project team be analysed and details thereof outlined in a comprehensive Stakeholder Management Plan. Many organisations/project houses do not have processes and procedures pertaining to stakeholder management and most of those that do, it is either an ineffective process or it is not properly adhered to.
To successfully keep stakeholders engaged, companies need to develop a communication strategy (the project manager or project leader has to have a strong grasp of the Power-Interest grid of all the stakeholders), procure effective communication tools and strike a very good work-life balance.