An AI based training framework for Telecommuting Employees to combat perennial skill shortages post pandemic

Abstract

Telecommuting has become the norm for various organizations due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Telecommuting has positive effects not only on expenses but also on productivity, work flexibility and quality of work. The adoption rate of telecommuting has gone exponentially high especially due to government policies such as social distancing and country-wide lockdown measures. Human resource managers over the globe have reported higher empathy, increased co-ordination, retention and engagement during the lockdown. Provided that, very minimal percentage of workforce operated from their home prior to the coronavirus, it is difficult for employees to adopt the proposed model without any prior training and guidance. This research paper aims to shed light on how the pandemic has impacted the way we work, concerns related to human resource management with main focus on training and development function of HR department. The paper also proposes a framework for training employees to adapt to telecommuting as well as back to office conduct through technological interventions such as Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence etc. The overall theoretical framework provides a basic training and development process to reskill and upskill the employees to combat the perennial skill shortages post pandemic.