The rapid digitalisation of business processes and the widespread adoption of remote work since the COVID‑19 pandemic have forced private enterprises to re‑examine the role of human resource management (HRM). Drawing on the resource‑based view, this study investigates how digital HR strategies—covering recruitment & selection, training & development, performance management and digital employee services—affect employee engagement and firm performance in a context where a significant portion of the workforce operates remotely. Using survey data from 150 employees and managers in 50 privately owned firms in Chongqing, China, supplemented by semi‑structured interviews with HR leaders, we develop a digital HR adoption index and test its impact on remote work effectiveness and organisational performance. The results show that higher levels of digital HR adoption positively influence employee engagement, reduce perceptions of relative deprivation and cyberloafing, and enhance remote work effectiveness. Regression analysis further indicates that remote work effectiveness mediates the relationship between digital HR adoption and organisational performance. Qualitative insights highlight the importance of leadership support, training and the integration of platforms such as WeChat Work, DingTalk and Tencent Meeting for managing remote teams. Our findings offer evidence‑based recommendations for private enterprises in emerging economies to align digital HR strategies with remote working arrangements, support employee well‑being and sustain performance.

Within this broader analytical framework, this paper seeks to explore the apparent impact of digital transformation on employee relations within the context of listed companies. A theoretical model is proposed, positing digital transformation as the independent variable, employee relations as the dependent variable, and what might be characterized as cultural fit as a potential moderating variable. Based on an analysis of 482 ostensibly valid questionnaires collected from a sample of 500 A-share listed companies in China, what seems to emerge from these findings is that the mean score for the digital transformation scale was approximately 3.62, which tends to point toward a stage of local optimisation. The mean scores for the employee relations and corporate cultural fit scales were found to be 3.55 and 3.58, respectively. What the evidence appears to reveal is that digital transformation seems to be substantially positively correlated with employee relations (r ≈ 0.62, p < 0.01), and corporate cultural fit appears to share a similar positive correlation with both. What the analysis tends to support, furthermore, is that digital transformation appears to have a substantial positive impact on employee relations (β ≈ 0.58, p < 0.01). What seems especially noteworthy in this analytical context is that corporate culture fit seems to lend support to what may represent a positive moderating role (β ≈ 0.21, p < 0.05). In the high-fit group, the impact of digital transformation on employee relations appears to tend to suggest it is seemingly stronger (β ≈ 0.68, p < 0.01). What appears to emerge from this evidence, therefore, is the construction of a tentative model of this three-way relationship, ostensibly providing a basis for companies to balance technological innovation and humanistic care.

Keywords: Digital transformation; listed companies; employee relations; corporate culture compatibility; moderating effects