As the world goes through its troubles; be it wars, pandemics, or financial crises, the one thing you can depend on is that innovations were on the horizon at the end of those woes. Post World War II saw more women working jobs prior to 1945, the SARS outbreak in 2003 saw Alibaba becoming a giant in the e-commerce world, and the financial crises of 2008 saw a fragmenting trust on the financial system which gave way Bitcoin. Without these troubles, we cannot know for sure if there would have been any changes at all. Even if they were to come, its adoption was probably sped up due to an accelerated need for it. It is safe to say that these troubles that we faced in the past are only temporary struggles that we go through and we always come out of it better than before. With Covid-19 greatly affecting employers and employees alike, how does this pandemic impact organizations’ Human Resource divisions, and what changes did they have to make to stay relevant and viable in these times of troubles?
Employee Empowerment
This time when everybody is working remotely it is basic for HRs to keep their representatives drew in and roused so the profitability doesn't depart for good. It is critical for organizational productivity that HR employees manage the employee engagement and motivation well during a time where most operations are conducted at the comfort of the employees’ homes. Numerous associations over the globe have actualized different creative activities to protect their workers' feelings, maintaining the upbeat tempo, and level of inspiration. Right now is the time where it is an ideal opportunity to construct a solid culture of gratefulness, acknowledgment, and appreciation towards one another. One of the approaches to tackle this issue is to lead a consistent 360-degree input approach can be the most ideal approach to keep everybody in the group associated and locked in. Managers can encourage week by week vis-à-vis zoom calls discussions with their subordinates and examine both individual and expert improvement of the representative. HR employees then again should concentrate on the emotional wellness and security of the representatives once they return to work.
Upskilling focus
The McKinsey Global Institute conducted an assessment in 2017 and found that upwards of 375 million employees or 14 percent of the worldwide workforce would need to switch occupations or secure new abilities by 2030 due to computerization and machine intelligence. In an ongoing McKinsey Worldwide Overview, 87 percent of heads said they were encountering ability holes in the workforce or anticipated them inside a couple of years. Yet, a large portion of the respondents didn't have an answer to how to address the issue. The pandemic has made this inquiry to be tended to right away. The elements here are about more than remote working, it is more about reskilling and upskilling the workforce for them just as the business to be set up to convey new plans of action in the post-pandemic time.
The Future of Employee’s Well-being
With the growth of the digital economy, our way of working turns into the ‘always on’ mode, the stresses in managing work-life integration, and now dealing with the coronavirus, assisting workers with their wellbeing has never been more important. This focus on worker wellbeing is especially important, as workers experience anxiety in dealing with COVID-19. Therefore, it is imperative for HR employees to develop a system that measures the levels of engagement and productivity for employees. HR employees need to recognize that as soon as productivity levels dip, something may be going on with the employees; be it overworking or issues at home that need to be accounted for because the line between work-life balance becomes grey.
As we move into a new age where a future without COVID-19 seems clearer as the days go by, there is no way that we can be oblivious to the fact this virus has devastated companies and economies that were not prepared to navigate working around this virus. Therefore, the future of working has been changed indefinitely and many companies will continue to adopt the current COVID-19 practices probably for years to come at the very least. Thus, companies need to have agile HR employees so that they are ready to combat these challenges for now and for the future. Even so, agile HR employees are not able to predict and are ready to undertake some of these challenges which were unbeknownst to us while preceding the COVID-19 era. Throughout this period, Maslow has assisted and been successful in helping companies from a wide range of industries to continuously remain relevant in the business whilst maintaining operation levels up to 90% of how it was previously prior to the COVID-19 era.
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Written by, Philip Darien