Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role of HR
The pandemic had a severe impact on the majority of corporate activities, making it difficult to assure operational continuity. Among all, the shift has been dramatic in the human resource role and the daily tasks performed as the work culture shifted to remote work due to the pandemic. Human resource professionals had to guide their organisation as well as the employees in getting acclimatised to a digital and distributed environment besides helping them learn to be productive and successful in their roles while working from home. Read on to check the changes in HR with the onset of the Covid pandemic.
Impact of Covid pandemic on the role of HR:
Here are how the pandemic has made the role of HR change:
More challenges lead to the need for upskilling:
After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the role of HR has become more challenging, as per the survey conducted by ADP Canada. It is because their role has become more strategic in the firms. They not only have to deal with human capital challenges but also concerns related to the firm's sustainability. Hence it becomes crucial for HR professionals to learn new skills for successfully carrying out their functions.
Navigating through virtual recruitment:
The pandemic caused the complete recruitment process to become virtual. It is right from planning and sourcing talent to assessing candidates, hiring and onboarding them. Virtual recruitment has specific elements such as virtual recruiting, which HR teams need to learn to navigate through. It involves the adoption of new technologies for marketing the events to the prospective candidates for the various job roles through customized, relevant content. Remote onboarding is a crucial part of virtual recruitment, which is more challenging. This demands that HR professionals have strong communication and engagement skills to establish connections with new hires.
Management of remote teams:
Lack of infrastructure and support systems made it difficult to manage the remote teams. Since a large number of organisations started shifting to work from home practices, it mandated the HR professionals to master the skill of managing employees in remote teams more proficiently.
Getting acquainted with new technologies:
Virtual work makes it mandatory to create systems that are easy, intuitive and can be accessed from any location. Keeping this in mind, the HR departments are asked to select, learn and implement new technology systems. This requires them to operate closely with the IT department of the firm.
Carrying out a regular survey of employees:
Pandemic has made it challenging to ensure that employees working from home are well engaged with the company. This requires the HR professionals to conduct a quick survey and feedback loops so the candidates who are onboarded will remain motivated. As a result, survey writing skills need to be developed, so they know what questions need to be asked, how they should be asked, and get honest feedback from employees.
Compliance and safety of employees:
After a long time, employees returning to work from their home town pose a safety challenge because of the chances of contracting the virus during the journey. This makes HR teams face the challenges and accommodate the needs of employees by ensuring their safety and compliance.
Conclusion:
Human resource professionals have a prominent role in the organisation, especially during the situations of crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic. They lead the organisation through the transition to virtual workplaces by developing a long-term strategy. Upper management count on their expertise and creativity for reshaping the workplace.
