The year 2020 so far has been filled with turmoil for people across the globe, be it on the personal or professional front. Never before has the role of human resource management been more critical in amping up the work environment.
At a time when companies are fast evaluating a flexible work model and new office designs to adapt to the new post-pandemic culture, talent acquisition, employee engagement, and motivation is fast becoming a big challenge for the human resource department.
With companies facing unprecedented times, it is necessary to develop a strategichuman resource management plan through careful HR analytics with a primary focus on the following key areas:
1. Employee Well-Being
With your employees more anxious about personal welfare than ever before, human resource managers urgently need to review and formulate new employee health and welfare policies. There’s nothing more significant right now than calming down their fears regarding joining back offices.
If you think just taking care of hygiene and social distancing at the workplace will do the job, you’re wrong. HRs need to take a holistic approach and consider all possible scenarios: From the mental well-being of the workforce to a plan of action for a COVID positive employee. All measures concerning their safety and security should be a top priority for companies, especially in 2020.
2. Transparent Communication
Transparent communication within the company strengthens its value system and builds a healthy organisational culture. Since we are all in this together, it has to work both ways.
Employees need to understand their company, and companies should try to empathise with their employees. And this can only be possible via a human resource management system that allows you to connect with your employees and win their trust.
More simply put, there’s no use of making top-notch policies if you don’t develop effective communication channels where you can see things from your employees’ perspective. HRs need to embrace the employee’s diverse emotions to bring out the best in them.
3. Integrating AI And Tech Into HR
Since we’re living in an age of rapid technological advancements, incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in HR is what futuristic companies should start looking forward to in 2020.
AI-enabled platforms will allow companies to have better coordination with teams working at different places, especially when businesses are fast adapting to a remote working model. Not only this, but AI can also help organisations in handling varied HR processes in a more efficient manner, starting from better-recruiting practices to handling large amounts of HR data and even transparency in decision making.
4. Reputation Management
Lately, reputation management has picked up a lot of attention in companies. A simple positive review sometimes goes a long way in attracting business opportunities, plus talent. This fact is further proved by Reputation Management Statistics, which found that nearly 3 out of 4 people trust a company more if it has positive reviews.
Undeniably, COVID-19 has had a massive negative impact on businesses and their employees. The companies that will be the most adaptable and still stand by their values when it comes to their corporate ambassadors, i.e., employees, will be the ones that will survive the aftershocks of the crisis.
Since employees are the first people who ‘live’ the organisation’s values, human resource management needs to work strategically on people management to build the internal brand. After all, a significant aspect of reputation management isn’t what’s on paper but how others perceive you.
Having high-end employee policies and business ethics is one thing but implementing and communicating these in an empowering way to your employees is a whole different ball game. The key here is to apply impactful HR leadership skills to execute the focus areas efficiently.
