Let’s start first by addressing our current buzzword of the year 2020 – ‘COVID 19’. Probably we can use this year to divide the timeline into two separate era – pre and post COVID.
It’s true that we are going through the most difficult times of our generation that no one would have imagined even in their wildest dreams – such an unprecedented time of the century. Six months back no one could have thought about a situation where we have to keep ourselves away from our friends and colleagues for such a long time.
Although, this situation has brought in a lot of negative effects to a million lives on this planet, we need to believe that COVID will vanish soon from this world and leave behind at least few good footprints in our lives.
The need of the hour is to do a self-introspection and prepare ourselves for the new era.
Let’s see if we can think of a positive flip side about COVID 19 related to the HR industry?
New work-from-home model for employees
The new norm has proved that work can be done by many employees efficiently from home. Therefore, for those employees who are willing to resume remote working can continue even after things get back to normal. This in turn can be beneficial for women employees who need not leave their jobs to take care of their family – balancing both family as well as corporate life.
Emphasizing on Human connect
In this new norm that we are dealing with, technology has played a vital role to keep us all connected. The employees in an organization are now even more connected than before. HR’s of most companies are striving their best to make their employees feel connected and are thinking out of box to create innovative models for avoiding employee isolation at home.
Investing in Technology than on Infrastructure
There were times when companies invested huge amount of capital for infrastructure and management. With the current situation, the companies are trying to invest less on physical infrastructure and are focusing on spending more on technology. This in effect has made it necessary to revamp the HR policies and process in the new normal with technology.
Better management of employee conflicts
As peers are not seeing each other physically like before in workplace, everyone is individually responsible for their work. This leads to less conflicts in a team. Although, collective works can lead to some or the other forms of conflicts, even in the virtual workplace; the HRs need bring in new and more robust techniques to resolve these conflicts at the earliest. HRs being the frontline workers of the management, it is very important for them to detect conflict and resolve them soon. Otherwise, it may affect the productivity of the employees. Use of online submission of grievance to HRs in a timely manner and addressing it at the earliest should be a priority.
Tech-Motivation
‘Depression’ and ‘anxiety’ are two buzz words that are commonly heard during the lockdown period. However, due to this reason, companies are focusing and spending more time to keep employees engaged at home by conducting regular webinars with motivational talks. This leads the workforce to feel more connected than before.
In conclusion, let’s assume that this COIVD scenario too will bring some or the other forms of positive impacts in our lives as well as our organisations. Keeping this in mind, lets keep ourselves motivated, committed and determined to move forward and achieve our goals.
