HR REBORN & REDEFINED

The global pandemic has led the world upside down. No one imagined that a tiny virus could be fatal enough to crush the economy, leave people clueless and jobless and cause the whole world to come to a stagnant position. Though we thought things would eventually be under control, this catastrophe had made a huge impact that the world is still trying hard to rise over.

What are the roadblocks businesses faced due to global pandemics?

How did they overcome these critical challenges? 

Major challenges organisations had to face

• Lack of remote work programs

Before this pandemic happened, less than 50% of the companies had a remote working culture. This means complete chaos in the transition to this new normal in the work culture. All of the sudden, companies stopped everything they were on and started building remote work strategies whilst sanitation or disinfection. All this elicited bigger chaos and lower productivity.

• Lack of agility

Majority of the businesses couldn’t adapt themselves to the changes in laws and regulations. The employees weren’t trained to respond swiftly and adapt to the changing culture. By following the classic approach, businesses were unable to answer the customers’ queries and concerns.

• Uncertainty

Businesses crippled due to the uncertainty about their future. Organisations found it hard to analyse what holds for them in the future. With employees over-stressed about their job security, organisations around the world had a huge challenge to get everything back on track.

• Lack of effective communication

With employees working remotely, the two-way communication between the team wasn’t enough or efficient. It leads to confusion and loss of productivity. Establishment of proper communication channels that support crystal clear remote communication was found missing in many organisations.

• Mental health and wellbeing management

A factor that was never much talked about until now is the mental wellbeing of employees. The remote working nature is known to cause extensive burnout leading to added pressure to the already exhausting working environment.

As a result of this havoc, organisations across the country looked out for ways to upkeep the economic sturdiness. During all this time, human resource departments stayed at the frontline helping organisations survive these challenging times.

As Arundhati Roy rightly said:

“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world to the next.”

HR has vigorously helped businesses become agile by implementing new policies and work culture whilst upholding safety norms at the top. 

How HR helped businesses to rise and thrive the new normal?

Repercussions of the global pandemics such as remote working culture are here to stay. The organisations must understand that the traditional way of working is soon going to be the things of the past. HR can play a vital role in implementing a remote working environment with minimal infrastructure investment. Most organisations do not support work from home. This calls for entirely new policies and regulations as well as the technical implementation of remote working tools.

HR teams can pull out affected businesses from their miseries by promoting well-strategized plans that ensure a safe working environment, job security and continuity, and better business productivity.

 How can the HR guide the clients to travel the unchartered territory and embrace the change?

GHMC Private Limited run by two pioneers in the field of HRM, Mr. Ritesh Saraf and Mrs. Nidhi Saraf believe that it is important to focus on establishing the right people practices that are aligned to bring forth improved productivity and quality in an organisation.

A small snippet on the ways we used to establish a better working environment for our clients to cope up the aftermath of COVID-19:

• Deal with the financial burden

Businesses are facing major budget constraints. This has resulted in employee layoffs and pay cuts. We have guided various businesses with methods to reduce overhead costs and adopt ways to cut off unnecessary spendings.

• Reinforce risk management

It takes a quite amount of time and effort to stay abreast of the changing legislative policies and regulations. We made our clients knowledgeable about new and updated risk and HR policies.

• Proper allocation of resources

We help businesses to implement strategies that would encourage employees to return to work safely or stay motivated and positive working at home and strive towards the betterment of the company as well as their own career. By establishing these ways, we have helped our clients reach their business goals.

• Fluid transition into a remote working setup

GHMC Private Limited has aided businesses through the effortless transition to remote working culture. From remote working to remote onboarding, a lot needs to be aligned when it comes to this new normal. By providing the right tools to create new guidelines, our team has helped in the trouble-free transition to remote work.

• Develop empathic communication

Our team has successfully helped businesses have a cordial relationship with their employees. This is a crisis that is equally daunting for the employers and as well as employees. We guided them in developing empathy towards each other. We also aided in dealing with the issues of mental stress and burnout during remote work culture.

• Provide upskilling training programs

We provide proper training to employees to help adapt themselves easily with the rapidly changing work environment. We make businesses understand the importance of upskilling their employees that will expand their scope as they stay abreast of the changing work demands.

When businesses across the globe are finding it hard to channel through uncharted waters, HR becomes the one and foremost function that helps them in embracing this new change; new normal.

Concluding with a positive thought:

 “Crisis gives birth to the changes which were pending for many years”