Many businesses have struggled to stay afloat since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most businesses have suffered losses as a result of increased spending on administration, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep current workers.
Companies' human resource management has found it challenging
to execute Human Resource practices and coordinate other components related to
collaboration as a result of the changes made across the country
HR Department's contradicted goals
1) Ensure that businesses make a profit in order to provide
benefits to their employees.
2) Ensure
that employees are not infected with the virus
Strength of impact
The effects of COVID-19 on industry were primarily
uneven. Some industries saw a drastic drop in sales, forcing some to
temporarily close their doors, while others saw a surge in commerce even during
pandemic
Working conditions.
Working conditions represent ‘the core of paid work and employment relationships’ (ILO, 2020).The COVID-19 crisis has drastically altered working conditions in organizations. Indeed, to ensure their business continuity, most organizations have moved to remote working, requiring their employees to work from home (Aitken-Fox et al., 2020a, 2020b; Gourinchas, 2020; Koirala & Acharya, 2020).
For example: Google announced that its employees will continue working remotely until at least Summer 2021 whereas Twitter's employees were given the opportunity to work remotely indefinitely (Leonardi, 2020).
Staffing.
As mentioned above, COVID-19 had asymmetric impacts on industries. (Giupponi & Landais, 2020). Therefore, the repercussions of COVID-19 on staffing differ from one organization to another. In this context, negatively impacted organizations have adopted down skilling by cutting back on recruitment of high-skill jobs more than low-skill jobs, to reduce their costs and try to sustain their business, they have frozen or cut back all their recruitment; or they have laid off their employees (Bartik et al., 2020).
Performance Management
Further..
* Training and career development.
* Compensation management.
* Safety and health management.
* Employment relationship.
Are also impacted by this outbreak. HR professionals should evaluate the fact behind all these arears in order to provide a win-win solution for both parties employer & employees.
Opportunities, future organizational directions, and insights into HRM interventions.
COVID-19 has
posed grand challenges for managers and HRM practitioners, but it has also
opened the door to opportunities worth knowing and understanding, that can help
organizations to direct their future actions. Indeed, according to Demirkaya
and Aydın (2006), a crisis might create unexpected opportunities for
organizations.
- COVID-19 has challenged organizations' creativity and innovation and has urged discussions about the future of work.
- It has pushed organizations to rethink their HRM strategies and to go beyond the traditional models of managing human resources, by positioning new information technology as an essential partner to survive and to ensure the sustainability of their business.
- Remote working offers employees the opportunity to have flexible working hours, save commuting time, foster job control, and experience the use of new ICT .
- Opportunity to optimize the use and save the costs of their resources
Conclusion
In
this context, rebuilding the organizational culture is needed to facilitate the
adoption of flexible work arrangements and the transition toward a hybrid
working model. And HR Practitioners should re-think on this
opportunities and requirements for future strategic HR directions.
Youtube Link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qYtHW9xWI
(Source: McGraw Hill Higher Education, n.d.)References
Aitken-Fox, E., Coffey, J., Dayaram, K., Fitzgerald, S., Gupta, C., McKenna, S., & Wei Tian, A. (2020a). COVID-19 and the changing employee experience. LSE Business Review. Retrieved from https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/06/24/ covid-19-and-the-changing-employee-experience/
Aguinis, H., & Burgi-Tian, J. (2020). Measuring performance during crises and beyond: The performance promoter score. Bus Horiz , 64(1), 149–160.
Bartik, A. W., Cullen, Z. B., Glaeser, E. L., Luca, M., & Stanton, C. T. (2020). What jobs are being done at home during the COVID-19 crisis? Evidence from firm-level surveys (No. w27422). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Collings,
D. G., McMackin, J., Nyber, A. J. & Wright, P. M., 2021. Strategic Human
Resource Management and COVID-19: Emerging Challenges and Research
Opportunities. Journal of management studies, 58(5), pp. 1378-1382.
Gigauri, I., 2020. Influence of Covid-19 Crisis on Human Resource
Management and Companies’ Response: The Expert Study. [Online]
Available at: https://researchleap.com/influence-covid-19-crisis-human-resource-management-companies-response-expert-study/
[Accessed 28 12 2020].
Gourinchas, P. -O. (2020). Flattening the pandemic and recession curves. Mitigating the COVID Economic Crisis: Act Fast and Do Whatever, 31,1–227.
Hamouche, S., 2021. Human resource management and the COVID-19
crisis: implications, challenges, opportunities, and future organizational
directions. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-management-and-organization/article/human-resource-management-and-the-covid19-crisis-implications-challenges-opportunities-and-future-organizational-directions/6857481FD64558659EE4C17C6DAE9AB9
[Accessed 14 July 2021].
ILO. (2020). Working conditions. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.ch/global/topics/working-conditions/lang--en/index.htm
Koirala, J., & Acharya, S. (2020). Dimensions of human
resource management evolved with the outbreak of COVID-19. Available at SSRN
3584092.
Leonardi, P. M. (2020). COVID-19 and the new technologies of
organizing: digital exhaust, digital footprints, and artificial intelligence in
the wake of remote work. Journal of Management Studies.
https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/ v58y2021i1p249-253.html
McGraw Hill Higher Education, n.d. Human Resource Management & COVID-19: Balancing Safety, Security, Sustainability, and Survival.
Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qYtHW9xWI
[Accessed 14 July 2021].
Posts
COVID-19 has stunned all organizations, creating a difficult and challenging environment for management and human resource management (HRM) management.
ReplyDeleteOshada, You have explained well the current situation with HRM theories.Great work!
also I have created a post regarding HRM transformation with coid-19 and it shows how it affected to Locally.
Agreed Umesh. The global impact has hit each and every economy as well as the entiries therein and make severe crisis in and around HRM too. Appreciate your comments and will grab the local impact from your article.
DeleteThe COVID-19 pandemic created new ways of working. Currently, some of us are experiencing a hybrid work environment. Due to the current situation, it will be the best option. AS you mentioned, the hybrid workplace model might be an inevitable arrangement for many organizations in the future. Interesting to read it.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Kanchana. Thank you for your valuable ideas.
DeleteGood article Oshadha. Employees need to be supported more than ever especially with the uncertain future and the high possibility of losing jobs or salary deduction. So employers start depending more on their HR department to obtain the right HR strategy which could face new challenges. The problem faced by HR professionals is when applying a new HR strategy to adapt to the different challenges caused by coronavirus, the new practices are not fitting to all employees. For example, many families face big difficulties between staying with the kids at home during school shut down because of the pandemic of COVID- 19 and going to their work or managing the remote work while their kids at home. So HR strategy could not be ideal for them. Organizations need to identify the importance of HR flexibility in applying HR strategy and practices especially with the different circumstances of each employee may face because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Harsha. Thank you for your valuable ideas and comments
DeleteNo doubt that running businesses today while facing the global pandemic of COVID-19 is challenging. Many of the issues have occurred as a result of business and profit drops. Without having sufficient demand and profit in the business, it is difficult to look after a company’s staff. The significant impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on employees’ personal and work lives is leading to employee frustration and tension. These feelings can affect employees’ productivity, poor work quality, errors and influencing an organization’s ability to survive in these difficult times. As you discussed Oshadha, rebuilding organization culture and rearrangement on HR practice is must to manage and overcome this situation.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Oshadha. To be survived in the Pandemic situation HRM must perform a dual role balancing the business and the staff. Today uplifting the business is a struggle, but at the same time HRM must take care of their staff members since without healthy and potential staff a Organizations may not have a future. Thankyou for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWell explained Oshadha. Human resource management (HRM) is mainly placed at the core of this pandemonium, with the impact COVID-19 has on the employees and the need to guarantee their health and safety as well as the need to manage employees in a new setting. There were many actions and decisions, random and strategic, that the HRPs had to make and enforce, such as ensuring employee safety and health, implementing new work arrangements, upholding employee morale and engagement, and handling retrenchments and layoffs.
ReplyDeleteWell thank you for your value addition
DeleteHRM is the key that bond the organizations and the employees with each other. When comes to protecting employees and increasing employees efficiency HRM needs to be changed according to overcome the prevailing situation.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback.
DeleteThe author has covered broadly the challenges faced by HR due to this Covid-19 pandemic and clearly stated the steps and direction to be taken in order to overcome this uncertain situation. Through a proper HRM intervention the employee and organizational survival can be achieved with minimum impact. Well explained.
ReplyDeleteYou have niclely explained the Role of HR in Covid-19 crisis.HRM should take the leadership to navigate in the vague present and unforeseeable future by managing people to cope with stress and to continue working remotely so that business will continue.
ReplyDeleteAs a result of COVID-19, we should expect more people to work remotely or in a work-from-home situation. Manpower planning is one of the most crucial things that businesses need because some industries demand work to be done on-site.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell explained Oshadha, COVID-19 has shaken all organizations, created a difficult and challenging environment for management and human resource management (HRM) management, who need to find smart solutions to ensure the continuity of their companies and help their employees cope with these unusual challenges. HRM about future organizational guidelines that may arise from these opportunities.
ReplyDeleteA timely topic with many challenges. HRM, the industry in which I work, is going through a rough patch. The majority of the staff contracted with Covid-19, which is, once again, an essential service. As a result, running the operation has become even more difficult. As a result, HRM has gone through a wellness program more than anything else.
ReplyDeleteAs all of us well aware that Pandemic Covid-19 affected all the business and as explained it is time for the HRs to come up with the Digi-First strategy to stay connected and let employees to work remotely which allows the organization to keep going.
ReplyDeletePandemic continues to pose a threat to the world in a variety of ways. When it comes to the business sector, some businesses are still operating by following right effective methods and strategies, while others have permanently closed or been sold to others. There are new companies that have been established with excellent strategy and are doing well in business.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing such an interesting topic, Oshadha. You have clearly drafted with excellent literature. Best wishes.