Research Update: Evolving the HR practitioner role from the COVID-19 experience

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the New Zealand workplace, with the environment not yet reaching its new normal. Paula O’Kane summarises international published research and contextualises this to the New Zealand environment to identify the challenges faced and ingenious solutions created, how these might create longerterm positive organisational change and how HR can support this.

The strategic role of HRM has been both amplified and challenged by the pandemic. HR knowledge and expertise has come to the forefront in many areas, including managing remote working, reacting to changes in the health and safety environment brought on by government initiatives, such as vaccine mandates, and introducing virtual recruitment and selection. This gives the HR profession a stronger voice in the boardroom, potentially increasing the often berated legitimacy of the profession. On the other hand, some strategic decisions are being postponed while pandemic decisions take precedence, preventing medium to long-term planning for HR.

Wellbeing initiatives were already emerging but working from home, and the need to increase workforce resilience, makes this a continued area of influence that HR can take the lead on.

Increasing versus reducing stress

Equally, as wellbeing and health and safety experts, HR practitioners have had their personal energy zapped through increased functional HR practices, such as checking people's vaccine status, and creating and implementing new policies, such as working from home and maskwearing. Research, though, shows that providing accurate, appropriate and timely pandemic information has been linked to reduced employee stress and increased motivation, confidence and retention, thereby embedding the importance of core HR activities to business success. Given the strong job market in New Zealand, with low unemployment rates and high

levels of active job seekers, employee retention is and will continue to be high on the agenda for HR. During the pandemic,

compensation levels have become more important to

employees, therefore, reviewing pay structures and increasing variable pay can help attract and retain employees at this time.

At the forefront of change

Adapting to changing working conditions across roles and industries has been challenging on a day-today basis, but the pandemic has likely accelerated the opportunity for positive ongoing changes to the way we work. By consulting with employees and considering different ways of working, the HR profession has been at the forefront of impactful change, which can both benefit the wellbeing of employees and the performance of organisations. One example is the shift to working from home, which has increased flexibility in how and where we work. For some organisations this has been highly successful, for others more difficult and has led to inequities within and across workplaces. The nationwide ‘experiment’ of working from home presents at least three main opportunities to improve organisational functioning: re-evaluating individual and organisational productivity measures (given New Zealand has one of the lowest productivity rates in the OECD), focusing on wellbeing and creating higher levels of flexibility.

Productivity, flexibility and wellbeing

First, although self-reported evidence from New Zealand suggests productivity was higher working from home during lockdowns, objective performance is more difficult to gauge. This provides the HR profession with the opportunity to shift organisations to outputbased measures of performance (such as cases resolved, documents produced) rather than an input-based measure (such as hours at work). This can be challenging in some sectors, but output-based measures tend to attract higher-performing employees and, if implemented well, can be seen as fairer. Additionally, they can allow more flexible work arrangements. Second is the opportunity to embed more flexibility through increased use of job redesign. We know some people prefer to work from home, others need the social aspect of coming to the office, and societal factors, such as generational differences and caring responsibilities, have increased the need for flexibility. Considering how roles are designed, increasing job crafting and building on individual skills can ultimately provide a job description more tailored to the individual. This requires strong performance management, leadership and communication but can ultimately increase attraction and retention of skilled staff. Third, health and safety has evolved in unexpected ways revealing the strategic importance of HR’s professional knowledge. Wellbeing initiatives were already emerging but working from home, and the need to increase workforce resilience, makes this is a continued area of influence that HR can take the lead on. Consultation and communication with employees sit at the heart of effective messaging about health and safety, both of which are essential HR skills.

Paula O'Kane (PhD) is a senior lecturer in human resource management at the University of Otago, Dunedin. Her recent research has explored social media in selection, remote working and performance management. She is part of the Work Futures Otago group, exploring the Future of Work in Aotearoa, New Zealand.