IMPRESSIONS||August 2021

IIM ROHTAK HUMANE-R PRESENTS IMPRESSIONS August 2021 HUMANE.R@IIMROHTAK.AC.IN

"Economic Crisis for HR Managers during Covid-19"

INTRODUCTION: ‘COVID-19: impact could cause equivalent of 195 million job losses, says ILO chief.’

‘India's unemployment in 2020 at worst level in 29 years, shows study.’ ‘81 million jobs lost as COVID-19 creates turmoil in Asia-Pacific labour market.’ ‘India's unemployment rate sharply rose to 7.11 per cent in 2020 from 5.27 per cent in 2019.’ ‘Pandemic leads to huge reduction in working hours, reverses job growth and pushes millions into working poverty.’

‘There are job disruptions in the form of reduced working hours and earnings, job losses for both paid workers and the self-employed; disruptions in their education and training; difficulties in transitioning from school to work, and moving between jobs in a recession.’

The above are just few of the disturbing news headlines from the past two years that unfortunately we read on a recurring basis owing to the impact of Covid’19 on our lives.

Covid’19, a word that has unfortunately taken the world by storm and created hinderances that would take years of efforts, mental toil and hard work to rectify.

In between all the mental hardships and loss of lives, one thing that was impacted the most was the way the corporates started operating. From physically meeting every day to transitioning into a completely virtual mode, to having employee engagement activities in the presence of everyone, to now getting to know everyone online, from hiring year around, to now unfortunately laying off several people and imposing leave without pay for the rest, the human resource was one of the departments which went into a 360⸰ turmoil.

The economic crisis led to an entire shift in the way the human resource department functioned.

Apart from the above, moderating and evaluating the performance of the employees virtually, training and developing the workforce online and having performance management system imposed via rectangle screens in the form of mobile and laptops, the entire HR practices had to change and now adapt to the current scenario.

Keeping the employee morale boosted and maintaining a check on their mental health was a task in itself all around the world but as we say in our management practice that “Tough times create tough leaders”, everyone contributed and played their part in easing out the entire process.

My article is written with a vision to showcase the relationship between the economic crisis and the human resource management, and along with that, somewhere in the path give an ode to the success of the HR professionals in being able to adapt, achieve and evolve the company practices.

My article is distributed in parts where I explain the different departments of the human resource and how each department braved it all to face the economic crisis and adapt to the “New Normal’, along with motivating their employees to do the same. It will also cover the steps taken by corporates, as a ray of hope that it leads to something positive and fruitful along the way. Lastly, the article also covers examples of few organisations which have been leading the way in their success stories during the Covid-19 by being an example to other corporates because of their sheer determination and perseverance to bring along a change and maintain the positivity in between all the negativity that had grappled the entire world.

Taking the above 4 departments one by one and discussing on the same via usage of problem statements and solutions as mentioned belowRECRUITMENT/STAFFING: PROBLEM STATEMENT: With the pandemic entering into our life as a gush, bringing along with it tons of anxiety and confusion, the entire corporate culture had to be transformed overnight. From the hiring process witnessing a standstill, to even the employees working at their respective organisations facing dilemma and constant anxiety about their job security, the entire pressure now shifted to the HR department, making them question the entire process and framing a new plan of action within a few days itself. Not only were the corporates affected because of the stop in the hiring process, even HR consulting firms witnessed a dearth in the number of mandates coming to them because of the reduction in job opportunities. With this, the revenue of the firms saw a toss due to lesser work and trying to maintain a balance between the existing employees and the way the offices now have to run. The pandemic resulted in lesser work, efficiency and revenue for the firms, thus contributing to the economic crisis and a challenge for the human resource professionals to now juggle between keeping or laying off the employees along with many firms opting for pay cut and leave without pay option for their employees’ example leading corporates like IndiaBulls and BookMyShow.com

SOLUTION: Leading companies like Tata Group paved the way for other organisations by coming on record and saying that they won’t layoff any employee at their organisation as they believed that “these people were there in the organisation’s good times. We do not leave our family members alone when dark clouds cover us”. This garnered the attention of a lot of HR professionals who then retained their existing employees.

Similarly, LinkedIn became an extended family for a lot of people where an HR of one organisation could directly come in touch with another unemployed professional and offer him/her a job at their organisation. ‘Tough times create good leaders’ and that’s what this pandemic taught us. The HR played a pivotal role in shifting the recruitment process online. From earlier having a compulsion to meet people physically before rolling out the offer letter, now organisations initiated virtual hiring process and also, took care of scheduling interviews according to the convenience of the candidates. Also, the HR professionals played a vital role in convincing several employees at leadership positions to take a pay cut to help sustain their employees. Adding to this, few HR Professionals also decreased the retirement benefits for a period of time so that atleast the current salary is not impacted. ‘When life throws curveballs at you, you don’t just sit and stare; you try and throw them out of the park’ and that is exactly what the HRs around the world tried and achieved.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: PROBLEM STATEMENT: With every organisation having a diverse workforce, each group bringing their own unique ideas and vision, shifting to a new virtual mode of learning process required training activities to be conducted, As the Gen X is not as well equipped to the technology as Gen Z, a lot of resources, time and money had to be invested in the same and hence, the HR had to deduce a part of the budget to upskilling these professionals and ensure a smooth transition to the virtual process. Saving a part of the budget on this during the pandemic and economic crisis when the corporates where anyway facing the wrath of losses, the HR department had to come up with a strategy which will equip the company to spend a particular amount on training as well as ensure increase in efficiency.SOLUTION: Having seminars and sessions induced with learning, and training employees on software like Zoom, Ms Teams, Gmeet and so on, required a certain amount of expense which could be possible only by a thoughtful analysis and calculative approach. Hence, the HR professionals sat, analysed, and enforced these sessions by distributing their budget in such a manner that the cost incurred on these sessions

could be compensated by taking diverse measures like indulging the seniors of the organisations to take a pay cut, making the IT professionals of the organisation take these sessions so that the cost is saved and yet people are benefitted by this horizontal hierarchy approach, taking adequate measures to ensure that every employee is ready to give a few hours more than needed to learn these technology and deal with the problem hands on. ‘Nothing difficult in life comes easy’ and hence, dealing with the pandemic and using this as an opportunity to upskill, reskill, modify and make the organisation and its employees more technologically capable was the need of the hour and several corporate houses were able to hence, survive this difficult time.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: PROBLEM STATEMENT: Bonding with employees, sharing vision and ideas, gossiping over tea breaks, ideating and forming project plans are a pivotal part in promoting the grapevine communication in every organisation. These are requisites helping employees develop strong bonds and even stronger friendships at workplace. Overnight, shifting all of this from the physical mode to the virtual mode disrupted the informal communication process of every organisation. From meeting associates daily to now shifting it entirely over square boxes of video calls needed patience and a large amount of motivation. It is true that informal communication strengthens bonds and hence efficiency at the workplace. Not being able to speak to colleagues can definitely hamper the work process and add to the already existing imbalance in the mental peace of the associates.

Covid’19 contributed in hampering the mental peace of working professionals as every person now had to battle internally between maintaining mental peace, family and work life balance and the absence of the support of colleagues. Thus, the efficiency of work was at stake, leading to threat of targets and revenue being achieved, hence further contributing to the economic crisis.

SOLUTION: Throughout the world, the Human Resource professionals thus started ensuring that more of employee engagement activities were conducted like Yoga Day, Comedy Evenings by bringing in a string of standup comedians, ensuring all special

days of the employees are celebrated with full gusto and enthusiasm, recognition on achieving targets were given, best performers were awarded etc. Few leading organisations also went a step ahead and ensured mental health leave to be given to all employees to ensure that they take care of their well being like UrbanClap and India Inc, shifting the attention of every employer towards the importance of mental health.

Also, a range of companies supported and provided aid to the employee when any family member was detected covid positive. All this support ensured that the employees felt like a part of the extended corporate family.

PERFORMANCE & COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT: PROBLEM STATEMENT: Measuring the efficiency of performance by PMS or performance management system virtually and ensuring proper compensation is provided to the employees even during such a ghastly economic crisis was a challenge in itself that the HR professionals had to brave. Virtually maintaining the records, measuring the performance, discussing the appraisal policy, keeping a tab on the variable calculation, maintaining the payroll and distribution of salary was a herculean task, considering even the HR Department had to figure out a way to make it all efficient and effective.

SOLUTION: Several organisations introduced MIS and online salary preparation system to make the process faster and accurate. Leading companies also took a step in the right direction and outsourced this process to other accounting firms. Companies like Big 4 and Amazon even gave incentives, bonus and appraisal to all their employees despite of facing certain losses during the initial phase, making the employees efforts feel valued and recognised. CONCLUSION: I would like to sum up my article with a hope in my heart for things to get better, a moment of pride for the HR professionals who braved the situation, and finally a desire that the below mentioned solutions prove to be fruitful. Also, attached are 2 surveys which the HR professionals can undertake for understanding the needs of their employees during Covid’19.

SAMPLE SURVEYS: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScBCSEg4pVLj-wiVv09XqvZ8oG18j8tacQHrzA14M7iLi71w/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1 https://www.research.net/r/MPHDYJM

Written By- Ridhima Tandon NMIMS, Hyderabad

"Economic Crisis for HR Managers during Covid-19.”

The worldwide pandemic has definitely changed the scene of our business climate.

Organizations have confronted physical and calculated difficulties as many have needed to move their labor force on the web. Simultaneously, the U.S. has fallen into a downturn not at all like some other as associations explore monetary difficulties that have prompted vacations and cutbacks. Organizations have revealed record decays, lost incomes and – sometimes – shut their entryways for great. This has required an advancement of HR's job during this economic crisis, as these experts give staffing understanding to undeniably challenging business choices, offer imaginative critical thinking, and oversee ability and culture, more than they at any point have previously.

The economic impact of COVID-19 additionally straightforwardly affects liability encompassing youth business. In the wake of the last monetary emergency, a few nations saw whole ages face a future with far less freedoms.

The above figure shows the greatest risks to the world thought by Business Leaders due to COVID-19 The Associations need to presently forecast risk areas and adjust to guarantee worker wellbeing and relieve expected effects on the business.

The following are four significant inquiries/questions that HR must consider: What type of roles are business critical: HR Managers should apply vital and strategic workforce planning: look at which business regions, work families or explicit people (gatherings) are impacted by temporary modifications in the business conditions They should mirror the headcount information to the prerequisites, making overcapacities straightforward and permitting proper measures (for example brief time framework) to be demonstrated. It’s also significant to empower circumstance-based arranging of the labor force and make an information-based structure for basic business choices, particularly in the staff setting.

How could they explicitly up-and reskill the labor force in order to prepare the business for a risk? For this it’s instrumental that the HR Managers use Artificial Intelligence solutions for more effective HR Management as well as skill-management by utilizing and interfacing information. They need to be able to distinguish ability holes and capability possibilities for people and associations to be ready for what's to come. Apart from that they also need to keep an outline of the accessible expertise scene in their organization, know which individual has which abilities and who is the best master on a point.

Which workers to recruit and terminate (incase required) later: The HR Managers should conduct work-force risk analysis. They need to make an interpretation of business refinements into labor force pre-requisites and take measures to enhance labor force organization. It’s very important that they plan their recruiting ahead and set vital abilities with future labor force bits of knowledge. Among now and when we

return to normalcy as usual, there will be decreases. The HR Managers would also need to comprehend the useful limit of the labor force: is it excessively high or excessively low? How could it be changing week to week?

How to make the economic cycle work when barely anything is delivered, moved, and devoured: It’s essential to focus on the essential post-emergency thoughts and to put resources into our own and representatives' abilities development. This will forestall the inconsistent dissemination of human work and useful limit and will let to utilize own staff genuinely.

Here are few tips for HR Managers to follow in the Economic Crisis during COVID 19 Giving

Employees

Sufficient

notice

in

case

of

salary

delay:

It

is

comprehensible that it might be arduous to completely pay out employees on time during the COVID 19. However, it would be better to give employees sufficient/ample notice in case there is going to be any delay in giving them salaries so that the employees can also be better prepared and there is no bitterness in this already strenuous time.

Considering Layoff as the very last Option: For large organizations considering layoffs, the first option should be to cut the salaries of the higher paid employees to try to retain the employee who can least bear to lose their jobs employed.

Nevertheless, when the time comes to make the hard call, it’s important to do it with compassion & look out for government directives and offer extra compensation as and when needed. These types of implementation must be actualized only once and not in phases so that it does not affect the morale of the employees.

Transparent Communication: The HR should chalk out a good form of communication with employees as well as customers. They should have an honest

conversation on the current circumstances & its severe economic effect on the business with the Leadership team. The negative news must be conveyed with paramount empathy along with transparent reasons.

In a SHRM Overview from April 2020, 83% of managers showed that they are changing their

strategic

policies

considering

the

pandemic.

HR's

job

in

a

financial

Emergency/economic crisis has caused a shift, as experts are presently entrusted with driving large numbers of those progressions and establishing a culture and climate that upholds the change. This change has permitted human asset experts to exhibit abilities that have not been depended upon by many organizations before and made an emphasis on limiting expenses while drawing in staff during testing times.

The HR Experts have adopted various approaches in this regard: Strengthening Key Organizations/Partnerships: First, HR is assuming a huge part during this emergency in teaming up and cooperating with business pioneers to keep the entryways open and their representatives drew in and useful. As organizations battle to battle the difficulties Coronavirus has introduced, many are perceiving how vital HR can be to the strength of their business (and the wellbeing of

their

representatives),

For

certain

ventures,

like

medical

services,

accommodation, assembling, and appropriation, distant work isn't a choice, introducing extraordinary difficulties for both HR and representatives (like childcare and self-teaching) that have not been as pervasive previously. For instance: KPMG as of late dispatched a learning experience for school going children, permitting workers to pool with different guardians to discover teachers to direct in-home or virtual learning for little gatherings of kids, ages 5-18. This is an instrumental demonstration of HR Managers pushing the boundaries of imagination and cutoff points in the workplace atmosphere to associate their representative and employer requirements.

Examining & Addressing the Needs of the Talent: It very well might be normal that HR's job during an economic crisis would base on ability. As organizations settle on basic staffing choices, the assessment of ability and the utilization of that ability becomes central. In the course of cost-saving conversation & analysis, critical endeavors should be made to utilize staff. The utilization of execution assessments and improvement instruments, succession plans, and broadly educating measures will permit the organization to decide appropriate leaves and cutbacks that will limit the effect of staff decreases. The data previously aggregated on current staff will take into consideration the appropriate turn to fill business needs – because of cost-saving actions in addition to cover misfortunes because of representative ailment, time away, and isolates.

Dealing with the Temperament: Troublesome occasions become the most vital chance to "deal with the disposition" of the organization. The truth of the financial crisis gives possibility to both HR and business pioneers to adjust to the circumstance to empower and accept a culture open to adaptability and development. Know and stay mindful.

This is an ideal chance to remain straightforward in correspondences on what's going on in the association, just as perceiving what is left obscure.

Financial difficulties consistently negatively affect representatives somehow and thought should be made for the emotional wellness of those that are at the core of the association to guarantee a flourishing and useful climate. An important way is: Ø Advance your Representative Help Plans Ø Exploit the co-pay waiver of numerous wellbeing plans for emotional well-being Ø Give standard correspondence to staff on monetary proposals from nearby banks and local area assets. Example: In their endeavors to meet the psychological well-being requirements of their workers, Verizon Media extended their Care program to offer elective assets that assist representatives with overseeing pressure, further develop rest and adapt to tension, and admittance to virtual emergency guiding meetings.

As indicated by Mental Health America (MHA), the organization has likewise made a stage that highlights stories from their own staff to begin significant discussions.

Another Example: Many companies, including Walmart, have stretched their employee assistance plans (EAP’s) to incorporate all representatives, paying little heed to their work status. By underlining assets to facilitate the weight and fears of representatives, HR can keep on offering help during this economic crisis.

Utilize the slowdown for your Potential benefit: With an end goal to fully harness the testing circumstances, both HR and business pioneers can exploit this more slow speed by getting and completing tasks that regularly fall as a second thought. For instance, training & preparing. Although it may not be monetarily feasible to offer preparing programs during this time, it tends to be done if HR experts utilize an opportunity to focus on their preparation abilities and offer self-planned, far off preparing programs for staff. These could be programs normally reevaluated because of time or cost-contemplations that would now be able to be created inhouse. Preparing for workers should be possible modestly by means of distant stages by HR or through the trading of skill from inside colleagues and staff.

Utilizing this procedure, managers would surely be able to keep on underlining the importance of putting resources into preparing/training.

As per a Forbes' review, "The Effect of the Covid in the Working environment", it has gotten clear that for some associations, Coronavirus has urged many to think outside about the standard. Organizations are making a move to reexamine regular cycles and suppositions, think about a redefinition of item or plan, or maybe a recharged accentuation on Research and development.

In the end, it can be concluded that HR's part in this economic crisis has moved and developed. The current economic crisis has squeezed HR experts and business pioneers to accomplish more with less. HR experts can and should make a bigger move to assume a huge part in driving their association through this crisis. While showing their help of the business and its representatives through fitting financial activities, they can uphold both the association's vision/mission and its workers' wellbeing and prosperity.

Written By- Ankur Sharma SIIB, Pune