Tahseen Zakaria

The recent spread of Coronavirus outbreak (the official Covid-19 pandemic) has taken the world by surprise! Many of us (businessmen, corporate professionals etc.) have not even seen such an unprecedented event in our entire professional career. Therefore, it is not unusual that Human Resources professionals would also not be knowing what to do in order to address the challenges for supporting businesses during this difficult time. Not only the ongoing Covid-19 situation is negatively impacting businesses around the world in terms of declining sales and difficulty in providing customer support/service, but it is also impacting productivity and employee loss time to a great extent. Many businesses had no other option but to send their employees out from factories and offices and is allowing them to stay and work from home. Few organizations were forced to allow indefinite period of paid (or in some cases unpaid) leaves to their employees in response to the said outbreak.

If your organization has opted for allowing employees to work from home, then as a responsible Human Resources Manager your role is not only confined in tracking attendance through team management software (such as Microsoft Team or SLACK), but also to ensure that employee moral stays high and steps are taken to retain general engagement level. The below are some essential steps that you should (and must) consider performing to support your organization during this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic:

Reduce employee stress level on Covid-19 situation: Enable access and direct your employees to accurate information related to the Covid-19 pandemic. This will help to manage existing stress level of employees and will also defuse confusion over repatriation efforts once the current situation is over. Keeping employees away from rumours by circulating short pandemic update/bulletins listed with authentic information (such as articles from WHO, John Hopkins University etc.) in a befitting manner will surely help to ease up the tension and keep personal morale high for employees.

One-on-one counselling to retain employee engagement level: Focus on establishing the human side of the business rather than highlighting revenue or current performance. Instead of sharing traditional business KPIs, share (and promote) how your product/service can really help the mass during this difficult time. Instil this very notion by calling critical resources over phone/Skype, enquiring about their present whereabouts, and asking whether they need any assistance? Ask directly whether the organization can possibly help to stay stress free, and to stay engaged with the work? Based on the feedback received, discuss and agree together within the Management level with the next course of action(s).

Take leverage of the online learning and meeting platforms: Arrange virtual engagement events and online activities such as Town Hall meetings and department wise Watch Party from time to time using official social media spaces, Zoom, or Skype. Encourage employees to share their own fun activities (such as Work-from-home Vs. Work-for-home etc.) and quick achievements over common internal groups/platforms such as WhatsApp, Closed Facebook Groups etc. In addition, initiate learning competition by encouraging faster completion of online trainings or send discounted coupons to employees for accessing outside online training platforms (such as Lynda, Udemy etc.) to gain new skills, and to spend the week in productivity.

Incentive for selected employee groups: In case the organization has select group of employees (such as field sales force, site engineers, cash officers, security guards etc.) still required to stay physically out in the market/offices/branches to provide service/support directly to the customers- do consider designing and sanctioning an extra incentive program for the group. These select group of employees would also appreciate HR’s effort in arranging daily temperature-check, health diagnoses (doctor call, or in person) along with any medical insurance/support for ease of mind.

Stay prepared for post pandemic actions: In conclusion, it is difficult at this stage to predict how (and when) the Covid-19 pandemic is to cease its ongoing impact on businesses across the world. The prediction of a global recession taking place is also not out of the list of post-pandemic possibilities. Therefore, it may also not be unsurprising for HR to be asked by businesses to execute a smooth and thorough HR cost cutting initiative immediately in the next quarter. This might imply cutting down existing salary of employees to an extent that would guarantee continuation of employment or executing a pre-planned rightsizing imitative resulting in smaller workforce size. HR professionals should also be ready to handle and address such sort of business urgencies and must equip themselves with the relevant knowledge (and skills) required for analysing, planning, executing and monitoring of such change interventions. No matter what we will be required to do, one thing is certain- businesses after Covid-19 pandemic is not to remain the same, and HR will have much more important part to play in that scenario ever before!

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[Tahseen Zakaria, SPHRi is the COO & Lead Consultant of SkillWiz™, a recognized consultancy, training & certification firm in the fields of HR & OD in Bangladesh. Tahseen possesses more than 14 years of professional experience in both national and international level organizations and is also the Founder Member & Treasurer of HR Forum, Chittagong. He can be contacted directly to hrforumctg@gmail.com.]