2020 is a chaotic year for businesses. In the
first half of the year, companies underwent a great deal of unprecedented
change. While companies were gearing up to achieve targets set for the year:
digital transformation, new recruitment plan, and improving the employee
experience, the priorities soon changed quickly.
Layoffs, furlough, or taking the entire
workforce remote were certainly not among the plans for
the year. HR
leaders, however, made all efforts to make the best of the situation. Now
as we enter the second half of the year, there’s a drastic change in the
priorities of the companies. The mind of
the CHROs is occupied with pressing concerns and priorities are very different
than what we expected in the beginning of the year.
Workforce planning
According to a McKinsey & Company report,
for one-third of all leaders, workforce planning is a high priority for the
next 12 months. The pandemic has forced leaders to identify the roles that are
crucial for the success of the business. Remote workforce and change in
business operation is driving leaders to see what roles make the most impact and
what roles are redundant in the present situation.
With the hiring budget in a state of flux and an
uncertain future, CHROs need to zero in on the skills that are most important
to companies in a post-pandemic world to emerge successfully.
With a remote workforce becoming a norm, leaders
have can now have talent acquisition strategies, overcome skill shortages,
focus on cultural diversity after the pandemic is over.
Learning and development
L&D teams have suddenly found themselves at
the center of the organization’s priorities. CHROs and CLOs can work together to
identify the necessary skills that the organization needs and ensure learning
and training material is available across the organization.
As the focus on organizational agility intensifies,
the emphasis on learning and development for business growth will increase. L&D
isn’t a nice to have business function anymore. The pandemic has shown the
contribution of L&D in talent development that translates into business
growth.
One of the goals of the L&D teams is to
deliver capabilities for the future. In the face of pandemic and declining
investment in learning and development programs, how to keep the investment up
is a challenge for HR leaders.
Employee Wellness
Employees are working longer hours at home. On
top of that, they are living a life full of uncertainty. Right from a trip to
the grocery store – where short supply, to public health and safety. These
weigh on employees' minds. In this situation, CHROs need to keep a watch on
employee health and wellness.
Communication
With the layoffs and shutdowns, it is natural
for employees that something of this sort could happen to them. The
responsibility to ensure that employees aren’t afraid and that their job is safe,
the responsibility lies with HR leaders.
Regular communication from leaders will keep the
employees’ morale up. With a bit of personal element added in the
communication, it will remind employees of the human side of the company,
becoming a source of strength for employees.
Contingency plan
It is widely acknowledged that the role of CHRO
in the current situation is the same as what was of the CFO in the Global
recession. CHROs will carry many lessons from the current crisis, like how they
developed new strategies to overcome challenges.
One of the key takeaways for the leaders in this
pandemic was to have a contingency plan.
Leaders realized that businesses can tumble any time. It is better to prepare for the best and keep resources handy for the worst of situations. Backup resources and workforce should be at their disposal at all times, especially health crisis and regulatory changes.
