Introduction to COVID 19 Pandemic
With the identification of first known case in Wuhan China, in December 2019, the Covid-19 virus has become the worst and the rapidly spreading pandemic across the continents today. Every single human being in the world has to change their regular life patterns accordingly to match with the Pandemic. For example a face mask, which was then seen only inside hospitals, now can be seen everywhere as an everyday wear and it has become a forced habit to wear a mask when you are outside home.
The Covid19 pandemic, not only affect
the human respiratory system but in a larger scale it had also affected the
social, political, educational and economical wellness of humans as well. This
pandemic had led to a significant slowdown in the world economic activities and
increase in unemployment rate in many countries.
Like all the other countries, Sri
Lankan government has also imposed intermittent lock downs to curb the spread
of Covid 19 and lockdowns were the main obstacle for many companies to function
normally. So even in the mid of this ongoing pandemic, companies have to
restart under extraordinary rules and new functioning methods in order to
recover from this economic shock.
Therefore this pandemic itself creates
a complex and challenging environment for HRM Practitioners to sustain the
growth of their company and to help their employees to cope with the
challenges.
HRM challenges
- Staffing
In simple terms, the process of finding, selecting evaluating and developing a working relationship with current or future employees is greatly impacted by Covid 19. The repercussions of COVID-19 on staffing differ from one organization to another, since some industries were experiencing a sharp decline in their business), whereas other industries (eg: Heath sector, security sector) have seen their business flourishing during this pandemic.
- Work from home
The concept of working from home or remote working is more popular now and it has become the new normal practice, because it prevents the employer from social contact caused by travelling and working with other staff members. However, this method is not effective in every case. It is especially not possible for manufacturing firms operational staff and some other fields.
But when it comes to HRM certain HR functions can be easily digitalized such as payroll system. So in the current context digitalization of possible HR Functions would be a better solution to avoid unnecessary social contacts and to work smart from home.
- Learning and Development
Training and knowledge sharing sessions is a compulsory HR function which should be carry out without a break for the sake of employee motivation. Therefore even through the pandemic, the HR managers should find ways to educate the staff through online or organizing training programs physically for a limited crowd or through online.
- Performance management
This HR function is quite a dilemma when evaluating the performance of employees who are working from home. Therefore, identifying poor performing employees and get rid of them while rewarding employees who are highly committed and showing excellent performance even at this economically difficult situation is highly essential to retain employees.
- Safety and Health Management
Therefore the main challenge for managers and HRM practitioners, in this context, is to identify the risk factors and to implement the proper prevention measures in the workplace, including for employees working from home
Conclusion
No one can still predict when this pandemic is going to end. Therefore the companies have to run bearing all the difficulties. So for that, it is important that the companies have to make plans and get ready for the uncertainty while looking after their staff and the business. Hence, modifying the workplace culture is compulsory. HR together with the management team has to make an enough effort to adjust the culture to run the business while ensuring the business goals during the pandemic and even after that as well.
References
Hamouche,
S. (2021). Human resource management and the COVID- 19 crisis: Implications,
challenges,opportunities, and future organizational directions. Journal of
management & Organization, 1-16. Doi:10.1017/jmo.2021.15
Ratnayaka,
U 2020, The impact of Covid 19 on Human Resource management and the way
forward, Daily FT, 12 November, https://www.ft.lk/management/The-impact-ofCOVID-19-on-human-resource-management-and-the-way-forward/53-708803
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7836425/
It is well organized and highly critically reviewed research.
ReplyDeleteThank You.
DeleteYes, both companies and employees are experiencing numerous challenges as a result of the pandemic situation, including welfare, salary, distant work environments, and so on. As a result, HRM has been reorganized to protect organizations' most valuable asset, their employees.
ReplyDeleteWhat suggestions do you have for resolving the present HRM issues created by the pandemic?
Yes it is true that the pandemic has led to many undiscovered problems. For the companies mostly in IT sector, the ultimate solution is encouraging remote work. But that could not be applied same way in every other sector specially in apparel industry, banks, construction industry etc. where the physical involvement of humans is a must. So as a solution for such companies the HRM can suggest solutions such as initiating work rosters, encouraging hybrid conferences to held annual meetings, company discussions, progress reviews and interviews, expanding employee benefits as a method of rewarding employees who engaged in extra duties etc.
DeleteHi Niroshan
ReplyDeleteSo informative blog. How do you suggest the HR should measure the productivity during COVID 19 pandemic of their employees? Many companies had the problem that the efficiency greatly reduced during work from home scenario.
Thank you, Mafaz. Yes, with the new trend of working from home most of the companies have faced the same problem in measuring the productivity of employees I suggest any sort of a smart KPI specifically made to measure the performance of employees who work from home could solve the problem at a certain level. Apart from that holding regular discussions with employees may also help the HRM to identify the issues and shortcomings that employees have while working from home. And I think this topic should be discussed.
DeleteIt's a good topic and you have pointed some important challenges which directly affects on both companies and employees.
ReplyDeleteThank You.
Delete