Why HR Manager Should Act As A ‘First Employee’ During This Pandemic

1. Why HR Manager Should Act as A ‘First Employee’ During This Pandemic Do you know that crisis management and business continuity are the top priorities of HR leaders during this outbreak? The words ‘uncertainty’ and ‘business’ usually go hand in hand usually, but it is tremendously increasing due to the existing pandemic situation which is not confined by national, economic and societal borders. In our interconnected and globalized world, the threat is posed to all types of organizations all over the world. Let’s break this bigger pandemic picture into nanoscopic HR challenges such as employee communication, work-family effect, workforce experience, workplace policies, welfare policies etc. A different and interesting perception on people management is awaiting here below. Work-Family Effect The current health crisis already witnessed the major change of work-environment shift. Each of us knows that work and family roles are incompatible in so many aspects and adjusting to inter-role conflict is one of the major challenges we face every day. The long-term suspension of educational institutes adds up to the complexity in maintaining the balances in the life roles. One way to support our employee in this kind of situation is to provide them with enough ‘informational support’ like local childcare or elderly care options, self-development programs and finally the virtual training opportunities that helps them to adaptable to the current changing roles and requirements. Effective Virtual Communication – A New HR Strategy Critical communications of the senior management or the leaders should reach every employee of the organization. Transparent communication during tough times like this can influence a positive and motivating attitude among the employees. Modelling the right behaviors virtually through proactive engagement and guidance can help every organization to face the uncertainty challenges. HR management should have a dedicated channel for disseminating information to share the information from authentic sources like WHO and CDC. Never ‘Under-Estimate’ The Importance of On-Boarding Experience On-boarding is the fundamental element for any employee to feel about their ‘new’ organization. According to the glass door survey, on-boarding experience improves employee retention by 82%. The current virtual on-boarding process has the huge burden on HR leaders to teach the new bees about the hierarchy, familiarization of the company’s culture, mentoring programs based on individual and their performances. As a solution, a new advanced and compatible human resource management tool proves that organizations of all sizes can work effectively through the prevailing distributed staffing model. The emergence of innovative HR practices to handle the resources across disciplines to tackle the socio- psychological, physical and technical implications for the employee is undoubtedly unique. Every HR leader need to possess the entrepreneurial skill to leverage and equip themselves in better ways during this outbreak; Despite the limited physical and social interactivity, they need to lead the organization by showing how to best thrive in the current turbulent work environment Apart from the above discussed challenges, human resource leaders should also consider revisiting the leave policies, travel and the traditional meeting protocols. That’ why, we at HRBlusky, leading human resource management system in UAE has all the changes that fit the current challenges like effective communication channel, leave management system, attendance management system and much more to boost the employee morale.