COVID 19: HR-Leadership Roles; The Landmark Changes Envisaged
A thought leader and an action catalyzer rolled into one – Anil Puri is a rare combination of a visionary, and one who has mastered the art of strategic and tactical thinking to the core. He has been using this combination to seed new ideas and to lead them to their implementation on ground. This has been a consistent feature of his career. He has been keenly watching the widespread disruption caused by COVID 19 across the board in all contours of the industry. The spontaneous and immediate impact was on the organizations, HR & employees. Leadership roles have seen curative changes in HR which are already transforming the role of the HR and will be more prominently seen even in post COVID 19 period. In this series on HR roles, here he attempts to de-cypher and unfold the inevitable. INTRODUCTION COVID-19 has not just changed the world but also changed the DNA of our HR functions & workplace ecosystem in many ways. Our HR leaders must change as well, so as to lead effectively in this COVID induced stressed time. If this pandemic experience has taught us anything, it’s just that leadership matters. For many organizations facing decidedly fragile futures, it may matter more than ever as the country tries to emerge from forced hibernation and rebuild a broken economy. Throughout this tragedy, amidst various contradictory and conflicting view-points; we are witness to certain leadership traits and approaches that have made the difference between life and death. Similarly, our organizations will require distinct leadership traits to restore and revive stressed and flailing supply chains, product lines, and even entire industries. Just as things were looking up for global economies, COVID-19 struck and started disrupting human routine, lifestyle, businesses and the global economy. The overall economic impact of the pandemic will overshadow operations for years to come. Yet, in so much of chaos, one aspect that stood out was the ability of HR leaders across the globe to hold all ends together and fix gaps quickly to ensure continuity of their businesses. Since mid-February 2020, ‘This is Our Moment’ unequivocally and rightfully so because this crisis put the HR function in the radar of importance, visibility, and influence. HR functions have become the most sought-after for their ability to control the damage. They come up with contingency plans, and then control the endless complexity of people management – all this while keeping the spirit of the organization and togetherness intact. Amongst all the drastic changes, the biggest efforts have gone into the immediate shift to ‘work from home.’ All organizations, big or small, relied heavily on their HR and IT teams to ensure the well being of their people while they deliver on business-critical processes from home. Pre Covid Leadership. This has been discussed threadbare in my previous article in the HR series and needs no amplification at the cost of space, hence the same is being dropped. LEADERSHIP DURING COVID 19 When COVID started to spread rapidly, crisis response became the top priority for HR. The CEOs, CIOs, CHROs of the big multi-national organizations agree that their HR team’s crisis response was successful to an extent in addressing three important aspects – communication, remote work, and prompt reporting. Also, efficient reporting capabilities using emails, SMS, internal and external social media and internet have allowed the companies to pivot to meet critical needs as productivity and absenteeism shifted unpredictably. Taking it a step further, secure and remote-friendly tools made employees’ lives easier and their work more productive as they work from home. We can’t be sure of when COVID 19 will be erased by the vaccines which are still in the different stages of trials in labs globally. Hence we are in an unchartered paradigm… space where ‘surviving against odds’ is the new norm. The salient features of the behavioral shift noted in the employee concern fell into four important areas; mainly physical health and well being, remote work, issues related to jobs and work continuity, an urgent need for mental health, resilience, family support, and dealing with uncertainty. Hence, HR organizations must expand the support they provide to employees. (a) Mental Health will come to the fore – due to increasing appreciation of its importance. (b) Employees will get more comfortable with technology – they will expand their comfort, capability and confidence with all-things tech. (c) Relationship with teammates will improve – due to virtual conversations that include repartee about family life, culinary skills, home workouts, the fun antics of kids and more. (d) Happiness and life – importance of family while WFH. (e) Diversity will be seen in new light-as employees bring their best to work – through inclusive design, new policies and practices, and new approaches to teamwork that support different ways of working. (f) Work will become more flexible – teams are figuring out how to collaborate at a distance and leaders are improving their ability to manage based on outcomes and objectives rather than presence. (g) Workspace will get neater – fumigation, social distancing, disinfecting, pest control, hand sanitizers, clean floors etc., will become more significant. (h) Your company’s approach will change as the ability to respond promptly will have a positive effect on the workforce of tomorrow. (i) Innovation will flourish as today’s struggles and pain are forcing new ways of thinking, better approaches, and fresh perspectives on problems. (j) Career opportunities – people will need people for their brand. POST COVID MANDATE In a short time frame of six to eight months, it may be difficult to predict with absolute clarity as to how the future will shape up but certain tenets of work stand out which may well turn out to be the pillars of strength for the leaders in the HR. I have shortlisted few of them which are likely to influence working of the HR in most pronounced way: Candor. My definition of candor is honesty without ambiguity. While honesty has always been an important leadership trait, this moment…