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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:

  1. Candor. My definition of candor is honesty without ambiguity. While honesty has always been an important leadership trait, this moment requires another level of honesty – candor. Arguably, the best antidote for a workplace climate of anxiety and cynicism is candor. People respond so much better to the known (even if the news isn’t great), than the unknown (which tends to fuel more anxiety) or even worse, misleading halftruths or irresponsible optimism (which can irreparably damage long term trust). Clear and candid dose of reality seems to be not just effective but also necessary to build consensus in the team.
  2. Consistent, reliable fact-based communications. My daily dose of fact file from the news channels and officials of the Govt. coming in media and their briefings provided authentic facts and figures assured that state and health institutions have a grip and things are being handled in planned and organized manner backed by competent organizational structure and experts in scientific community. The consistent, reliable fact-based communications were major takeaway and key ingredient for bringing organizations together and reducing workplace anxiety. Our honorable PM Mr Modi, exemplified & personified this ingredient in every way from time to time.
  3. Empathy. Leaders often wear many hats and certainly as workers return to the workplace, leaders will become counsellor in chief in many ways. Indeed, this tragedy has touched so many in such profound ways that many workers will be essentially working while grieving. Under such trying situations, some employees may just need some heartfelt words of encouragement at the end of a long day. HR leaders will also need to tap into a keen level of sensitivity as they consider changes to long standing policies and processes (e.g., sick leave, time off, telecommuting etc.) to better fit their organization’s or the industry’s new normal. For leaders who aren’t naturally empathetic, they should surround themselves with others who can help fill that gap. Unfortunately, just a few tone deaf, insensitive responses or decisions can have tragic consequences with an organization’s understandably fragile psyche during this time. Managing hybrid, non co-located teams require changes and also a shift in mindset and different style of leadership even during day to day operations.” If you just sit back and don’t bring your virtual teams together regularly, work streams will fall apart”
  4. Flexibility and adaptability. Weeks before the country began to shut down, most leaders couldn’t have imagined such a drastic widespread action. In this case, being an ostrich leader could have easily meant the difference between life and death. Faced with unprecedented uncertainty, leaders will need to avoid the temptation to ‘stick with a decision’ in an attempt to appear decisive and instead be willing to regularly review new data, information and feedback and change course if necessary. While businesses may resume operations based on a logical, clearly thought through plan, if (God forbid) their building experiences an outbreak for example, they will need to be mentally poised to mid- course correction of the formal policy they may have just rolled out or spent countless hours developing. Indeed, for these leaders any delay in changing course can have drastic consequences for the viability of their business if not the health of their staff.
  5. Humility. Leaders unfortunately are often expected to know it all and make perfect decisions, and the obvious truth is that they’re just as human and fallible as anyone else. In these unchartered waters one of the biggest mistakes leaders can make is pretending they know more than they do or making decisions relying only on their instinct or previous experience. Whether it’s knowledge related to public health science, modeling, statistics, human resources or even legal issues, leaders will undoubtedly find themselves needing to rely on expertise that they don’t themselves have in order to make the best decisions for the broader organization. As a result, humility will be a huge asset. It takes a strong leader to respond to a difficult question with “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” or step aside from the podium and allow an expert to field most of the questions, but as this pandemic continues to unfold, that may be just what’s required.
  6. Active listening. As leaders return to cubicles, elevators and conference rooms are filled with an undercurrent of anxiety, it may be just as important for them to listen as to lead. Indeed, this may be one of those rare situations where hierarchy matters less and mass opinion could actually dictate next steps for the organization. While leaders debate the appropriate timing to open schools and businesses, others point out that customers and parents might be the real decision makers. Similar questions loom in the business arena. Can the business reopen in the traditional sense if workers or customers don’t feel safe and simply refuse to come? The decision about reopening is just one of many that are best made when the leader has his/ her ear to the ground and is well aware of staff concerns, priorities and ideas. While leaders will certainly still need to make hard decisions and won’t please everyone along the way, making well informed decisions will be key. Indeed, there is a difference between listening and waiting to talk and for many leaders, their ability to shift gears into ‘listening to understand’ versus ‘listening to respond’ will be a key ingredient for their success.

CONCLUSION

It will be very fair to assume that these aren’t the only traits that matter for HR leaders during this pandemic, but to me these are the critical ones. Many of these traits are traditionally viewed as tertiary, nice to have qualities, but in this unprecedented time, it will become absolutely essential for leaders to lead organizations through a time of uncertainty and collective trauma. Indeed, this type of leadership won’t just be required at the top of the organization chart but at every level of human interaction. The world is crying out for a new, more sustainable direction. It’s in the power of leaders across the world to deliver this future. Remaining blinkered about this seismic shift in organizational culture as a result of remote working is not an option. There is a need to go outside the comfort zone and rethink deeply held beliefs. This change will affect everyone and the HR leaders will be vital in ensuring that the organization moves from survival mode back to one of sustainable growth. My concluding remarks and advice to HR leaders across the board will be “to design from the heart … and the head, put the mission first, aim for speed over elegance, own the narrative and embrace the long view.”



 

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