HR Challenges that Managers are Facing Due to the COVID-19

COVID-19 is an unprecedented health crisis that has strongly shaken the whole world, plunging it into great fear and uncertainty. It has heavily impacted economies, societies, employees, and organizations. This crisis has started first in the city of Wuhan (China), which has witnessed in December 2019 the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has known a fast spread propelling its status to a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020).

The challenges that COVID-19 has thrown at HR professionals are certainly not what they expected. The economy has been hammered by uncertainty, employees are under duress, and HR professionals are doing their best to keep everything in perspective and in sync. Is it, however, as straightforward as it may appear?

HR faces new challenges as a result of a sudden shift in work culture. HR professionals' top priorities are now crisis management and how to keep employees engaged, as well as providing the appropriate communication channels and tools for remote work.

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1. Mental Health and Well Being

The abrupt shift in work culture had a negative impact on employee health and happiness. There has always been stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues, and this is not a new story.

Organizations have always implemented wellness programs and provided security, health benefits, and flexibility to employees in order to assist them in overcoming their health issues. However, the unexpected COVID-19 outbreak has brought the employees' mental health issues to the forefront.

When your employees work in an office setting, you get a better sense of their pulse and sensitivity, which helps you deal with problems more effectively. However, as more employees work from home, communication lines have been severely harmed, leaving managers unaware or unconcerned. In a recent COVID-19 pulse survey, HR professionals from all over the world said that employee health and well-being is a major concern.

2. Managing Remote Work

The shift to a remote work culture isn't as simple as it appears. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, only about half of all businesses had a remote work program. Furthermore, remote working was discouraged by banks, regulated industries, and many financial services firms. Almost all of them are now rushing to develop strategies for remote work.

This has resulted in a slew of previously unknown issues. HR managers are attempting to create seamless routes and strategies in order to overcome the challenges it presents. Strategies are no longer developed on a regular basis or in advance, but rather in real time. The emphasis has shifted away from employee productivity and engagement and toward immediate responses and diagnosis. To equip employees with the necessary tools and to obtain real-time updates from them on a regular basis in order to untangle the complexities and provide support.

Here is a podcast from the thought leader and a mental coach, Shashi Kalyanpur on 'Managing mental health of employees working from home.'

Managing Mental Health of Employees Working from Home – Shashi Kalyanpur | Podcast

3. Lack of Agility

The lack of agility is one of the main reasons why HR departments are struggling.

Many HR departments aren't built to be flexible. And this has a significant impact on HR professionals. It is critical to respond quickly and move quickly in this crisis. However, there are a number of approvals that must be obtained before action can be taken. This slows down the process of gathering data and taking the quick actions that a crisis necessitates.

As a result, becoming more agile in their approach and re-prioritizing company goals, as well as having proper communication and alignment among middle management and executives, is now a must.

4. Employee Communication

Another major challenge that is high on the priority list is communication. Communication is a crucial aspect that must be considered regardless of whether the workforce is working remotely or not. It is difficult to manage a workforce without proper communication channels.

The COVID-19 crisis, for example, kept HR professionals on their toes. It kept them on the lookout for the right remote working tools to fit their working style. Though tools like Zoom or Slack are frequently used to meet the needs of the workforce, getting everyone on the same page is far from sufficient.

More or less the HR teams are doing their best by sharing:

• Updates regarding measures adopted by the organization.
  
  
• Updates from business leaders via email or video.
  
  
• Links to valuable external information sources.
  
  
• Ongoing communication on HR policies related to the crisis.
  
  
• And through health talks and training sessions.
  
  

5. Uncertainty

Uncertainty has the ability to paralyze anyone. The fear of not knowing what the future holds or what steps to take to keep the organization running is a huge challenge. Uncertainty, unfortunately, affects us all in some way.

Employees are affected psychologically because they don't know what the future holds for them. The HR departments are working hard to get everything in order. To respond to the crisis and devise effective measures and strategies that will benefit everyone.

6. Employee Engagement

Employee productivity is the company's ultimate goal. When employees are working remotely, especially during a crisis, it becomes more difficult to keep them engaged. Internal communication is hampered, making it difficult to keep everyone in the loop.

It's difficult to stick to a schedule or even accept a systematic workflow when you're working from home. You have little control over the teams when they are cross-functional. Failure to keep them updated on a regular basis or to schedule meetings/ sessions can have a significant negative impact on their morale.

Coupled with these measures, the COVID-19 outbreak had led to a significant slowdown in the world economic activities (Brodeur et al., Reference Brodeur, Gray, Islam and Bhuiyan, 2020; Gourinchas, Reference Gourinchas, 2020), triggering furloughs and layoffs (World Economic Forum, 2020), that led to the increase in the unemployment rate in many countries. The ‘Current G7 jobless totals vary widely, from 30 million in the United States to 1.76 million in Japan’ (Kretchmer, Reference Kretchmer, 2020). According to Gourinchas (Reference Gourinchas, 2020), COVID-19 has generated a situation where in a short period 50 percent or more of the workforce might not be able to work.

References;

• Youtube.com. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isKThhqSpbQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt> [Accessed 21 March 2022].
  
  
• Redalyc.org. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.redalyc.org/journal/279/27965040009/27965040009.pdf> [Accessed 21 March 2022].
  
  
• Jbsfm.org. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://jbsfm.org/vol4no1/challenges-for-hr-professionals-in-the-post-covid-19-era/> [Accessed 22 March 2022].
  
  
• Hamouche, S., 2022. Human resource management and the COVID-19 crisis: implications, challenges, opportunities, and future organizational directions.
  
  
• SHRM. 2022. HR Managers Rethink Their Role During the Coronavirus Pandemic. [online] Available at: <https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/hr-managers-rethink-their-work-coronavirus-pandemic.aspx> [Accessed 23 March 2022].
  
  
• Gigauri, I., 2022. Influence of Covid-19 Crisis on Human Resource Management and Companies’ Response: The Expert Study.