THE BIGGEST HR CHALLENGES FACED DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

By Natasha Fonseka
COVID-19 has become an unmistakable presence in the landscape of business in 2020 and 2021 in Sri Lanka. It’s a true example of something completely unexpected changing the way we work, live, and interact with each other. Now, businesses in most parts of the world are shutting their doors, losing clients, and sending employees to work from home.
The global pandemic has disrupted every industry, creating chaos in these unprecedented times. As such, companies have had to rethink their entire business model and adapt to the changes to keep the lights on. HR professionals, in particular, have faced challenges in advocating for employees, shifting hiring policies, managing internal communications and managing a work from home model.
Here are some of the biggest HR challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adapting to Shifting Hiring Priorities
The early days of the pandemic brought forth layoffsin some companies and industries around the globe, experiencing dramatically reduced or eliminated working hours. In addition to layoffs, many companies implemented hiring freezes and placed HR initiatives on hold as a cost saving drive, leaving many HR professionals at a loss for what comes next.
Meanwhile, some industries are experiencing hiring booms, particularly in healthcare. HR professionals in healthcare are burdened with battling trained nursing staff shortages and managing increased staffing needs for what’s currently considered one of the world’s most vulnerable professions in this time of Covid 19.
Needless to say, HR professionals in all industries are experiencing a paradigm shift in their roles and expectations, adding to the stress and pandemonium of the overall situation in many uncertain areas.
In many companies a freeze was imposed on hiring and in the event an employee left, in many positions no replacement was made but the existing employees were given that role either fully or distributed amongst a team. Hence in some cases managing employees who were stretched in their job roles was also a challenge encountered.
Given the scenario of hiring, even an interview is not conducted in most cases as physical interviews but has changed to be virtual interviews which at times make it difficult to judge and there could be logistical issues as well which could come up which in itself is a challenge.


Internal communication is an ongoing challenge for many businesses. Combine this issue with an unpredictable situation that changes from one week to the next, you’ve got the recipe for an HR nightmare.
With so much uncertainty, communications arrangement for this week may not be applicable for the next. The best HR can do is to take a human approach, showcasing empathy and transparency.

 

Engaging Remote Teams
Employee engagement is the heart of building a company culture and reducing employee turnover. It’s always been challenging for HR professionals to walk the line between advocating for employees and staying within the boundaries of the company’s mission. HR professionals need to fully understand the business challenges that companies are facing and need to support the business and walk that line dealing with both management and employees. They need to bring about the balance.
Now, many HR professionals must walk that line while dealing with a remote working team!
Not only are employees shifting to a remote workforce, but they’ve done so without any transition plan in place. Many employers have decided to stick with a remote work model going forward, regardless of how the pandemic unfolds. This means HR has further to reach to keep employees feeling actively included in their career.
HR is tasked with creating new policies for communications, check-ins, success measurement and goal setting. This overhaul comes with the added challenge of training from a remote setting.
As remote working was not envisaged or as there was no transition period, employees and management, both were put in the deep end to learn to swim in this new work model. Basic requirements like infrastructure were not in place at the beginning when the work from home model came in and companies had to have the logistics in order whether they may be laptops, systems, providing dongles, etc., on a high priority basis.

Managing Employee Communications
Internal communication is an ongoing challenge for many businesses. Combine this issue with an unpredictable situation that changes from one week to the next, you’ve got the recipe for an HR nightmare.
With so much uncertainty, communications arrangement for this week may not be applicable for the next. The best HR can do is to take a human approach, showcasing empathy and transparency.
It’s important to understand and convey that while everyone is in the same situation, individual experiences may vary dramatically. One employee trying to juggle remote learning while working from home with small kids, etc., will not have the same experience as a C-Suite executive with grown children and in all probability a more conducive working environment.
“Work from Home” policies, use of equipment and logistics policies had to be drafted and implemented with the remote working model coming into force overnight.

Answering Tough Questions
One of the downsides of managing human resources is making tough decisions. The financial stress and uncertainty of the pandemic have forced many companies to downsize and let employees go. For HR, this means determining the threshold, how many employees can run the company and which jobs is the highest priority for preservation? Also, dealing with the country’s labour laws and making sure the companies are doing the right thing in the right manner. Both the interest of the company and employee needs to be balanced in the best possible manner by HR professionals which are a challenge.
Maintaining the Office Culture
As the modern workforce evolves, one thing has become clear: a well-defined organizational culture is central to success. It’s a driving force behind the identity of an organization, giving employees something to rally behind.
But culture tends to take on new shapes in times of crisis. Decisions happen on the fly. New plans are put into place and, often, secondary things like your usual office culture fall by the wayside which is understandable given the circumstances we are operating in. Moreover, financial survival takes precedence over almost everything else. There aren’t many technological solutions out there for preserving employee engagement and standardized communication.
Finding new and innovative ways to keep office culture relevant and engaging employees will test most business’ operations.
In the last couple of months as an HR team, we have brought in employee engagement activities in a different form. We organized the Christmas Carols in December not as a physical team but as a competition where different companies’ teams put together videos and presented and was adjudged.
Online showcased
Employees put up some very creative videos showcasing their talents and also presenting in a different form. Similar competitions were organized for children of our employees where they were allowed to showcase their talents for Christmas from home.
Videos of kids teaming with their parents who are employees showcasing their talents, whether singing, dancing, etc., were presented. Videos were circulated amongst staff. Bringing in the kids of the employees as well into such employment engagement activities during these difficult times had a huge motivating factor and created a sense of pride amongst the employees. On Valentine’s Day, team picture competitions were organized to spread the message of love and circulated. For Women’s Day, a programme to “appreciate women in your life” was organized. For the Sinhala and Tamil New Year a “Jana gee” competition on video and an “Avurudu Kumara” and “Kumari” competition again via videos were presented. All of these competitions, even though from a far, got the employees engaged and teams engaged. It was not merely for the prizes they won but for the fun and engagement and team working showcased. It was very encouraging as so many of the employees participated.
Hence I would say the thinking and conceptualizing innovative ways of engagement and keeping the morale and spirits of employees up are also a challenging task for HR. Creative ways of doing things need to be brought into one’s HR staff engagement activities.
In more boring times, human resources have the relatively straightforward job of keeping onsite employees engaged and productive. People come in, HR monitors them and the process can save your business thousands in wasted man-hours over a year. Committed, motivated teams produce better results more consistently.
So how do you maintain this sort of connection from a distance? Include mental health where counselling and mentoring need to be considered in the HR health plan more importantly now. HR needs to introduce online meditation programmes / yoga classes with access to employees which would stimulate and balance their mental health. Find out about options and communicate, like daily pay or subsidized loans, loans on lower interest rates negotiated from banking institutions for the employees to help offset any financial difficulties for them and, ultimately, to simplify the entire process for yourself.
One just has to pay attention to the news, right now, to see stories of companies “doing the right thing” during COVID-19 and focusing on their employees. There’s a logic to this, even beyond any moral HR challenges. This kind of loyalty to your workers pays off with returned dedication, especially during high-stress times such as these.
The above are few areas that could help sustain the office culture in these times of difficulties.
Taking care of employees who contract the COVID 19 virus
Another new challenge HR teams have been faced with is looking at ways in taking care of employees getting infected with the virus. Providing for / finding quarantine facilities for the employees, in some instances even providing meals etc. until such time a facility is available for the employees to be transferred to one, need to be looked at. Further, constantly checking on them and making sure they are all right and keeping them mentally and emotionally stable are important. Just call to check on them could make a big difference.
Also, constant checking of employees who have been close contacts of employees who get infected with the virus, arranging for PCR test is to be done and if positive once again arranging for care facilities have to be looked at.
Employees need to have that assurance and security to feel that they would be looked after and taken care of in the event they get infected with the virus.
HR teams liaising constantly with infected employees to keep their spirits and mental health in check are another new role and challenge HR is taking upon themselves in these critical times.

Be Flexible
One of the biggest HR challenges during the pandemic that companies are facing is the scope of the disruption to the normal way of doing things and moving to the “New Normal.”
With so many employees needing to work from home as opposed to being at the workplace, employees could be facing challenges of taking care of young kids or old parents apart from being engaged full time working from home. Hence HR needs to intervene and arrange for flexible working hours or times where employees during this pandemic period will be able to cope and balance both work and their personal lives.
Even when some employees require to work at the workplace and others from their homes, there could be exceptional cases where given the pandemic situation and health challenges that HR would need to introduce special leave to certain categories of employees, e.g. pregnant women would need to be taken extra care and if they require special leave, that needs to be looked at and implemented if the job role does not entail a working from home possibility. Hence flexibility needs to be factored in and discussed with operations managers as well. Even swopping job roles to make special arrangements would need to be looked at. Hence policies on pandemic leave, etc., would need to be drawn up and implemented.
Further, making employees embrace “change “is a huge challenge HR faces, which needs to be done diplomatically. Given the current scenario we all need to be able to embrace change fast, implement new ways of doing things, going that extra mile to make things work in the new way of doing things and training teams to do so, all add up to taking on even new jobs roles and responsibilities. Employees needs to hop on board fast to make it right for the business need. However, there still could be rigid employees who do not get on board fast enough and coaching, persuading and getting them on board are sometimes a challenge, HR professionals, do face.

Keep employees safe by maintaining a healthy work environment
For workers engaged in essential businesses, where work from home is not possible, it’s up to the HR departments to prioritize the health and safety of their workers. Business should make sure their practices are in line with the health guidelines recommended by the health authorities.
HR departments should have their COVID Prevention Team and also should set up COVID Combat teams in the different companies and locations and drive the safety measures through the combat teams under the guidance and monitoring of the HR team managing the office policy surrounding COVID-19. Keep employees safe and well by educating employees about transmission and risks associated.

• HR needs to offer training to establish hygiene regulations (washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or using a hand sanitizer when entering buildings or departments)
• Establish policies and practices for social distancing
• Prominently display posters illustrating respiratory etiquette (coughing and sneezing) and hand hygiene
• Perform routine environmental sanitization and disinfection
• Provide hand sanitizers at critical places, have foot sanitizing mats, etc.
• Where required provide personal protection equipment (PPE)

There is a key challenge that HR managers face and must always take into consideration and how to cope in the event absenteeism spikes. It could be an employee or a group of employees getting infected with the virus or a family member being infected with the virus. How then does the work continue as scheduled?
Here it is very important that employees are brought into the workplace on a roster in teams and the teams do not overlap. In the event one team is under quarantine the other team could take over the work functions and the operation would continue. Hence HR needs to create a clear plan of action with the respective management teams. There could be challenges when there is a shortage of employee numbers. Hence a contingency plan also needs to be put in place (calling for volunteers from other teams or departments /bringing in manpower from outside resources, etc.).
Hence, the role of HR has changed significantly and there are many challenges to navigate. This is where I would say leading without a title would need to come in … HR teams need to adopt to any task that require their attention to overcome the constant challenges faced daily. The challenges of yesterday could be different to the challenges of today … but we could not only face same, but also find solutions. We need to keep all our employees safe physically and mentally on one hand and we need to balance business needs on the other and, ipso facto, business needs to go on as well. BMD

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