HR Leader with Swiss Re in Asia. Passionate about people and their potential.
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We have all seen the impact of Covid-19 on our working lives through the last 15 months. Individually, our organizations, our social networks and our governments have all tried to adapt to the evolving challenges in navigating through the pandemic waves.
One word that probably best defines our world today is resilience. If not for our combined resilience, we may have found the world in a much worse situation.
Looking forward, we need to actively curate a workforce experience that leverages our learnings from this pandemic and not aim to go back to our pre-Covid ways of working. We are at an inflection point, where our workplace is transforming into a nonlinear experience. HR leaders should consider the following themes in creating their workforce experience of the "new normal."
Empathy
An empathetic response on issues impacting people (or an individual) in the workforce is of utmost importance now. Ensuring that employees get a calm, reassuring and transparent message from leaders will help strengthen a culture of trust. This is crucial when the external environment is fueling emotions of mistrust and fear in general.
HR leaders should consider upskilling workshops, dialogues with leadership and other such interventions that help establish empathy as an important value in the workplace. Leaders sharing their personal stories around challenges and struggles will foster an environment of trust and encourage employees to share and seek support with confidence.
Empathy is not a new topic for most in HR functions, and its amplification now should not need to cover a lot of fresh ground. Establishing empathy as a key value in the organization can be driven further through the introduction of a personal resilience framework that empowers employees to assess their individual resilience and get access to resources to help with managing their situations.
Talent Beyond Borders
Physical proximity to a talent pool is no longer a constraint of the same proportions as it was in the pre-Covid workplace. We have experienced a short-term 360-degree view of remote working through different lockdowns and survived, for the most part.
HR leaders should consider identifying roles that can work remotely over extended durations and develop strategies for attracting geographically diverse talent that brings the best skills to the organization. This approach allows for a greater diversity of talent as well as access to wider skill families.
The challenge with an extended remote workforce is around building culture and engagement for a geographically distributed cohort. This will need a concerted effort and investment. Another challenge is to upskill the existing workforce in effectively collaborating in a remote working environment, without the traditional water cooler chats or quick catch-ups over coffee.
Technology adoption of collaboration tools has made remote working a practical option for working professionals. Employers integrating this approach will be able to attract and retain talent over those that still manage remote working as an exception to the expected norm.
One Size Doesn't Fit All
HR manuals have generally preferred processes in favor of equity when it comes to decision making. Consistency of employee experience across the workforce has been rewarded for years, and there is value in this approach. The opportunity we have now allows the experience to be customized by the employee as they prefer. A flexible benefits model is a great example of such customization.
The questions HR leaders should ask include: Why should everyone be paid on the same date? Why can't employees work on their own time, as long as they deliver agreed outcomes? What if someone needs more time off to take care of a family member? What if an employee is a victim of domestic abuse and they need help? Is the current talent management framework working, following the same process every year? Do we know our employees well through the data points we have?
We need to move to the principle of purpose over process. The employee experience target needs to be more clearly defined than the process to get there. This requires a hard look at HR's own engine room to identify what needs changing.
Simplify
HR, as a function, exists to support employees and their leaders in optimizing performance for the organization. If a line manager needs to go through three different sub-functions within HR to get support with a challenge, then the function is failing in its core objective.
Complex HR structures with specialist teams and sub-functions are exceedingly competent, yet the need going forward is more of an agile response. HR leaders need to focus on upskilling and retaining top talent for the function. The first point of contact in HR should be equipped to be the single point of contact for their stakeholders. Investment in HR skills and technology will be a key differentiator for employee experience.
Covid has brought challenges and changes across the board. It has also brought unique opportunities, particularly for the HR leadership, to reimagine the workforce for tomorrow. Will it be HR's finest hour?
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