Analyzing The Strategic Value Of HR In A Pandemic

Human resources are one of the most valuable assets of every business organization. They are responsible for providing the business with an efficient workforce, leading with effective training and development ventures to bring optimal productivity to the business. Although, acquiring human resources in recent times has become much of a task- with the growing demands of the employees, tech-driven factors, and matching the employer’s as well as job requirements. Therefore, with the change in time, most businesses have shifted their workforce requirements to external parties/firms with the right skills and expertise to attract the best candidates for the job.

Also known as human resources outsourcing, it is the process of signing an agreement with an external organization/vendor that aims to fulfill the HR requirements of your business. An HR outsourcing firm also takes shared responsibility for major HR functions of the business, such as hiring, training, development, payroll services management, medical and performance benefits of the employees.

But with the pandemic hitting all across the world, the situation has been nothing but bad. Mostly, every business has faced a dip in their operations and revenues. Some of the consequences led to dismissals of many considerate employees that were once the face of the business. Not only that, HR professionals were at their best in maintaining the mental and emotional stability of the employees. In such times, the value of HR has been defined by the numerous functions they have been performing, ranging from screening new candidates to clearing the paperwork for the past employees, enrolling new candidates for training, and whatnot!

Below are a few reasons and functions performed by HR that help assess its value in this challenging period:

1. Protecting Employees –

The topmost priority of HR at this time is to safeguard the organization’s employees’ physical and mental well-being. Protecting the employees not only means restricting them to not leave the job, or make a change but to address their needs constantly. Throughout the pandemic time, employees had faced numerous crises, medical requirements, lack of remuneration to run the household chores, and growth and development occasions to embrace their performance. Here comes the imperative role of HR to provide the employees with utmost protection on the job, as well as when they’re not at business premises. By creating an engaging and creative atmosphere for the employees, HR personnel strives to safeguard the employees’ mental health which also becomes a factor for enhanced productivity.

2. Ensuring Safety Without Disrupting Services –

With most companies asking their employees to work remotely, HR has been in this process for quite a long time to ensure that they are prepared for this work-from-home routine. WFH schedules have shown quite an advancement in operational efficiency, that unlike being present at the premises, allows employees to work with comfort. However, even if the business requires employees to be present on-site, HR facilitates effective protection measures to eliminate any chances of illness at work. Installing sanitizers at different bays and making use of tissues more often to keep oneself clean, and running wellness drives to observe illness symptoms are a few important tasks that ensure safety in the workplace, without shattering the organizational services.

3. Manage and Hire Remotely –

Virtual meets and HR administration tasks have become probably the only solution in times like these that keep the business up and running. A business department sure can let their HR department work and manage from remote areas where they have to screen and hire candidates for services. Telecommute is the need of the hour and working remotely and procuring candidates to hire them has been observed as quite beneficial- for both the business as well as the employees.

4. Plan and Formulate New Policies –

To formulate new policies and operational plans that suffice the business requirements in the current situations, it is significantly important to understand three major elements fueling the business growth- clients, employees, and business goals. Policies could be amended or made from scratch by taking into consideration those who will be affected by them. New policies must support the employees of the organization to ensure that their implementation is supported with certainty.

5. Align Employees And Operations –

Another function of HR that showcases its value in a pandemic is the alignment of employees in accordance with business operations. In order to do so, it is important that a strategic plan is made that includes clear and goal-oriented tasks for each department, priorities of the business being cascaded to each employee, etc. Further, HR manages to sync the efforts of the employees with the operational plans by arranging refresher training sessions for them and setting up feedback loops to strategically develop each employee.

Having that said, if your company requires external assistance to look over your company’s human resources, then you’re at the right place. Collar Search provides human resources management services to help you scale your business to new limits! Our team of experts will evaluate what HR outsourcing techniques and methods should be implemented to help achieve your business goals with optimal efficiency. To know more, give us a call today and book your appointment!