Managing Talent through the Covid 19 crisis.

Managing Talent through the covid 19 crisis. 

 


The COVID-19 pandemic originated in China in late 2019 which challenged the supply chains of every business since early 2020 (Keshky et.al, 2020). The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as global pandemic on 11 March 2020. Although the outlook for 2021 looks promising with the introduction of vaccines, the pandemic has resulted in continuous profound changes for countries, organizations and individuals.

According to Leavitt’s proposed model of organizational change, organizations are made of complex interrelated variables such as human, task, technology and structure (Hartmann & Lussier, 2020). The correlates of human variable are people which relates to number of employees, employee knowledge, competencies, personalities and other attributes. The task variable relates to the activities performed within organizational capacity (D’Auria et. al, 2020). These include marketing, sales, procurement of raw materials, production, financing operations, hiring and managing workforce and many more. The technology variable is composed of tools and devices required to effectively perform the tasks including software, hardware, network and websites. The structure variable corresponds to the systems that organize and direct people, their tasks and the technologies in use. The correlates of structure are compensation, incentive plans, rules, reporting lines and many more (Hartmann & Lussier, 2020). Any change in one of these variables such as human, task, technology and structure will result in compensatory change in others. 

Based on the above model, one of the major challenges that organizations had to address in pivoting workspaces to virtual and remote environments. This required organizations to undergo substantial digital transformation resulting in substantial changes in technology (Dirani et. al, 2020). It was fundamental to redesign the technology and work processes to ensure that tasks can be performed virtually before reskilling and upskilling the employees to adapt to the new normal. These structural changes challenged the key areas of HR such as internal communications, onboarding, performance management, succession planning, leadership development and global mobility (Collings et.al, 2021). The change in human variable resulted compensatory change in other variables such as technology, task and structure (Collings et.al, 2021).

In addition, HR leaders were faced with the dilemma of reducing cost whilst sourcing the right talent to navigate through the tough times. For long, low cost industries such as retailing have conceptualized employees as cost to be minimized (Dirani et. al, 2020). However, COVID-19 transformed this perspective. Retailing businesses such as Supermarkets had to retain their employees and hire more as they were required to be on the frontline as part of essential services. Many businesses increased the wages of these front line employees and provided them with bonus Keshky et.al, 2020). However, these are defensive responses to the paradox hence would help an organization motivate its employees to return to work for a short term during the pandemic. Organizations need to adopt a wider approach to actively respond with adequate number of sick leave, sick pay, health insurance and over-time pay (Kirchner et.al, 2021).

Knowledge based organizations have seen a tremendous growth in productivity from work-from-home arrangements. The productivity of call centre employees increased by 13% from remote working. (Collings et.al, 2021). On contrary, researchers suggest that impact of remote working on employee productivity and wellbeing share a complex relationship. It has been found out that the remote working has less positive impact on employee wellbeing. The companies had to focus on the psychological health of the employees due to prolonged remote working conditions. (Keshky et.al, 2020).

Leaders need to develop four traits to effectively manage the workforce and overcome the crisis. They are awareness, displaying vulnerability to lower themselves to employees to connect with them, showing empathy to make subordinates feel what they feel and ensure that employees are genuinely cared for. (Dean, 2020). In a crisis, the leaders should develop awareness of the external environment. Neuroscience terms such as “interoception” and “exteroception” which refer to integrative awareness should be at the core of leadership during crisis. The leader should develop situational awareness aligned with the inner awareness. This will help a leader to analyze the situation when faced with crisis, reflect and make an effective decision. Adopting situational leadership can benefit the organization and navigate through the crisis by addressing the risks to achieve desired objectives (D’Auria et. al, 2020).

The following video provides a brief understanding on how to lead in a crisis. 


                                                        Ross School of Business (2015)

References

Dean, S. (2020). Future of Work: Managing Employees Effectively Through the Covid-19 Crisis. International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology. Vol. 5 (3).

Dirani, K., M., Abadi, M., Alizadeh, A., Barhate , B., Garza , R., C., Gunasekara , N., Ibrahim, G. & Majzun, Z. (2020).  Leadership competencies and the essential role of human resource development in times of crisis: a response to Covid-19 pandemic.  Human Resource Development International. Retrieved on March 28, 2021 from DOI:10.1080/13678868.2020.1780078

D’Auria, G. & Smet, A., D. (2020). Leadership in a crisis: Responding to the coronavirus outbreak and future challenges. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved on March 25, 2021 from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/organization/our%20insights/leadership%20in%20a%20crisis%20responding%20to%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak%20and%20future%20challenges/leadership-in-a-crisis-responding-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-and-future-challenges-v3.pdf

Collings, D., G., Nyberg, A., J., Wright, P., M. & McMackin, J. (2021). Leading through paradox in a COVID‐19 world: Human resources comes of age. Human Resource Management Journal. Retrieved on March 25, 2021 from https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12343

Hartmann, N., N. & Lussier, B. (2020). Managing the sales force through the unexpected exogenous COVID-19 crisis. Industrial Marketing Management. Industrial Marketing Management. Vol. 88. Retrieved on March 24, 2021 from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.05.005

Keshky, M., E., S., E., Sawzan Sadaqa Basyouni, S., S. & Sabban, A., M., A. (2020). Getting Through COVID-19: The Pandemic’s Impact on the Psychology of Sustainability, Quality of Life, and the Global Economy – A Systematic Review. Organizational Psychology. Retrieved on March 23, 2021 from https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.585897

Kirchner, K., Ipsen, C. & Hansen, J., P. (2021). COVID-19 leadership challenges in knowledge work. Knowledge Management Research & Practice. Retrieved on March 24, 2021 from DOI: 10.1080/14778238.2021.1877579








Comments

  1. Ijaz FaizDecember 26, 2021 at 6:12 AM

    Hi Purnima, Well said, adding to that uring the COVID-19 crisis, changes in customer demand have caused a temporary spike in hiring in areas such as grocery while leading to massive layoffs in sectors such as hospitality. Even with those shifts and an overall rise in unemployment, efficient and effective hiring will continue to be important—especially for the scarce skills required for the next normal in areas such as IT. (McKensey 2008)

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