The role of Human Resources has always been demanding, requiring a delicate balance between supporting employees and meeting the needs of the business. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, HR faced challenges such as talent shortages, skill gaps, and preparing workforces for an increasingly digital future.
As HR and business leaders, you have been compelled to adapt rapidly and work tirelessly with speed and precision to meet the ever-changing demands of your company. You have taken proactive measures to ensure the safety of your employees.
Do you know how HR leaders can adapt to uncertain times? They manage furlough schemes, navigate redundancy processes, address employee absences, and, in some cases, transition to remote work on a large scale. You have embraced numerous challenges directly, demonstrating resilience and agility.
Tips on How HR Leaders Can Adapt to Uncertain Times
HR and business leaders can navigate and adapt to the uncertainties of the present times while ensuring the delivery of high-quality service to their teams, and employees remains uncompromised.
Balancing Role
HR leaders are essential in assisting organizations in addressing the challenge of balancing short-term survival with long-term relevance. They collect and analyze data to provide all organization members with a clear understanding of the need to make tradeoffs that optimize both objectives simultaneously, ultimately benefiting the organization as a whole.
For instance, HR leaders ensure that employees and stakeholders know that layoffs or pay and benefit reductions are only considered a last resort, following carefully exploring less detrimental alternatives.
Data Acquisition and Management Role
HR leaders excel by gathering relevant data and facilitating information sharing within and between different groups within the organization. In a complex environment, success is driven by using data applicable to the current circumstances. HR leaders are responsible for deriving meaning from the data and interpreting it to benefit the organization.
HR leaders act as consultants in this capacity, continuously acquiring or managing external data related to leadership skills and employee issues. They leverage this data to foster meaningful and constructive communication that leads to a common understanding of challenges and identifies win-win solutions.
It is important to note that achieving a win-win solution does not imply that everyone in the organization will always get everything they desire. Instead, the data provided by HR leaders help employees understand the discussions and considerations that inform any decisions that may require sacrifices from them. While most organizations gather data yearly, increasing the frequency of data acquisition can be advantageous for capturing and understanding trends in organizational behavior.
Data Sharing Role
In times of uncertainty, HR leaders require data on various aspects of employee well-being, including their emotions, level of engagement, agility, resilience, and perception of organizational leaders. Equally important is data on how leaders feel about employees, their relationship with them, and the level of collaboration between leaders and employees.
To effectively organize and utilize this data to drive meaningful discussions, HR leaders must establish HR analytics as a central function within the department. It’s not sufficient to rely solely on IT specialists without a background in HR to handle this critical task.
By leveraging the available data, HR leaders facilitate discussions with organizational leaders and employees, ensuring that all participants are well-informed and equipped to individually and collectively address the core dilemma of balancing short-term survival with long-term relevance.
Therefore, in uncertain times, HR leaders must continuously acquire and effectively organize data to provide valuable insights for decision-making.
Umpire Role
HR leaders assume the role of umpires, responsible for fostering and sustaining collaboration between organizational leaders and employees. They actively promote utilizing collective intelligence within the organization to achieve both short-term survival and long-term relevance.
To effectively fulfill this role, HR leaders must establish credibility with all organizational participants. They can be likened to sports referees; however, unlike referees who identify rule violators for punishment, HR leaders ensure that every individual in the organization operates in alignment with established rules of engagement that promote collaboration and leverage collective intelligence.
Conclusion
Most how hr leaders can adapt to uncertain times and save the company through the crisis. They take drastic measures to ensure employees are safe without compromising the company’s production. For things to run smooth, they ensure they share and manage data and balance roles in the company.
