The coronavirus crisis thrusts corporate HR chiefs into the spotlight.\u2019<\/a>\u00a0The piece reflected during global financial crisis, boardrooms turned to Finance Chiefs but during the pandemic, they turned to the Chief HR officer.<\/p>\nA tiny silver-lining was the newly recognized value of HR during the pandemic.\u00a0 HR leaders throughout the country can share their insights, reflections on their front row seat they had throughout the crisis. There is plenty of evidence on how the HR profession found its place into executive roles by exhibiting their expertise in developing and implementing programs that helped sustain the organization.<\/p>\n
HR departments have had to rethink how wellness translated in a virtual environment.\u00a0 Many of their current programs worked in a pre-pandemic environment.\u00a0 They had to figure out how to support employees who were struggling from a distance.\u00a0 As a result, some creative HR departments rolled out mental health applications when virus rates spiked. Some offered virtual groups to help employees stay connected. \u00a0Some offered popup counseling sessions. \u00a0Some organized online exercise, after-work happy hours or hosted game nights.<\/p>\n
One of the challenges was making sure employees were balancing work and taking time off so they can avoid burnout.\u00a0 During the pandemic, HR data shows employee were less likely to take any paid time off, especially when they were restricted by travel bans and indoor activities.\u00a0 Even when employers offered flexible work schedules, HR found it difficult to track if employees were working too much.<\/p>\n
HR also had the challenge to work with managers to re-engineer work schedules and balance accountability with flexibility. \u00a0They had to insure management carried out cleaning and testing protocols. \u00a0Managerial training became a need rather than a want.\u00a0 Managers needed training on how to manage a remote workforce differently.\u00a0 HR used engagement surveys to take the pulse of workers to gage levels of isolation, stress and economic distress.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a tough year for HR leaders too.\u00a0 They were amongst the bravest of employees.\u00a0 They dealt with many lives lost and livelihoods destroyed.\u00a0 They counselled employees reporting feelings of isolation, loneliness and grief. \u00a0HR was called in when an employee exhibited slurred speech on a company zoom call. \u00a0The pandemic put people at the heart of business and turned to HR to explore ways of performing work.<\/p>\n
Some of my consultants needed to remain working at essential business at the height of the pandemic.\u00a0 I talked many off the ledge and supplied them with any and all protective equipment, assistance and support as needed.\u00a0 We met more frequently. They really are my most important asset and I put money where my mouth is.<\/p>\n
And we aren\u2019t in the clear yet. \u00a0The residual impact on employees are still ever present.\u00a0 Employees are still dealing with mental health issues, fears concerning reopening and vaccinations. \u00a0What do you do with an anti-vaccers when the rest of the employees are afraid to be around them?<\/p>\n
HR spends every waking moment keeping up and implementing with regulatory changes.\u00a0 They lead the way to the humane approach to making hard business decisions.\u00a0 HR is not just about paperwork or coddling employees.\u00a0 It is about its ability to adapt to norms, developing programs that maximize the people side of the business, and making it easy for employees to bring their best selves to their work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As many of you know, May was mental health awareness month.\u00a0 I was reminded of this when there was a suicide in an apartment across from my office building. This year, more than any other time, mental health and wellness became a top priority for HR in the workplace.\u00a0 In fact, my firm has had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":10844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[],"post_folder":[268],"class_list":["post-11154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-consulting-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11155,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11154\/revisions\/11155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11154"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=11154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}