WHAT IS HR CONCLAVE

HR Conclave 2019 is a platform for corporate thought leaders from diverse

backgrounds to come together to interact and communicate their thoughts on the
ever-evolving face of the Human Resources industry.
HOW COVID-19 HAS AFFECTED H.R INDUSTRY

The impact of Covid-19 on health, economies, and markets is an unfolding story that
is complex and fluid in its ever-changing dimensions. One of the biggest visible
impacts of the virus has been on the organisations and the nature of workplaces. As
the coronavirus spread invisibly across the globe, nation after nation has declared
lockdowns, and organisations have scrambled to comply with lockdown restrictions
while striving to keep operations going. Work-from-home (WFH) became the
immediate solution to business continuity.
Agility, creativity, flexibility - these are the attributes demonstrated by HR in the
lockdown scenario. As employees started logging in remotely, HR functions stepped
up to transform brick-and-mortar offices into virtual workplaces almost overnight.
Guidelines to ensure that employees could manage WFH seamlessly and securely
had to be quickly defined and disseminated. In many cases, employees had to be
supported with digital infrastructure - laptops, data cards - to ensure that business
continuity could be maintained.

The coronavirus pandemic has increased the emphasis on the ‘human connect’
aspect of the HR function. Amid a rapidly unfolding health crisis, HR functions
geared up to provide critical communication on safety protocols, hygiene practices,
emergency numbers, list of hospitals, guidelines for quarantining and isolating, and
much more. Many organisations went the extra mile to help employees handle stress
by setting up online classes for employee wellbeing and motivation.

Employee safety became the prime concern, and HR teams partnered with other
functions to define ways of ensuring safety and social distancing compliance at
factories and plants that continued to operate. Regular disinfection of premises,
offices, buses, and colonies has become an essential component of keeping
employees safe. The procurement of masks, handwashes, and sanitizers was critical
even though supplies fell low in the market.

The coronavirus crisis has helped shine a spotlight on the value that HR delivers in
keeping employees engaged, motivated, safe, and productive. However, the WFH
concept and minimal staffing situation are likely to continue for some time. The very
nature of the virus and its transmissibility have made it clear that social distancing is
going to be the new normal for at least a year. This implies that the pandemic
situation will impact HR practices like recruitment, on-boarding, and learning and
development. Recruitment will focus on tech-savvy talent who can perform better in
a predominantly digital workplace. Processes for on-boarding new hires will have to
change to become fully digital. Training and skilling will reconfigure for an online-only
mode.

Some of the changes are exciting in their potential for transformation. In the
appreciable future, HR will play a key role in redefining, perhaps permanently, the
nature of the workplace. For instance, standard attendance and leave policies will no
longer work. Organisations will have to place a higher degree of trust in the integrity
and comitment of employees working remotely. WFH may impact decision-making
structures because of the constraints of video meeting platforms. Smaller teams may
be able to collaborate better and take decisions faster. In some ways, WFH may
even be a blessing in disguise. Being able to work from home may help people to
balance professional and personal issues better. It may enable more women and
people with disabilities to enter the workforce.

Having larger remote workforces will push organisations to ramp up technology

adoption and digitalization, enable dispersed operations, and collaborative
functioning. As organisations get more comfortable with employees working
remotely, the requirement for office space and fixed workstations may reduce
drastically. Organisations may be able to leverage WFH concept to cut costs on real
estate and brick-and-mortar infrastructure.

Many of these changes are already afoot, and organisations have been in a constant
mode of reinventing practically every process and policy. The silver lining to this
unprecedented health crisis is that organisations are finding new ways to become
more productive with fewer resources. Doing more with less is the mantra in the post
corona world. When the world changed practically overnight with the coronavirus
pandemic, organisations did too. The industry is watching the reinvention of the
workplace happening before our eyes.

DURING COVID PANDEMIC, HOW THE ORGANISATION ARE RAKING CARE OF THEIR
EXISTING WORKFORCE & HOW THEY WILL BE MANAGING NEW WORKFORCE.

As organizations and their people confront the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is
becoming increasingly apparent: the impact of the outbreak will linger. To manage
and mitigate the impact on their workforces, businesses must take immediate action;
start planning now for what comes next; and start thinking about what lies beyond.

The role of People and HR functions in shaping the organizational response can

hardly be overstated: employee health and well-being are crucial to the

organization’s continuity, its resiliency and its capacity to reframe its future in the

new normal to come.

“People and HR functions are the first line of resilience for the workforce during a

crisis. Organizations should follow an iterative lifecycle of understanding and

assessing the situation people are in and the movement, protection and enablement

of individuals and teams. We’ve divided the necessary tasks into five people themes

that cover the range of topics, challenges and risks all organizations must manage.

As organizations focus on the immediate, they should take the time to think through

the consequences of their actions. “Short-term responses should be built on a clear

understanding of impact

Understand the impact on people and priorities

We lay out six steps to help define your people framework in a way that aligns with

your purpose.

In the era of COVID-19, organizations must be clear on the values that align with

their purpose and actively plan to protect these workforce values during these testing

times. Good leadership and role-modeling will shine brighter than ever.

The non-negotiables are:

 Top-down governance with decisive and

creative leadership

 Mid-level management and team leadership

 Employee communications, policies and

messaging

 Accessibility and usability of health and

safety information

 Risk assessment and controls

 Risk and incident reporting and investigation

 Assurance, monitoring and reporting

  Agility, flexibility and empathy

 Employees equipped with the facts

 A culture of inclusion

 Adherence to local laws

Organizations should operate within a clearly defined framework through each stage
of the crisis to deliver workforce resilience. The goal is to establish and align

leadership capability to assess, plan, decide and communicate people strategies.

There are six steps:

1. Assess people exposures and risks

Conduct a current state end-to-end risk assessment covering operational and

geographical risks, health and safety impact, globally mobile employee implications,

customer impact, cybersecurity, tax, payroll and reward impact. The end goal is a

calculated risk index.

2. Define crisis scenarios

Identify best- to worst-case crisis scenarios, designed to stress-test your operation’s

ability to manage disruption and evaluate the severity of impact of current gaps using

risk assessment findings and data.

3. Identify workforce gaps

Identify essential business functions, high-value assets, essential jobs or roles, and

critical elements within your supply chain. Activate existing crisis management

policies and protocols in each disruption scenario to identify gaps within the current

workforce model, including qualitative and quantitative impacts.

4. Develop a potential response

Define potential response triggers to prevent crisis impact or enable agile response to

mitigate repercussions considering people, process and technology factors.

5. Test the potential response

Execute a simulation of crisis scenarios — particularly mass remote working — to test

the effectiveness of defined potential responses to validate effectiveness against

established success criteria.

6. Build intervention business case

Build a resiliency intervention business case to implement validated crisis response

triggers, including requirements, solutions and the value proposition.

Assess risk for local and globally mobile employees

Here are detailed criteria to help you assess the risk and impact of the crisis on your

people.

As part of their immediate focus on continuity, organizations need to measure the

impact of COVID-19 on the workforce. Start by quickly identifing which employees

are mobile, both locally and globally, and then determine whether they’ve been in or

near known pandemic hot spots for any reason.

 Identify mobile employees (including assignees, contingent workers and global

business travelers) and any accompanying family members who are in or have

recently entered a crisis location whether in transit or as a final destination.

 Consider the immigration impact on those affected by an outbreak in locations

visited. Individuals may need to be quarantined or safe-housed and may be at risk of

an involuntary immigration “overstay,” including prior to being relocated home or to

a third country.

 Assemble comprehensive information regarding all current globally mobile

employees, travelers in transit, and any accompanying family members in crisis

locations and surrounding locations.

Next, assess the impact of the crisis for global travelers.

 Assess the impact on each globally mobile employee and any accompanying family

members.

 Conduct a crisis risk assessment against their individual circumstances.

 Review the immigration status of each globally mobile employee and any

accompanying family members, including the visa status in current location; the

status of other visas held; and passports held, including their expiration date of

passports, their physical location and their validity.

 Identify any impediments or restrictions to travel, relocation or remote work in

location.
  Consider any physical barriers, exit permits, flight bans, regulatory bans and other

legal restrictions.

 Assess the impact of relocation and any infrastructure requirements.

 Consider the costs, any impact on operations, any contractual obligations (including

force majeure), and compliance with legal requirements while evaluating appropriate

legal advice at every step.

And finally, develop an action plan that addresses current and future travel

restrictions and lockdowns.

 Where lockdowns are not yet in force, prepare guidelines for working in each location

and for traveling between sites and offices, including visitor and meeting protocols,

visiting other locations and events.

 Prepare your lockdown strategy.

 Consider appropriate protective measures and infrastructure requirements.

 Determine action for each globally mobile employee and any accompanying family

members.

 Understand remote working restrictions where business travelers may be grounded

and any flexible government COVID-19 policy.

 Assess the risk and potential impact to determine response measures and priorities:

o Risk assessment of crisis in location

o Personal/unique circumstances of individuals and any heightened risk factors

o Visa and/or work permit status and travel opportunity of each individual

o Travel impediments

o Ability to make an immigration application amid government department

closures and any flexible government policy toward an “overstay”

 Use these assessments to make informed business decisions and to develop

prioritized action plans.