The Human Factor in Shaping Organizational Resilience: Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread shutdowns and disrupted lives across communities all over the world. Many essential employees worked through the pandemic at their usual worksites; others suddenly—within days—moved to remote work. Leadership faced the challenge how to balance the need of the company and community, whilst maintaining a safe work environment and looking-out for the wellbeing of employees and their families. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the significance of the human factor in responding to crises and disruption and the critical role people play in shaping organizational resilience, both short and long-term.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, business continuity effort largely focused on natural disaster, IT backup and data recovery, cyberattacks and supply chain interruption. Whereas no less than ten pandemics have been documented in the last 300 years, including the threat posted by the H5N1 strain of the Avian Flue that claimed its first victim in 1997, the COVID-19 pandemic came as a shock for many (Honigsbaum, 2019; Osterholm, 2007; Staples, 2006). Early 2020, there was “all of a sudden” an urgency to control a widespread infectious disease outbreak. Governments, public health organizations, businesses and families found themselves preparing for the local impact of the pandemic as well as disruption on a global scale. As the pandemic progressed, a range of measures were implemented to ensure business continuity and the health, safety and wellbeing of employees, their families and community at large (Samson, 2021). The impact on the workforce should not be underestimated. Many people were put into a position to make abrupt changes and decisions affecting their health and wellbeing under significant pressure and uncertainty.

With the U.S. no longer in a pandemic, rather an endemic (Chatelain, 2022; Charumilind et al., 2021; Smith Rogers, 2022), people are reevaluating their priorities and relationship with their employer in terms of where to live, whether to continue working remotely, where to work and how to accommodate the needs of children, etc. The pandemic will have a lasting effect on the relationship between employer and employees and “caused the future of work to kick-in a lot sooner than many of us had planned” (Johnson, 2022; Sadun et al., 2021). In 2021 over 47 million Americans quit their job with 11.4 million job openings in April 2022 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). A lot of people resigned because they are simply looking for higher pay. Others are searching for fulfillment, opportunities for advancement, career change, to go back to school or to be closer to family (Parker & Horowitz, 2022). Most employers are experiencing greater employee turnover and worker shortages are apparent everywhere (De Smet et al., 2021; Smith, 2022). However, this is nothing new. During and following the recession in 2008 unemployment was high, yet companies were still facing talent shortage. In the period from 2009 to 2019 every year the quit-rate increased in average one-tenth of a percent annually. Post-pandemic the trend caught-up with pre-pandemic levels and employers in the U.S. and other countries alike will likely have to deal with employee shortages for the foreseeable future (Pauker, 2022).

Many organizations regard business continuity planning as primarily a technological discussion, not considering the human factor. Arguably one of the most important lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that until robots or Artificial Intelligence replace humans, procedures, checklists, and technology only supplement—rather than replace—people and human effort (Talon, 2004). Employees have a significant impact on the effectiveness of business continuity efforts. Many factors related to disruptive events can have a significant impact on an employee's ability to work effectively. During a crisis there are often more questions than answers or solutions. Particularly in the beginning, the full scope of the crisis, the cause of the disaster, and the steps people can take to protect themselves may all be unclear (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2019). Uncertainty and unpredictability—when things become less controllable—is uncomfortable to deal with and result in a heightened state of anxiety. When faced with uncertainty and people may be afraid to act or paralyzed, there is a risk the decision making process breaks down. Uncertainty may lead to a decrease in employee engagement, team-work and overall well-being. In times of crisis or unprecedented disruption it is no longer business as usual (Einhorn, 2020; Grant & Goldhamer, 2021; Sweary, 2022).

Early on in the pandemic people were told to go home and work remote indefinitely. Not everyones home situation was or may be suitable for remote work. Society is also not necessarily prepared for long-term remote work, which can lead to stress and anxiety that in the end will flow over into work. Whereas flexibility is not necessarily a new concept, to do so formally and long-term, companies must equip employees properly and adapt or implement new ways of working, including also practices for business continuity and recovery (Butler, 2022, Hickman & Wendell, 2018). While many employees packed up their office and started working from home, others had to continue going into work. Health care professionals, law enforcement officers and a range of essential workers, including in the energy sector, had to deal with social and physical distancing for extended periods of time and the the stress and anxiety of dealing with the up-close and personal effects of the coronavirus (American Psychological Association, 2021).

The impact of a crisis or disruption such as the COVID-19 pandemic is not contained to the workplace. Employees themselves, their families or co-workers may have become sick or died as a result of COVID. Many people had to deal with job-loss, financial anxiety and stress resulting from school closures, childcare issues and making sense of media coverage and ever-changing COVID-19 policies. Managing crisis and disruptive events goes beyond the short term intervention and requires strategies to mitigate the impact on the workforce to ensure business continuity, including post-event efforts (Lewis, 2005). Planning and preparing for disruptive events involves the human aspect of resilience. Taking deliberate measures to support and care for the workforce before, during and after a crisis or disruption can help reduce stress, anxiety and benefits overall employee wellbeing. ISO 22330 recognizes the personal side of business continuity and the need to care for people and help them look after each other. In times of crisis most people are fixated on the present. Thinking about the future can be hard and uncertainty uncomfortable (Fuld, 2015; Johnson, 2015). It is important to look beyond the immediate challenges and to get the larger meaning and purpose of actions across. Mobilizing leadership and teams around a unified vision and higher purpose inspires, boosts self-esteem, overall employee well-being and fosters a collaborative mindset and behaviors (Grant & Goldhamer, 2021; Schwartz et al., 2020).

During COVID-19, decisions had to be rationalized in the context of reducing the risk of infection. Facility, equipment or infrastructure redundancy early on in the pandemic became secondary to ensuring employees had a backup and were physically isolated, recognizing the critical role of people (Samson, 2021; The Business Continuity Institute, 2018). Now, looking back it is easy to see the need for contingency-plans to prevent labor supply interruptions for mission-critical and vital functions. A crisis is fluid, and plans must be kept up to date to reflect changing circumstances in order to make quick and effective decisions. However, even in “normal” times employee turnover is a reality and has been an issue for organizations for decades. Succession planning is a critical component of business continuity planning. It is insufficient to simply have a concept or general succession plan. Succession plans should be specific, documented, easy to locate and accessible in an emergency (Bravanti, 2020; Khan et al., 2021; Maggio, n.d.).

The pace of change is unlikely to slow down and companies may experience when positions become vacant, needs and requirements for the roll may have changed. Even if the employee's current skill set is adequate, the role may need to be updated to reflect changes in industry practices, legislation, working methods and requirements. Focusing on soft skills—not just technical and job specific skills—is part of training and up or re-skilling the workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of emotional, relational, and communicative skills to engage and motivate a hybrid workforce under significant pressure and uncertainty. Given that employees must constantly adapt and develop their skills and competencies in line with how the firm advances, investing in human capital is essential (Douglas, 2022; Moldoveanu et al., 2022).

During the pandemic the role of management and supervisors has evolved from managing individual and team performance into a more complicated task of promoting employee wellbeing and balancing individual needs and business continuity. How employees are treated during times of crisis has an impact and shapes trust in the company and leadership during and post-event (Cappelli & Tavis, 2018; IBM Institute for Business Value, 2022). To manage a crisis or disruption, gaining the trust of employees and other stakeholders is critical and leaders with the right temperament and character are needed. According to the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer study, trust is the product of a leaders competence and ethics in terms of respectively keeping and delivering on promises and responding to people and society as a good corporate citizen (Walden University, n.d.). There has never been a more critical time for businesses to foster a culture of transparency and trust—to take the initiative to do what is right for their people and prioritize their employees' safety and wellbeing.

Important to highlight is that business continuity planning and implementation is a team-sport. The level of collaboration during a crisis significantly impacts how businesses and individuals get through a crisis or disruption. As uncertainty and stress increased during a crisis, highly collaborative people are in general more agile and adapt their approach to planning and getting work done. People who are un-collaborative put-up walls and drive colleagues away (Gardner & Matviak, 2020). A diverse and experience team of leaders and key contributors from across the organization allows to identify and approach a challenging situation from different perspectives and adapt to changing conditions. It is critical to pay attention to change management. Getting and keeping everyone onboard in times of uncertainty and change will require leadership skills to foster a culture that supports new ways of working.

Before the pandemic, it felt the world was already undergoing rapid change. Now, many of the old ways of working are gone. The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the relationship between employers and employees and how organizations around the world operate. Organizations that seek certainty in post-COVID business models and workplace-practices run the risk of falling behind and never catching-up again (Gardner & Matviak, 2020). Organizational resilience is all about navigating the organization through crisis and disruption. It is also about developing new capabilities and creating opportunities. Organizations need a workforce that is equipped and can do the same. Adding more procedural or technical redundancy solutions alone does not take care of the human requirements and no organization can function without its people. During and after a crisis, it is the resilience of the people that make up an organization’s community that get it back on its feet and working again (The Business Continuity Institute, 2018).

Impacts of crisis and disruption cumulates and extends over time. To create a company-wide culture of preparedness with the mounting number of compounding threats, organizations must establish a unified business continuity strategy considering multiple perspectives, encouraging collaboration, input, and new ideas. It is imperative to work with leadership to create a holistic outlook for the organization. In times of crisis and uncertainty and to handle fast changing, complex challenges with potentially long-term implications, the organization must bring together experts from diverse, cross-functional perspectives (Johnson, 2015). This requires rethinking how to respond to crisis and disruption. Leaders that can rally the organization behind a unified vision and long-term goals and view disruption as an opportunity in times of unprecedented uncertainty, may very well be better equipped to survive the next crisis and emerge from it on top.

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