Reimagining HR in Post-Pademic Times of FlexiWork

The pandemic-induced lockdown, and the long duration of work from home that followed has presented unforeseen challenges for HR Teams. A veritable Pandora's Box has opened while managing the workforce in Non-Office environments. However, many companies including Logitech took this challenge upon themselves and turned it into an opportunity. We at Logitech realized that we could capitalize on this time for Transformation of HR Function (we call it People & Culture), and for launching new initiatives.

The Lockdown has extended so far beyond anybody’s comprehension, and this also made the role of HR teams very critical. Some changes to HR management also had to be made across the board for the long haul in many companies.

Human Resource teams had to be on its toes since the pandemic hit. They had to ensure wellness of staff members, ensure they are constantly engaged, productive, as well as to creatively onboard new staff members. Dealing with the grief of layoffs in many organizations was also on the shoulders of Human Resource teams, which made it even more taxing.

Hence, my sincere empathy lies with the work that Human Resource teams across all organizations have pulled together. I write this article to acknowledge their importance and explore the systemic changes that I think are instrumental for HR management in the New Normal going forward.

In the future, HR organization’s functions will broadly fall into three core areas:

1. Mental Health and Well Being of Staff members

2. FlexiWork Management and Ensuring Work Continuity

3. Establishing a Hybrid Work Culture

Let us look into each of these core functionalities, and how best to adapt for managing them as well as leveraging them for company’s benefit.

1. Mental Health & Well Being

Mental Health will come to the forefront of designing protocols for employee well being, as working remotely for long duration will take its toll on mental health. With a potential increase in mental health issues, there needs to be an emphasis laid on conducting morale boosting activities for staff members. In my previous articles I have also mentioned the need for Flexible Work office spaces, keeping this issue of mental health also as one of the issues that could be addressed by having a flexi work arrangement for the workforce.

Most of us are probably missing our offices for one reason – Social interactions with our work buddies. But now our HR resources at Logitech have intentionally made sure that the virtual conversations with our colleagues have room for talking about our family life, culinary skills, home workouts, fun antics of kids and more. I have heard from my contemporaries, that this trend has been ongoing in several other companies also.

Now, the conversation with colleagues have blurred the distance between Professional and Personal lives. Our colleagues understand how we orchestrate our personal life; from cooking to teaching kids. I think this trend would impregnate into the future as we continue to have such conversations, and connect more virtually for work. This will not only enable us to get through this situation together, but also foster deeper levels of connection with our colleagues.

Another very important facet of HR activity is crisis management in times of stress. Let me walk you through what our HR teams at Logitech has done in that regard, which I am sure many other responsible organizations have also done.

We knew that a lot of our staff members were living away from their families, so talking to them and reaching out to them was very important. Also, the almost overnight work changes meant that we would need to assist all staff members with the appropriate tools for remote working. We created a team of HR personnel and asked them to reach out to every employee individually, besides ensuring via HR management software to inform all employees of the new protocols going forward. We also quickly created online portals within the organization where each employee could raise a ticket for any concern they might have with regards to the shift in work patterns, and also the specific requirement of tools for each employee so as to not disrupt their ongoing work. All of these initiatives also add up to the mental well being of our staff members, and makes them feel like they belong.

1. FlexiWork Management and Ensuring Work Continuity

Getting things done virtually was new to most of us three months back. Today, it has become the norm, thanks to fast changes in work protocols which have been assisted by HR personnel. We don’t know for how long we will have to work remotely, and most likely this will become the New Normal. The best alternative will be to learn efficient ways of connecting with team members and learn to co-work over virtual environments. This improved efficiency will have a direct impact on the speed at which things get done.

Many companies have already put greater technology systems and support in place to facilitate Flexible Working. Teams are already collaborating with the help of collaborative software for meetings as well as compiling work. Microsoft Teams & Google Suite are at the forefront of collaborative software. HR systems have also started responding promptly & this is showing a positive effect on the workforce of tomorrow.

COVID 19 is a Black Swan event, and overall I think the following are the essential features that an agile HR team needs to focus upon:

• Focus on people first, economics second.
• Distribute authority to remote HR professionals, and coordinate action quickly and be able to collect real-time data for identifying problem areas effectively.
• Develop rapid response teams that develop programs to educate, train, and empower people to work from home.
• Quickly assess what jobs are going away and what new roles are opening up within the company. And then start aligning people toward new roles quickly.
• Stay positive and communicate a spirit of positive growth despite the uncertainty and change.

3. Establishing a Hybrid Work Culture

Navigating the post-pandemic world will come down to two key elements: people and technology. When employees experience a radical change such as shifting to work from home (WFH) for extended periods—sometimes in restricted and noisy spaces—it’s not easy. For many, it can be unproductive and ineffective. For others, there are benefits galore such as eliminating commute times to the office, a better work-life balance and the ability to work at the most optimal times that allow for greater focus.

Finding the right balance between the physical and virtual workplace will determine our success in the eventual new normal. It will take new tools and new attitudes. And successful companies in the future will be those which start figuring this out sooner rather than later.

Also most businesses will expand the talent pool across gig workers, freelancers, contractors and employees situated across geographies. As a result, businesses must find newer and more engaging ways to communicate. Organizations should shift from a centralized to distributed organization. The corporate hierarchy should be flat with smaller cross-functional, self-organizing teams. There should only be a Needs-based office presence, and the old way of "Managing The Clock" should cease. HR should propagate Seamless work-life integration 

Few Key pointers to keep in mind in the post-pandemic "New Normal"

• In the post-covid world, the decision making hierarchy would also change as all key players will not be present in one location, and sometimes approvals might have to take place in an asynchronous manner.
• Remote workers must have access to the best audio-video devices and cloud services that allow for comprehensive IT support and a consistent user experience across all meeting environments & spaces as employees balance dual work environments of their homes and offices. As the number of meeting rooms grow and remote work expands flexibly, it is critical that IT has access to a single dashboard for remote management and monitoring, including remote upgrades. This will enable better management of all staff members.
• The flexibility in work timings and work locations would enable many women to join into the workforce. HR teams should welcome this change and look forward to making the appropriate processes in company culture that has greater women participation

The Solution may be Right Under your Nose

In Logitech, and in many other global organizations, the HR Leadership is addressing the above challenges with the help of Video Conferencing Technology. Simple & affordable video collaboration solutions have the potential to completely re-imagine the scope & potential of HR Teams worldwide. I have tried to enumerate the top benefits that organizations can derive from Video Collaboration solutions such as those provided by Logitech.

Top Eight Benefits for HR Teams that Video Conferencing offers:

1. Optimal Talent Attraction. Now Talent can be attracted from all over the country, and even from Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities, thus creating an optimal pool of staff. 
2. Shorten time to hire. Using video delivers progressively greater year-over-year improvement in time to hire.
3. Reduce cost per hire. Video conferencing provides greater reduction in cost per hire to the company. (source: Aberdeen) 
4. On-boarding Employees Remotely. The on-boarding process needs to be made as smooth virtually, as one would physically in an office set up, in order to make the candidate feel like a part of the team. A group Video Call for hand-holding by the HR needs to be initiated on the first day of the new recruit, along with other team members as well as the team leader.
5. Accelerate decision-making. 58% of video-conferencing users report that it helps them accelerate decision-making. That increases to 100% among those who consider themselves extensive video-conferencing users. (source: Frost & Sullivan) 
6. Improve employee engagement. Remote Users feel more connected to their teams & Business processes when using video-conferencing.
7. Enhance Employee Productivity. Companies that have used video in training increase employee productivity while reducing voluntary turnover by an average of 7.7% over 12 months. (source: Aberdeen) 
8. Upskilling of Staff Members. A lot of old skills will become redundant in the New Normal. It is very important that HR knows the direction in which the organization is proceeding, and quickly train & develop existing resources to make them ready for their new roles. It is always easier to re-train staff member than hiring new ones, and a lot of staff members might just need that little extra edge to converge into a low touch & digital first economy.

In conclusion, I think this period which has now been accepted as the “new normal” across organizations has had a very transformative impact on how HR as a function has evolved and how it should move forward. The emphasis on WFH and Remote Work has gone up which has compelled the need to ensure that the workforce is better managed in a virtual environment. For HR teams to evolve and for them to be up-to-speed with the ever-changing environment, this period serves as a great learning experience.