Redesigning Human Resource Management
COVID-19 has made a huge impact on how we live and work.With the pandemic hastily accelerating most organizations' digital transformation journeys, it's become critical for HR leaders to ensure that all employees are aware of the organization's adjustments and alterations. More fundamentally, we will have to rethink the way we have planned and structured our organisation. Without a water cooler to gather around, impromptu interactions— and the resulting cooperation, creativity, and invention–are lost. Similarly, human resource management is advancing. When employees work from home, whether down the block or thousands of kilo metres away, it is more difficult for supervisors to keep track of them. To stay connected and informed about employee productivity, we have to rely more on technology. If we intend to keep all of our Zoom conversations and Teams meetings from being miserably, one-dimensionally functional and task-oriented, we'll need appropriate aides for this type of meaningful communication. Many organizations have successfully adopted Digital tools to build a culture of collaboration despite physical interactions. After-work socialising has begun to be replaced by virtual happy hours. Check-ins with departments on a regular basis have grown increasingly vital.
Redefining the Employee experience:
The employee journey will have to be redesigned, and the virtual employee experience will have to be measured. Work-life balance, wellbeing, connection, and cooperation will be critical for employee happiness as well as business outcomes optimization. We may see more formalised online connections and partnerships being developed at organisations all around the world, just as organisations will continue to experiment with more casual modes of team-building and socialisation. Online networking options are now available at conferences. We could use Zoom for virtual work shadowing or join a rotating online buddy system to keep individuals connected and interested. These kinds of efforts continually motivate employees that they are not working in isolation at their desk, but rather as part of a larger team.
Hybrid is going to be the future:
The pandemic has undoubtedly enhanced the HR transformations that had been taking place over the previous decade. It has had such an influence that businesses are increasingly aligning perks and policies to accommodate the new normal, which is remote/hybrid working arrangements. HR and industry leaders are being prompted to build and promote a flexible culture as a result of these changes. This may have its own set of difficulties.
HR Department is in command:
Employees are anxious about their own and their loved ones' health, worrying about job security, stressed about juggling young children and spouses at home while trying to get their work done, and coping with several other stressors that come with living in the midst of a pandemic. Of course, the decision makers are concerned as well. Uncertainty about what should be conveyed and how it should be expressed makes the already difficult process of leading departments and reflecting business values much more difficult.
Organizations naturally turn to HR for answers in the middle of all this chaos. As a result, many organisations' HR departments are being on the frontlines, assisting employees, resolving business requirements, addressing employee complaints and questions, offering support, and emphasizing on people's mental and emotional well-being. For any HR department, being at the centre of a crisis is a huge and heavy duty. To stay in the driver's seat and sustain its newfound position until2021, the company must lead –and accelerate–the dreaded digital transformation that has been a major topic in HR for years.
Making room for customization:
The shift in how many of us work that we've seen this year inevitably leads to employees creating their own ideal work environment. Employees set up their work environment at home as they see fit, operating outside of regular office hours if that is more convenient for them, and while some people feel compelled to check in with their coworkers for a Zoom coffee every day, others may prefer to do so once a week. When it comes to the actual work that employees do, it's only reasonable that they'd want to make some (little) changes. Here's where a concept like job crafting plays an important role. The goal of job crafting is to improve people's jobs for the purpose of both the employee and the organization. It's a method that allows employees to better their jobs in five ways: tasks, skills, purpose, relationships, and well-being.
So, how are people dealing with it?*
Wiley recently conducted a survey called "Collaborating Virtually," in which almost 3,000 business professionals were given a series of questions about how they're dealing with this major—and unexpected—change in their work lives. We discovered that 80 percent of those polled were either encouraged or required to work from home. They discovered that people are having difficulty (technically or mentally) adjusting to their new work-from-home lifestyle. Some of the most challenging aspects—outside of simply being tired of their surroundings—include:
balancing work and personal or family life
feeling isolated
experiencing poor communication with colleagues
These challenges, while distracting and frustrating, can present an opportunity to deepen your own self-understanding. Asking yourself questions like: What has been the most difficult for me during this time? What has been easier? Why might that be happening? How can I make the most of this? can start to uncover new insight about yourself. And while there are many ways to answer these questions, one great place to start is with a proven personality assessment and learning experience like Everything DiSC®.
How can DiSC® help deepen your own understanding of your preferences and tendencies in this new normal? The first step is to understand the Everything DiSC model.
The DiSC model is a simple yet powerful model that describes four basic behavioral styles: D-Dominance, i-Influence, S-Steadiness, and C-Conscientiousness, and serves as the foundation for each distinct Everything DiSC application. Everyone is a blend of all four DiSC styles—usually one, two, or even three styles stand out. Each person has a unique behavioral profile with different styles and priorities—no one style better or worse than the next. We believe that these differences in style can be extremely valuable.
As we continue to practice social distancing, it’s a great time to turn our focus inward and work on ourselves.
Keep in mind that each person and DiSC style is unique. Many people are a blend of two styles and find themselves grappling with more than one of the issues we presented above. That’s why utilizing a tool like Everything DiSC to help you uncover your own unique work style (including motivators, stressors, and the way you interact with others) can unlock new levels of self-awareness and understanding. And in a time where not much seems to make sense, exploring and building the relationships we have with ourselves can completely transform the way we work—no matter where that may be.
Find more information about Everything DiSC on www.diversitysolutions.in
*Referred to “Getting to Know YOU: Working from Home” (Wiley Blogs)