The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global economies and businesses, and Human Resources (HR) has been at the heart of it. With organisations now on the cusp of recovery, the role of HR is becoming even more important.
The questions are endless when it comes to envisioning the future impact and role of HR post-COVID-19. One thing is for certain – the pandemic and its inherent effect on businesses has highlighted the need for adaptability and resilience in today’s workforce, accelerated the shift towards a new, digital economy and accentuated the importance of HR in the new normal.
Due to the pandemic’s effect on the economy, organisations were quickly forced to transform and adapt to the new normal in order to survive. It is vital that HR evolves and transforms across every element of the HR lifecycle to meet a new set of organisational needs. Simply put, HR will need to increasingly find ways to support business leaders in restructuring during and after the pandemic, take workforce rationalisation measures while managing risks associated with such interventions, and increase productivity and employee engagement. After all, the COVID-19 pandemic will most likely be with us well into 2021, so we need to learn to live with it. It’s essential to act now – the more HR lags behind, the more time it will take for organisations to adapt and succeed in the post-COVID era.
1 “New world. New skills. Insights from the GCC Hopes and Fears survey,” PwC Middle East, 2020, https://www.pwc.com/m1/en/issues/pdf/new-world-new-skills-gcc-2020.pdf
2 “PwC’s COVID-19 CFO Pulse Survey - 4th edition. Middle East Findings,” PwC Middle East, June 16, 2020, https://www.pwc.com/m1/en/publications/covid-19/CFO/pwc-middle-east-covid-19-cfo-pulse-survey-4th.pdf