Re-opening the offices: HR role
Blog: NASSCOM Official Blog
With little relaxation in the government guidelines amidst the lockdown due to COVID-19, companies are opening up offices with limited employees. “Back to basic” won’t apply in this scenario. Many things will change with the regard to operations, job roles, use of technology, and perception towards human capital.
The workplace has new challenges to face, the major one is the concern for employee health and safety.
HR has a critical role to play in this scenario, “Health and safety remain the top priority,” says Sumit Malhotra, Director, Gartner. “Give decision-making autonomy to local HR teams. With great responsibility of people and organization, HR has to make some critical decisions about the operations and business function that has to get opened. HR with collaborating with disaster management committee may need to revisit their organizational plans.
To reopen the offices, HR may need to consider the following measures:-
- Functional ecosystem
Taking the guidelines of local and national public health authorities into consideration, there has to be a regular reminder of social distancing and sanitization in the office. The company may need to spend on masks, gloves, and sanitizers to keep the resources available for the employees. HR needs to convey the criticality of these measures to the employees.
- Health checkups
This needs to be taken care of at the first point of contact with the employee whether it is when the cab provided by the organization reaches to pick up the employee or at the entry gate of the organization. Temperature check has to be made mandatory. With proper fumigation of the main areas of the organization.
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
These are tough times for everyone, HRs need to focus on the mental health of the employees, providing them with all the resources. Counselling sessions should be made available to the employees ensuring confidentiality. Employee Wellbeing program has to be revisited, with regular feedback.
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- Stress management
Stress is a normal phenomenon, but when it exceeds the coping capacity of an individual it becomes distress. It comes out in the form of burnout in the employees which results in negative ways. HR has to look into the stressors that can trigger stress in the employees. Stress buster techniques should be provided to the employee and collective activities should be carried out to extend the support to employees.
- Meetings
We all had a look at how the Indian Prime minister held the meeting adhering to social distancing in lockdown. In the same way, companies have to adhere to social distancing. Not many employees at one time. Managers need to spend time in meetings with small groups. Communication should be transparent and through specific channels that are before hand made clear to the employees.
At this point, it is vital for the organization to be more employee-centric and to watch out for employee safety. Without collective efforts these steps will not yield proper result, thus a sense of cohesion has to be brought within the organization in the initial days of reopening.
About the author:-
Kirti Kumar is a budding HR professional currently pursuing PGDM in HR and Marketing at New Delhi Institue of Management. She looks forward to opportunities that can hone her skills. She is agile in her attitude with versatility in her action.
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