How has the COVID-19 crisis affected people management?

An event like the coronavirus crisis has not only had a psychological impact on the citizens of most countries in the world and a socioeconomic impact on a global level.

Halfway between being micro and macro realities, there have also been important transformations in the world of organizations. And, of course, in the field of Human Resources it has been necessary to adapt to them. At the end of the day, reality is always ahead of theory and the old work dynamics that many companies use "by default", without considering whether they are the best or not.

Therefore, in this article we will review the different ways the COVID-19 crisis has affected HR and the management of people in general.

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What changes in the field of HR has generated the pandemic?

When it was initially believed that the pandemic would only span days or a few weeks, it was assumed that the need to Changes in the management of people in companies, if any, would consist of small modifications of a superficial and quantitative nature: get more software tools to work from home, repair faulty intranet functions that went unaddressed for a long time, etc.

However, when the true scope of the COVID-19 crisis was seen, the need to push for changes in structural character not only in the HR departments, but also in the role of this element of the company in the whole of the organization.

That is to say: it was necessary to address the crisis by making changes at a strategic level and focused on the human component of companies. Transformations in which Human Resources professionals play a key role in knowing how to adapt to the new ecosystem created by the pandemic both in the economy in general and in the job market in particular. Let's see what are the main sources of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the world of HR.

1. Need to put the foo in new technologies

Although many companies continue to base their work philosophy on "not touching what already works" and they have hardly been interested in keep up to date on new technological developments, this way of operating has become unfeasible for many organizations.

Ultimately, the pandemic has had a major social and economic impact in a matter of a few weeks, and To be able to adapt quickly to these situations that break into our daily lives, it is essential to take advantage of the potential of the digital world. In this way, in relatively few steps it is possible to start to work in a very different way, since it is not necessary to carry out major material modifications in the work environments.

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2. Need to reconfigure HR department relationships

Keep in mind that in many cases not everything is solved by replacing the face-to-face job interview with one or two video call sessions. For example, competency-based tests and psychotechnical tests, if any, must be performed digitally.

This means that in certain companies it is necessary to develop digital tools adapted to the organization, and the HR department must be very involved in their design.

For this reason, in many cases it is necessary to modify the communication and supervision flows between the departments, so that the Human Resources are in constant contact with the part of digital developments and not only inform it, but also participate in making decisions.

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3. Adaptation to a new job market

The pandemic has had a significant psychological impact on many people working in the workforce, and in particular, it has been a clear tendency to value the possibility of working from home much more, so that this is a criterion with greater importance than a somewhat higher salary.

For this reason, in many cases it is necessary to make changes even at the level of company philosophy, something that must be reflected in the field of Public Relations (oriented towards workers and potential new employees) and communication strategies promoted from HR. Today, unlike what happened before the coronavirus crisis, in many sectors the "default" work option is no longer to go to the office, and in the cases in which it is necessary, it is important to know how to explain the reason for this so as not to generate rejection.

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4. Need to open up to new generations

As we have seen, the digital transformation processes that the HR sector came from have accelerated announcing in recent years and that in many cases they were being postponed due to the short-termism of many Business. Now, these changes are of no use if there are no Human Resources professionals capable of operating with these new technological solutions, and also, if they do not know how to express their potential, they will be at a disadvantage with respect to the competition in question months.

A) Yes, the HR sector is more in need than ever of "new blood": professionals who integrate the potential of new technologies in their way of understanding their work and of proposing selection, training and loyalty strategies.

• Related article: "5 keys to good talent management in the company"

Do you want to train in Human Resources?

If you are interested in professionalizing or specializing in the field of Human Resources and be up to date about the latest technological and strategic developments in this sector, you may be interested the University Master's Degree in Talent Selection and Management promoted by the University of Malaga (UMA).

This training program It is fundamentally oriented to practice and has a teaching team and collaborators in which professionals participate HR of several of the most important companies operating in Spain, as well as it is divided into three blocks: University Expert in Talent Selection, University Expert in Training, Personal and Organizational Development, and Internships and End-of-Year Work Master. Upon completion, students obtain their own degree for 75 ECTS credits.