HR Strategies To Improve The Quality Of Employees' Lives

We are almost in the middle of the year 2021, a lot has changed over the past few months. Where the new year brought in hope with the new vaccine, the new fiscal year set in with doubts of going back to the office, with the second wave of the pandemic. For HR practitioners, this posed challenges for managing the workforce working remotely where employees have been affected on a larger scale than before as in many cases this required dedicating more time to manage home. With this backdrop, it is important for HR to rethink engagement and experience strategies in this VUCA world. Originally used to describe the shifts in the geopolitical landscape in the 1990s, VUCA best describes the environment businesses face in the fight against the global pandemic.

As Business Leaders navigate the unchartered waters of the Covid world, they are faced with unprecedented challenges posed by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. As businesses face economic disruption across the globe, there is a need for a New VUCA Model - Vision, Understanding, Communication, Agility.

Vision: Leaders can relook at their strategies to achieve their vision and shift their attention to employee welfare alongside achieving business goals

Understanding: It is important that the leaders understand the impact of the changes on employees and their lives, and create an empathetic leadership approach, going beyond organizational KPIs and spreadsheets

Communication: There is information as well as a lot of misinformation around. It is critical for leaders to manage this urgently and have clear and open communication with their employees by offering them information and guidance

Agility: There is no escaping the changes that have been brought by the pandemic, and hence agility is the need of the hour. Training and upskilling employees with suitable training modules, will help to keep the business afloat, as soon as we come of out of this together

Shaping New HR Policies for the New Age of Employee Experience

Businesses today are looking for strategies that support flexibility and boost employee morale and productivity. Here are some policies that all kinds of businesses can adopt as we navigate these times.

1. Flexible Working Schedules

Offering flexible work schedules can help businesses to reduce costs, retain employees, increase productivity and creativity while also focusing on improving the wellbeing of employees. Flexible working hours can give employees the liberty to start, and finish work as, and when they wish. It can also help increase productivity as most employees work longer hours while they work remotely and tend to burn out over a period of time.

2. Focus Employee Health and Wellness

This phase requires business leaders to focus more on their employee experience at work and beyond. Hence, investing in health insurance, vaccinations, workplace hygiene and offering liberal sick leaves will ensure better lifecycle management in the long run. There is also a need to provide holistic benefits that address physical, mental, and financial wellbeing of employees, for which there are multiple new-age apps and digital solutions.

3. Experience Personalisation

Another practice that employers can adopt is, instead of offering a single benefit package for everyone, to provide benefits based on what employees need. A lot of companies are now opting for digital solutions and platforms for employees that they can use as per their needs and convenience.

While these are effective strategies that every organisation can use, it does not necessarily mean that they will work for every organisation. Different businesses have different requirements. A consultative approach on Employee Benefits and Experience Strategies goes a long way to achieve short-term as well as long-term objectives. One thing that will continue to drive people management is a shift towards a more human-centric approach in HR policies and a compassionate leadership style.

(The given article is attributed to Suvarna Mishra, VP, Human Resource, Sodexo BRS India and solely created fro BW People Publication)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house