3 Ideas on How to Use COVID-19 to Foresight and Avert Another Crisis

Our key takeaway from recent virtual group discussions was that “no crisis should go to waste.” COVID-19 can be used to your business's advantage and equip you with the foresight to avert future ones. How? Read on till the end to find out more.

Each week, we are joined by global HR leaders to brainstorm, share learnings, and collect insights on how organizations can come out on top of this crisis. You can also be a part of one of our upcoming virtual group discussions. 

Here's what we learned from our most recent sessions:

1. Ensure Your CHRO and CFO are on the Same Page To Create the Most Optimized Budget 

Now more than ever, HR departments are doing everything they can to reduce their overheads and trim costs. Identifying expenses you don't need is one of the ways to ensure you're spending more than earning. However, this is also the time to smartly invest in the right HR tools, processes, and people that give your higher ROI in the long run. Evaluate your tools, contracts, and hiring strategy to find places to invest and make cuts. What's essential for your business at this stage? Read it straight from a global CFO himself here.

2. Give your Employees the Mental Health Tools They Need to Remain Productive 

When it comes to preparing employees for a crisis, leveraging professional resources is the best way to help your employees stay safe. Our attendees highlighted that the added expenditure of professional mental health now will show dividends in terms of morale, productivity, and business continuity. Free trials of sessions from mental health professionals are also available if you want to test how effective it can be for your people. These sessions and workshops can provide your employees the tools they need to protect their mental wellbeing and not burnout amidst such a pandemic. 

3. Upskill, Don’t Micromanage Your Employees; Train Your Managers to Listen and Let Go 

Our attendees highlighted that many employees are feeling micromanaged in the work from home model. Focus on upskilling your managers in topics like active employee engagement, setting accurate KFAs and goals, communication skills, and tracking them without being intrusive should be the approach. These are testing times and it is important that leaders acknowledge: not everyone will handle the current scenario as ideally as one can hope. Be empathetic, build trust, and help your people be on target. Be a model leader.

4. Document and Use Your Learnings from COVID-19 to Come Out Stronger 

As one of our attendees astutely said this week, “no crisis should go to waste.” Their main takeaway was that even in the face of an unprecedented disruption to the way we do business we should look to document, learn, and apply from the experience. Topics like work from home efficacy, the advantages of non-geographic hiring, budgeting effectively, and crisis management have revealed that we can embrace the new normal at work.

These sessions have so far been a treasure trove in terms of learnings and we will ensure the word gets out for every organization to implement and navigate this stressful, changing period together.

We would love to thank the HR leaders who make time to do their bit for their people and business as we cope with COVID-19 together.

• Geetha Thiagranjan, Head HR at Finastara 
• Uma Rao, VP HR at Ashok Leyaland  
• Vasu Srivastava, Senior VP- Global Human Resources at Xceedance
• Ashwani Kumar, Head-People & Culture at Srijan
• Biplob Banerjee, Chieff People Officer ABD 
• Tanushri Nair, AVP HR at Sage Publication
• Sonali Chatterjee, Senior VP- People, Performance and Culture at Anviti Insurance Brokers
• Sonam Gupta, Senior Recruitment Specialist at Tavant 
• Kunal Wadhwani, Group Head HR at Choithrams 
• Rahul Bajpai, Head HR at CoWrks 
• Nupur Jain, AVP HR at Ixigo 
• Antra Virmani, Head HR at Tavisca 
• Charandeep David, Corporate VP HR David Max Life Insurance 
• Pallavi Halder, Deputy GM- People Operations at Sula Vineyards