10 May Due to lockdown and recession, Employees are facing emotional and financial duress, Will HR Tech help them or increase their duress?

India was already suffering from a slowdown in 2019. Automobile, realty, banking, telecom, etc. were already bleeding because of certain micro and macro factors. a lot of sectors were running on all-time low production lines because of weak consumer sentiment. The waves of worldwide slowdown started hitting India in 2019 itself and we were moving towards a recession. In 2019, there was occasional news of laying off employees. But as we move towards 2020 and the nationwide lockdown was announced in March, employees started feeling insecure about their jobs. An employee suffers mentally, physically, and financially when he/she is one the verge of losing jobs.

Every company faced the music of Corona Virus and are taking stringent actions to stay afloat in such times. Many of organizations fired their employees, rescinded new offers to graduates. Managing organizations became very difficult in remote conditions. Employee management became the second most priority, first priority being steady flow of revenue. Covid-19 has led a surge in the usage or subscriptions of HR Tech platforms as companies believe technology will help them to breeze through this pandemic. HR Tech platforms help in making information more accessible, real-time, and with less friction.

Organizations are roping in IT companies to develop HR-Tech platforms associated with employee wellness, communication, employee engagement, etc. to continue their operations in work from home setup. The organizations are attempting every possible effort to create the new normal. they are leaving no stone unturned to engage and relieve their employees from the havoc created by Covid-19.

In the lockdown, employee engagement has taken new dimensions. Companies aren’t limiting their engagement activities to employees only; they’re covering family engagement also. They believe that along with employees, keeping their relations happy and satisfied will lead to better efficiency in employees. Employers are very concerned about the health of the workers and their family members. they’re partnering up with Health-Tech start-ups to address this situation. Johnson & Johnson unrolled a telemedicine program through which they can consult top doctors, counsellors, nutritionists, and other experts regarding physical and psychological state.

Companies are organizing online interactive sessions concerning hygiene, precautions to be taken, nutrition, fitness, etc. to keep their employees motivated within the work from home set-up. Recently, Mahindra roped in various experts to organize online sessions related to yoga, emotional hygiene, and nutrition through Zoom. Their CHRO said that, communication tools like Zoom, Skype, etc. have helped the organization to continue their workings and keep their employees engaged.

Organizations are focusing on imparting training and reskilling employees with new skills within the market. SAR Group initiated a program to promote learning and development among employees by teaming up service engineers and sales officers, who at this point aren’t having many tasks to do. Both service engineers and sales officers aren’t aware of each other???s task. it would help both of them to know and learn something from each other expertise.

A host of companies are rolling out innovative initiatives to keep everyone engaged within the lockdown period. Genpact has started a program called ‘isupport’ – a parenting community to provide access to content sourced from experts associated with the way to engage children for his or her holistic development within the free time.

Social Media Company ‘Sharechat’ and fintech start-up ‘Zeta’ are organizing online gaming competitions and virtual lunch breaks and coffee breaks, work from home picture streams and other fun activities to keep employees motivated in the remote conditions.

Accenture has unrolled a virtual camp called ‘Parents at work’ and they have also roped in various partners to arrange hobby lessons for kids, logic-based learning activities, online treasure hunts, etc.

In these times, the HR department plays a pivotal role. they’re managing the employees, keeping the work flow smooth & continuous, ensuring two-way communications, motivating employees through various activities and a lot more. It becomes very difficult to conduct all these tasks smoothly in work from home environment, however, HR professionals are making the best use of technology to drive everything within the positive direction. Organizations are rolling out different apps to conduct all the work smoothly. At such times, organizations have realized the importance of HR technology tools or platforms within the day to day working of the organization and who don’t believe HR tech tools to be important, to rethink over the model and rejig their activities consistent with such conditions.