New opportunities, tough challenges kept HR on its toes in 2021

Among all the operations in an organisation, perhaps the HR team faced some of the toughest challenges during the pandemic period as well as in the Unlock period. Managing the entire workforce working from remote locations and keeping the entire team motivated and aligned with the company’s goals in a dynamic environment has kept HR teams on their toes.

Digital has become the new language and with Work From Home slated to continue for some more time as newer variants like Omicron scuttle office reopening plans, HR requires a totally fresh approach and thinking to manage teams across different locations, and everyone has had to reinvent themselves to face these new challenges and move ahead.

The year 2021 showed some signs of improvement, especially after the vaccination drive started, but companies were still not sure whether to open the offices and so the HR teams’ challenges continued to be tough. Taking care of the employees’ well-being has become the primary prerogative and objective at every organisation. Everything was approached with firm and clear objectives, clarity and empathy was required while dealing with employees at every levels. The pandemic has intensified the need for reskilling and upskilling of existing and new employees as digital became the language that everyone was conversing. The advent of digital and its rapid transformation also made employees to adapt to the new way of working and agility became a pivotal factor in everyone’s working style.

Meanwhile, the pandemic has also presented a hidden opportunity to leaders to recalibrate the talent pool as a key competitive advantage. Even the HR team had to revisit their company and HR policies and reframe it to the new and changing environment. New and innovative ways of training became a necessary to motivate employees as face-to-face interaction was missing and additional working hours were spent by both the leadership team and the employees. We still live in uncertain times and with technology being in the forefront, the hiring of talent for the future will be different. The need for being more tech literate and nimble-footed employees in the organisation with flexible working environment will form a key factor with most organisations to align with the changes in the work atmosphere.

As we move forward to the next year, companies will have their own business goals. And their actions are aligned to the goals. In these times the growth graph and the aspirations of the employees, too, need to be mapped to that of the company for faster, seamless and smoother long-term growth for both the employees and the company. The WFH will continue as the easing out of the situation is not clear and the HR teams will have to keep collaborating and motivating employees to keep them in good spirits and ensure that the productivity is maintained.

Sharing his views, Harshvendra Soin, Global Chief People Officer & Head – Marketing, Tech Mahindra, said, “Digital-first business model has acted as a survival kit for enterprises during the pandemic. With organisations leveraging new-age technologies to address business challenges, we expect to see an increased demand for STEM (Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics) education & talent pool and future ready employees who are adept in digital skills and new-age technologies. At Tech Mahindra, we continue to focus on skill-based hiring, across emerging technologies including 5G, XDS, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Robotic Process Automation, Blockchain, Internet of Things, and Cyber Security, among others. Additionally, hiring across all levels, especially at ‘the bottom of the pyramid’, to increase the tech quotient of the firm and keep our talent pool brimming with new-age technologies, has diversified our talent pool, and opened new doors of innovative thinking for us. In the year 2020-21, we had 25.5% of women in STEM-related positions.”

Soin further said, “We also aim to double our talent supply in digital technologies not just by cross-skilling, upskilling, and hiring from the existing talent pool in the industry but also by looking for fresh talent in Tier-2 cities and the overseas markets, alike. Going forward, I foresee this hiring momentum to continue.”

Commenting on the changes and opportunities in HR, Pavitra Singh, Chief Human Resources Officer, PepsiCo India, said, “While COVID 19 pandemic has kept everyone on their toes, it has equally thrown huge opportunities to transform and contribute in many meaningful ways. One big change has been the way we work. New ways of working and engagement, policies, and enablers, how and what we evaluate – measures of performance, soft skills like empathy and trust will all be tested differently in this new digital environment. It will be an interesting journey in 2022 with a lot of learnings along the way.”

COVID-19 has sped up digital transformation and technologies by many years, resulting in a tremendous talent demand in the Indian IT sector at all levels. Kameshwari Rao, Chief People Officer, Publicis Sapient, pointed out that the approach followed to attract talent witnessed a paradigm shift as employee well-being, experience and development disrupted the talent ecosystem in 2020, making it a crucial decision-making aspect for job seekers.

“Publicis Sapient, as a people-centric organisation, continues to focus on holistic growth of its employees through upskilling/ multi-skilling and building a progressive work environment that values diversity and inclusion, mental wellness, geographic flexibility, and a happy work culture. Furthermore, we will continue to actively recruit talent across the country, including from non-office locations to support our business growth and invest in future competencies ahead of the curve,” Rao added.