Human Resource Management Under the Covid-19 Pandemic: The JSISFI Experience

A Working Paper by Zaldy C. De Leon Jr.

The pandemic has made through a way to a corpus of difficulties that made the Human Resource Management department in a teetering and challenging position.

Gigauri (2020) explained that Dramatic changes caused by the new coronavirus COVID-19 have unprecedented implications on companies around the globe and influenced human resource management profoundly. HRM took leadership to navigate in the vague present and unforeseeable future by managing people to cope with stress and to continue working remotely so that business goes on with its operations. However, HRM had to deal with the dismissals and reduction of the staff caused by the pandemic lockdown. The expert interview findings indicate that companies, together with the HR managers, should develop crisis management plans, elaborate new policies for remote as well as hybrid working systems as a response to the current and future crises.

The Department of Education has made initial steps to promote learning at its best form and way possible – empowering the five major subjects, cutting short the subjects by choosing only the most essential learning competencies. However, the HRM Department were least to adapt on the new normal since, if it has to, they also need to change every transaction papers into a digital copy or so. Another whole lot more of problems arise.

The highlight of the new normal education is the mass use of alternative forms of teaching like the online, modular, distance, and the blended learning approaches. In these strategies, technology is given emphasis since the teaching process will be delivered through the various channels available to the schools, but not in a face-to-face mode. This is another problem in HRM since there is no face-to-face, many duties and responsibilities have to be set into another platform.

If pandemic is a soccer player, it has already won the Cup; if it was a race car, it would have won the Grand Prix. As of October 2, 2020, the Philippines has reached a staggering 314,079 cases, the 20th in the global rank. One of the affected in the field is education – and within the bounds of education, the HRM department has eyed problems and challenges they need to face by and by.

It must be noted that the function of HRM within an organization is concentrated on recruiting, managing and directing people who work in it. In our institution, the Jesus Saves Integrated School Foundation, the Human Resource Management also deals with issues related to compensation, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, training and others. This has been so sine the HRM Department is composed of the School Administrator who also manages the human resource of our institution together with the School Board of Trustees and the School Principal.

It may be said that HRM plays a strategic role in managing people and the workplace culture and environment. From the beginning of hiring, the HRM department has casted down employees in their field according to the demand of the school. They act as if they were talent managers looking for ‘perfect’ specimen for the commercial ads or a TV show. Thus, if the act is effective, it can contribute greatly to the overall company direction and the accomplishment of its goals and objectives. This is what the favorite musketeer story had to say – one for all, and all for one. There must be fluency among the people, and solidarity in return.

However, in this time of the pandemic, the government protocols delimited the face-to-face contact of people within a single vicinity. Due to this, the articvle said that “[M]ore and more companies seek the outsourcing services of HR recruitment companies. The focus on HRM is now moved to the strategic utilization of employees and the measurable impact of employee programs over business. Nowadays successful companies need to be adaptive, resilient, customer-centered and quick to change direction. Within such an environment the effectiveness of HRM is crucial to business success. HR professionals establish systems for performance development, career succession planning and employee development. This keeps people motivated, happy, personally engaged and contributing to company success. Furthermore the HR professional helps the development of organisational culture and climate in which employees have the competency, concern and commitment to serve customers well.” But is this the way that should be? Well, until the pandemic is in, we cannot do anything but to say the magical aye and amen. To elaborate on how the pandemic has affected HRM policies and programs, let us first look at what HRM does in an organization, especially when its value seems to be forgotten because of the lost of face-to-face or hands-on contact with the personnel. Thus,

Strategic Management. HRM improves the company's bottom line with its knowledge of how human capital affects organizational success. Leaders with expertise in HR strategic management participate in corporate decision-making that underlies current staffing assessments and projections for future workforce needs based on business demand. However, the pandemic has made the decision-making slow because meetings and schedules are not every time aligned with each other. Therefore, in the absence of signatories, resolutions must b made.

Wages and Salaries. HRM compensation specialists develop realistic compensation structures that set the institution’s wages competitive with other businesses in the area, in the same industry or companies competing for employees with similar skills. They conduct extensive wage and salary surveys to maintain compensation costs in line with the organization's current financial status and projected revenue. Just a little note, the JSISFI has the lowest school rate at the area. The school made the teacher teach through home school offices. The teacher made their way towards their classes in the net. The validation and verification of classes are determined through schedule submitted by the teachers submitted before the beginning of the class.

Analyzing Benefits. Benefits specialists can reduce the company’s costs associated with turnover, attrition and hiring replacement workers. They are important to the organization because they have the skills and expertise necessary to negotiate group benefit packages for employees, within the organization's budget and consistent with economic conditions. They also are familiar with employee benefits most likely to attract and retain workers. This can reduce the company’s costs associated with turnover, attrition and hiring replacement workers. As also the requirement of the Private Education Assistance Committee, teachers’ benefits and employees’ benefits must be declared and given as the law required.

Safety and Risk Management. Employers have an obligation to provide safe working conditions. Workplace safety and risk management specialists from the HRM area manage compliance with the Philippines Occupational Safety and Health 9OSH) protocols with additional requirement from the BF regulations through maintaining accurate work logs and records, and developing programs that reduce the number of workplace injuries and fatalities. Workplace safety specialists also engage employees in promoting awareness and safe handling of dangerous equipment and hazardous chemicals. The school has provided evidence of compliance as to this matter.

Minimizing Liability Issues. The HRM employee relations specialists minimize the organization's exposure and liability related to allegations of unfair employment practices. They identify, investigate and resolve workplace issues that, left unattended, could spiral out of control and embroil the organization in legal matters pertaining to federal and state anti-discrimination and harassment laws. There are certain laws that must be understood like the Data Privacy Law among others so the workplace environment will be safe and secured.

Training and Development. The HRM training and development specialists coordinate new employee orientation, an essential step in forging a strong employer-employee relationship. The training and development area of HRM also provides training that supports the company's fair employment practices and employee development to prepare aspiring leaders for supervisory and management roles. In this regards, the Succession Plan has been written together with other requirements to ensure that the future of the school. The trainings are allocated, however by the School Principal, and approved by the School Administrator.

Employee Satisfaction. Employee relations specialists in HRM help the organization achieve high performance, morale and satisfaction levels throughout the workforce, by creating ways to strengthen the employer-employee relationship. They administer employee opinion surveys, conduct focus groups and seek employee input regarding job satisfaction and ways the employer can sustain good working relationships. If there be any help or demands needed by the employee, the HRM department had a hand on it. Negotiations and pacifying conflicts are part of their duties and responsibilities.

Recruitment and Onboarding. HRm recruiters manage the employment process from screening resumes to scheduling interviews to processing new employees. Typically, they determine the most effective methods for recruiting applicants, including assessing which applicant tracking systems are best suited for the organization's needs. As mentioned above, the School Principal and the Board of Trustees were also responsible in recruiting feasible employees for the institution. With grace, all of our teachers were licensed professionals.

Hiring Processes. The HRM professionals work closely with hiring managers to effect good hiring decisions, according to the organization's workforce needs. They provide guidance to managers who aren't familiar with HR or standard hiring processes to ensure that the company extends offers to suitable candidates. There is a continued effort to improve the system.

And finally, Maintaining Compliance. HRM workers ensure that the organization complies with Department of Education, IATF, DOH, DSWD, PNNP, BF, PEAC compliances.

Though the pandemic has caused a lot of challenges for the school especially in its atrium, the HRM has continued the operation of the school through its purposive and highly-relevant and meaningful works that caused every stakeholders experience smooth flow of transactions, relations, and other factors inside the organization.

Lewis (2020) said that he coronavirus pandemic has disrupted organizations and caused human resources managers to think differently about their role as they adjust to social distancing practices and a new work environment that they may ever have imagined.

To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, companies have switched to a remote work model at a rate and scale they've never experienced. As face-to-face collaboration is replaced with e-mail and videoconferencing, HR managers have to do difficult work under difficult circumstances.

Not only are HR professionals concerned about employees' health and well-being during the pandemic, they are also under the strain of processing the paperwork and providing solace to the millions of workers who have been laid off or furloughed. For employees still on the job, HR managers are trying to keep their workers productive, motivated, engaged and connected—all factors that are moving targets in the new normal.

Aitken-Fox (2020) writes that while there is now a great deal of discussion concerning the impact of Covid-19 on and implications for working practices and human resource management (HRM), much of the content and comment on these topics tends to be of a general nature, offering observations and/or guidance that seek to define what a ‘new normal’ might be. For example, that remote working will become the norm, or that working practices will become more flexible. While this may be indeed what happens, because Covid-19 is a global pandemic, we need to understand its impact on working practices, well-being and HRM in specific contexts. It is likely many changes will be common across country contexts, but we should also expect, given institutional differences, that there will be localised nuances. In Australia, through a survey of and interviews with managers and others with people management responsibility, our ongoing research has highlighted some important outcomes.

To wit, the value of Human Resource Management Department has not been surpassed by the Grand Prix or the Cup of the Pandemic. The HRM continued its fight against this erroneous disease.

References:

Griffith, A. (2018). The Importance of Human Resource Management. Posted June 17, 2018 at https://www.griffith.ie/blog/importance-human-resource-management

Mayhew, R. (2019). 10 Reasons HR Is Important to an Organization. Updated January 29, 2019 at https://smallbusiness.chron.com/10-reasons-hr-important-organization-22424.html

Lewis, N. (2020). HR Managers Rethink Their Role During the Coronavirus Pandemic. Posted April 22, 2020 at https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/hr-managers-rethink-their-work-coronavirus-pandemic.aspx

Aitken-Fox, E., Coffey, J., Dayaram, K., Fitzgerald, S., Gupta, C., McKenna, S. and Tian, A.W. (2020). The impact of Covid-19 on human resource management: avoiding generalizations. Available at https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/05/22/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-human-resource-management-avoiding-generalisations/

Gigauri, I. (2020). Influence of Covid-19 crisis on Human Resource Management and Companies’ Response: The Expert Study. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration. Volume 6, Issue 6, September 2020, Pages 15-24. Available at https://researchleap.com/influence-covid-19-crisis-human-resource-management-companies-response-expert-study/