The pandemic has elevated the role of HR into the C-suite, but will it last?

In January 2020, most HR leaders had their plan for the year ready to launch. How things soon changed when the pandemic arrived.

News unfolded from around the globe and a domino effect of changes to workplace policies, procedures and flexibility quickly ensued. Most HR leaders worked on the fly while juggling business as usual, which consisted of managing people issues, enabling various people plans and ensuring staff were kept abreast of all changes.

Communication from HR leaders had never been as important as it was earlier this year (and continues to be.)

HR’s response to the pandemic needed to be swift and firm, to instil confidence in the workforce as well as the Executive, and boy was it! 

Many of us have offered our workplaces regular communication in the form of virtual meetings, resilience offerings, employee surveys to gain feedback, creating new policies to adapt to the new ways of flexible working. We have had to keep our Executive teams up to date with these findings and recommendations, we have had to gain the buy in of all leaders to share the corporate message.

At the core of all our hard work has been the focus on our people and their safety, whether it be; 

• sending people to work from home and coordinating the logistics of that,
• having daily crisis meetings with the Executive,
• planning the workforce’s return to work and what measures will need to be placed,
• we have had to ensure the workforce can adapt to new ways of working.

We have had to no chance to take a step back to look at all that we have achieved (because the truth is, it does not seem like it is over yet.) Most of all, we have had to quickly upskill as HR professionals. In short, our roles have adapted to include elements of counselling and we are strategists more now than ever before.

While most companies have disaster plans in place, nearly all the HR leaders I have supported have said nothing could have prepared them for the extent of this pandemic. 

HR professionals are the ones to absorb the emotional reactions of job losses, pay cuts… well almost everything people related in this turbulent time.

Why is it that HR leaders still don’t make time to upskill, to take time out to connect with a wider HR community, to expand their network?

HR professionals are certainly more valued by the Executive / C-Suite. However, without adequate self-development, self-care and a focus on building their own networks, I fear HR professionals will lose their credibility as quickly as they have gained it.

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