Until recently, cynics have dismissed human resources as the hiring, firing and compliance department. Now, Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) have become linchpins in how businesses respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic. They are responsible for employees around the world and the communities in which they operate.

That responsibility grows weightier every day. Global stock markets have tumbled. U.S. unemployment claims have surpassed 20 million and continue to rise at a record pace. As of writing this, known cases of coronavirus are more than 3.6 million worldwide, and the death tally has surpassed 250,000.

During these trying times, how can CHROs keep their people and families safe? How can they keep employees engaged and productive (if that's even possible)? How can they promote business continuity in a dispersed setting?

This is not about (finally) installing Zoom or trying G Suite. There remain massive blind spots in the corporate response to COVID-19. If they haven't already, C-level executives will soon discover how little they know about their global workforce. And the CHRO will step into a new role: cultivating awareness, resilience, and adaptability against the unknown and unpredictable. What does that mean for CHROs at the world's largest enterprises?

Clear the runway

A few months ago, employment tended to be conceptually simple. An employee had one contract with one legal entity and sat at one desk in one location. More complex employment arrangements involved work-from-home days, extensive travel, relocation, assignments, or hotdesking offices, with first-come-first-serve workstations. Companies that ran fully remote, distributed teams, like Stripe, GitHub, and Automattic, were on the fringe.

Now, this is no longer the case. Every Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 company has set up remote work arrangements at a breakneck pace. As Tripti Jha, Global Head of People Solutions at Novartis, told HR consultant Josh Bersin in a recent webcast, "We had a two-year roll out for Microsoft Teams that was accelerated to two weeks."

These makeshift "digital transformations" are driven by necessity and probably long overdue. VPNs and cloud services are not the end of the transformation, however. CHROs have additional challenges to solve for.

It's about people

Which CHRO can definitively answer questions such as: Where are all our employees located? How many are in each of these countries where we operate? Where do they legally work, and is that different from their physical location? Many CHROs are challenged with not having this data on hand.

Add the pandemic on top of this foggy layer, and CHRO's blind spots become even wider. What restrictions have been placed on individual employees, factories, distributors, or partners? Will stimulus packages, unemployment support, or other forms of aid apply to our staff and operations? What are our legal obligations to employees? HR isn't necessarily able to follow local newspapers in 20 countries to get the answers.

If only that were the extent of missing information. What is the status of local transportation and healthcare? Even if the plant in, say, Georgia is making essential goods (toilet paper and hand sanitizer, we all hope), can it stockpile enough masks or disinfectants to do so safely? Can production be arranged to meet social distancing and public safety protocols?

Globalization and mobility make a CHRO's decisions harder and easier at the same time. Harder because accounting for one's people and resources in a pandemic is extremely complex without proper technology and data. Easier because dispersed operations make an organization more adaptable and resilient.

The more distributed a company is, the more centralized its data must be. It's hard to act decisively if the most basic facts about a workforce are unknowns—or stored in 15 different systems.

Showing up to work

In addition to accounting for their people, CHROs have other critical questions to answer: what does employee engagement and productivity look like right now? What is expected of employees if the cogs of the economy have ground to a halt?

To begin, consider the ambiguity of navigating company policies at home. What can be expensed or not? Should the company cover a home office and internet connection? Or should the employee write off the desk and chair as business expenses? Is the policy different if someone already worked remotely part-time?

Then there's the issue of oversight. What does it mean to "show up" to work now? Should work hours and productivity be measured and enforced, or does that pile stress on an already tough situation? And what if some workers are distracted taking care of their kids or elderly parents?

Sten Tamkivi, our chief product officer at Topia, took an illustrative approach to these issues. He created a shared spreadsheet and asked his 40 team members to answer questions such as, "If you had to estimate, what percent of your capacity are you operating at?" Another asks, "Have you had issues with your technology, health, or workspace?"

This baseline for measuring week-to-week changes is also a barometer of engagement. Sten regularly checks in with the team members who don't answer. Are they ok? What got in their way? How can he help? On a side note, during a video meeting, he also polled his team on who missed the office, and there was a strong correlation between having kids and wanting to be back in the office.

The new charge for CHROs

CHROs today have a tough charter. Their decisions impact both their people and company success. Further, at the end of this pandemic, corporate boards are going to discuss the following question in some form: "What are we doing to prepare for the next crisis?"

The most forward-thinking CHROs will point to a new technology stack that centralizes data on a global workforce and fosters employee engagement. They will ensure the company is more aware, resilient, and adaptable now than it was going into this crisis.

Also, in recent years, many CHROs have renamed their title to Chief People Officer, Chief Talent Officer, or Chief of Culture. It suggests a change in mindset and focus from managing people like a "resource" to investing in their growth and development, nurturing their work community, and supporting them through hard times.

The pandemic will further this trend. It has shown enterprises that the health, safety, and wellbeing of their people is not something that can be taken for granted. In good times and bad, CHROs must serve as a guardian to their people, using data and technology to monitor their whereabouts, advocate for their safety, and engage their skills.

After COVID-19, the role of CHROs will be forever changed.

Shawn Farshchi is CEO of Topia.

Read more:

Instant Insights /

How COVID-19 is changing the role of the chief human resources officer

More From HR Executive

Related Stories

Recommended For You