HR agility forged in the throes of the pandemic will prove valuable long after COVID becomes a routine, manageable risk, and employers should work to maintain and further develop this agility, particularly with respect to:

Keeping focus on people-centered culture: COVID reminded us that businesses cannot operate without people, and one of the pandemic's silver linings was a shift in employer focus back to employees. HR professionals are now positioned to continue to lead through innovation in this regard—think, for example, of the many employers who, prior to COVID, viewed flexible working arrangements as unworkable and who now, with the benefit of strong HR leadership, plan to make such arrangements permanent.
Re-envisioning employee communications: The pandemic taught us that our workforces are hungry for communication, especially during challenging times. And HR professionals led the way in crafting pandemic-related messages that kept employees informed and were transparent about risks and unknowns. Particularly effective were communications that made use of technology—video messages and virtual town hall meetings helped to bridge physical distance and create community from afar.
Harnessing technology to make data-driven HR decisions: As the pandemic wore on, many HR leaders helped employers realize that effective communication—the type of communication that generates engagement and loyalty—is not a one-way street. These leaders leveraged technology to build real-time data sets that drove decisions about the pandemic—g., surveying employees about whether they felt comfortable returning to the office, or whether they would agree to get vaccinated.
Valuing the "good" over the "perfect": The COVID pandemic rendered risk-free HR solutions out of reach for most employers. Instead, HR departments were forced to make critical decisions based on imperfect information. Sometimes, those decisions turned out to be incorrect, but in many cases, nimble decision making ensured business continuity when it would not have been possible if employers had waited on a "clear" or "perfect" answer.

Workplace health and safety: What improvements can employers implement going forward?

Over the years, federal and state safety and health laws have generally required health care employers to protect the workplace from risks posed by infectious diseases. Yet until COVID, most employers outside the health care setting had little reason to assume that such obligations could apply to them. COVID changed that and made clear that employers in all industries must consider measures to guard against infectious disease outbreaks, including employee vaccination and testing, masking, distancing, leave and remote work arrangements, temperature checks, contact tracing, cleaning, and ventilation.

Instant Insights /

COVID-19 at two years: 4 lessons for employers

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