The role of HR in the new normal: CII, Talentonic’s research on reimagining organisations

Despite severe impact on revenue and cash, the display of compassion and community outreach have produced a spontaneous level of commitment and loyalty from employees, and job cuts and salary adjustments have not been as widespread an occurrence as originally apprehended. This was revealed at the CII study ‘Reimagining the Organisation for the New Normal: Role of HR’, conducted in partnership with Talentonic, the HR solutions major.

Prominent insights from it include:

• Reducing headcount has been given seventh priority out of 13 when it comes to what actions were taken to deal with the Covid-19 crisis;
• Reducing or postponing salary or other payouts has been given the ninth priority out of 13 when it comes to what actions were taken to deal with the crisis;
• Empowerment has mushroomed as organisations struggled to find the agility and flexibility to deal with the crisis;
• Work from home has solved many problems, albeit creating some concerns about fragmentation of cultures;
• Digitisation has been a huge tailwind, but legacy issues remain.
• Making more permanent design changes requires newer skills and that is a definitive work in progress. Many organisations that were spoken to seemed to be well on the way to a more permanent reset;
• A new leadership is taking birth.

The study also identified a wide range of roles for the HR function:

1. HR consumerism: Building flexibility in processes to deal with a variety of situations and employment categories;
2. HR architecture: Design thinking in structuring to produce outcome;
3. Keeping the balance between compassion and outcome, and between big thinking and implementation rigour;
4. Curating the new culture: The new workplace, the new leadership conversations and employee expectations.

Deepak Dhawan, founder CEO of Talentonic, said, “The way the HR community in India has dealt with the crisis has been remarkable. They have been on ground zero of the great reset and the role of HR and future challenges have emerged.”

The study, CII added, combined survey responses from CII members, spanning several sectors, and interviews with industry leaders across sectors and secondary research from published sources.