COVID-19 and Workforce Management: Evolving Patterns, Challenges, and Opportunities in HRM

In this research we will discuss about COVID-19 & the future of workforce management and below are the summaries point:- The impact of COVID-19 on workforce management in HRM. Analysis of evolving patterns, challenges, and opportunities in HR practices. Primary data collected through interviews with HR managers in retail stores in Preston, UK.

RESEARCH TITLE
COVID-19 and the future of workforce management – Evolving
patterns, challenges and key opportunities
STUDENT NUMBER
___________
SUBMISSION DATE
17 DECEMBER 2021
WORD COUNT
12020
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ABSTRACT
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the landscape of Human Resource
Management (HRM) significantly as it provided many challenges to the employees and the
managers alike. This research started with a focus on understanding the evolving challenges,
patterns and approaches used by HR (Human Resource) managers in conducting various key
functions including recruitment, training, performance management and other vital aspects
of HRM. A thorough review of various opinions, ideas and inputs from several authors on
this research topic highlighted various emerging approaches used by HR managers for
workforce management amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary data is collected using
‘Personal Interviews’ from HR managers of the selected retail stores based in Preston UK
and their insights are analysed to identify emerging themes. The use of interpretivism
research philosophy and inductive reasoning helped the researcher to integrate subjective
elements into this research for broader understanding. Recommendations to enhance the
HRM approaches and the scope for future research are discussed at the end of this report.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisor
___________ who was instrumental in helping me complete this research. Your support and
guidance throughout this research is invaluable. Secondly, I would also like to thank my
friends and family who offered moral support to keep me motivated. Lastly, I would like to
thank the research participants for offering their valuable inputs on this research topic.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................6
Research Background........................................................................................................................6
Research Aim.....................................................................................................................................7
Research Objectives..........................................................................................................................7
Rationale behind the research...........................................................................................................7
Structure of this report......................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................................................9
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................9
HRM Challenges and Opportunities during COVID-19 era.................................................................9
Disproportionate effects in work-family life....................................................................................11
Key HRM Operations Impacted negatively by COVID......................................................................13
Staffing process and its affects....................................................................................................13
Employee Engagement................................................................................................................14
Performance Management..........................................................................................................14
Compensation management.......................................................................................................15
Training and career development................................................................................................15
Emerging HR Strategies for efficient people management amidst pandemic..................................16
Perspective of Stakeholders............................................................................................................17
COVID-19 pandemic’s practical implications...................................................................................18
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................19
CHAPTER FOUR – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................20
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................20
Research Philosophy........................................................................................................................20
Research Approach..........................................................................................................................21
Research Methods...........................................................................................................................22
Data Collection and Analysis............................................................................................................23
Sampling..........................................................................................................................................23
Ethical Considerations.....................................................................................................................23
Limitations.......................................................................................................................................23
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................23
CHAPTER FOUR – FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS........................................................................................24
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................24
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION............................................................................................................32
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Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................36
CHAPTER FIVE – CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................................37
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................40
APPENDICES.........................................................................................................................................43
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS...................................................................................................................43
SIGNED ETHICS FORM......................................................................................................................45
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CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION
Research Background
According to Rakowska (2014), activities in human resources management enable
organizations to gain dominant position in market through boosting the employee
productivity, morale and performance. In the current digitisation era, HRM operations
though upgraded momentously, the COVID-19 outburst forced companies in speeding up
the process of integrating niche technologies to HRM (Dermot and Bailey, 2020). The role
played by HR team is pivotal in motivating, liaising, collaborating and finally managing
employees in aligning the interdependent operations to alleviate COVID repercussions while
effectively utilizing the human resources. According to Yadav et al (2020), there is an
increasing desideratum to boost efficiency of HR operations in various dynamics such as
employee engagement, recruitment and performance management. As almost all industries
transformed to remote in delivering the services, the challenge ahead for them is giving
commitment in long term. According to Schmidt and Nutsubidze (2021), defiance has been
added to a big extent due to increasing necessity to train their employees for upgrading
their skills to further enhance the business which needs support from leadership.
The pandemic has brought unprecedented transformation in all kinds of organisations
especially in the operations of managing human resources. Zhong (2021) stated that for
more than 75 percent of employees COVID-19 transfigured their job experience. The COVID
directed the organizations in amending and adapting to new work structure due to
unexpected issues, challenges and concerns rose at all levels mainly at health, hygiene and
safety factors. In such health calamity situation, managers of human resource department
take part in critical responsibilities in dealing with not only hygiene and safety concerns but
also with the stress, anxiety and other psychological factors which got worsened in virtual
long working duration in a day (Andy & Butterick, 2021). Organizations got panicked after
hearing the news about widespread pandemic initially but finally came up with an effective
strategy for business operations continuity while protecting the employees from COVID
effects.
As work environment transitioned from office to home in this COVID era, imbalance
occurred in all types of businesses because of ineffective medium for communication.
Schmidt & Nutsubidze (2021) after doing the research and development on employee life in
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pandemic era have put forward the tough challenges for Human Resource Managers to deal
with as morale management, motivation, involvement, mental health and translucent
collaboration in remote work environment. Acclimating to new and further evolving
circumstances being created due to pandemic is also another challenge which HR managers
should deal with effectively. Cen & Linujan (2020) put forwarded another set of challenges
for HR managers in distant work culture like planning and managing work for employees,
engaging employees in various tasks, boosting the confidence, bolstering the work culture
where people are working in dispersed locations amidst COVID-19, and skill possession and
retention. The thesis report aims at studying the continuous changing roles of managers in
the department of HR in current pandemic era and also in future.
Research Aim
Investigating how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is shaping the future of HRM practices in
the Preston’s retail companies is the primary aim of this research.
Research Objectives
 To analyse the transformative role played by HR managers in the wake of COVID-19
pandemic
 To review of innovative HR practices to foster employee engagement and workforce
productivity during COVID-19
 To assess the measures that must be adopted by HR managers to cope with
challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic
Rationale behind the research
The HRM activities are highly important in business organizations in the present pandemic
and post pandemic ages to gain sustainability and achieve competitive advantage. On taking
part in this research program, researcher is targeting to upgrade proficiency in HRM
discipline and how it got impacted by pandemic. The COVID-19 created the transformation
of moving from conventional office work structure to remote through digitisation in which
many factors needs to be scrutinized meticulously by organizations before implementation
mainly collaboration. Companies in the current era are planning to explore different new
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methods for hiring, talent management, sustaining the confidence of human resources and
track their health periodically. The thesis activity explores current and future trends in
employee management of UK retail domain and the implications that they send to HR
Managers.
Structure of this report
Literature Review – In this chapter, several key topics associated with this research such as
emerging role of HR professionals in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, driving employee
engagement through innovation HRM practices, latest HRM trends and the challenges faced
by HR managers in managing the workforce are critically analysed.
Research Methodology – All the research tools that are selected by the researcher to
conduct this research are discussed and justified in this section. Some of the areas include
the philosophy of the research, research approach, data collection, sampling and ethical
issues.
Findings and Analysis – The responses collected by the researcher using the interviews will
be discussed and analysed in this section followed by identification of key themes
Conclusions – The objectives of this research are discussed in line with the outcomes of this
research in this section along with key recommendations.
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CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter demonstrates familiarity with a body of knowledge pertaining to the future
work force management. Various views of the authors in the field were collected and
analysed in the following sections. The chapter also links the background of the thesis with
the critical analysis of the chosen domain.
Introduction
Rossi (2021) stated that people management in an organization is model for deploying work
force and streamlining activities to be performed for achieving the targets. In line to that
statement, Sarwani (2020) stated that the HRM approaches encompass the impact of
decisions taken on people management operations, constituting the resources pool of
human capital, laying down the guidelines expected behaviour and attitude in an
organization and amending the HR policies and procedures as per the business internal and
also external scenarios. In current time period, strategic HRM discipline emphasized more
on association between organizational performances and the HR operations (Caligiuri et al,
2020). Due to COVID outburst, the existing HR policies in many companies have been forced
to amendment to strategically deal with the people. The pandemic has been the catalyst to
redesign the strategies for people management in an organization. In COVID age, the fast-
paced transforming discipline is managing people in an organization in the areas of
continuous reskilling, transfiguring competencies of leadership and product optimization
through agile, scrum and ad-hoc methodologies based on the project type. All the newer
ways have now moved from just being ad hoc methods to an essential growth strategy
(Sarwani 2020; Caligiuri et al, 2020).
HRM Challenges and Opportunities during COVID-19 era
In COVID times, highly conspicuous challenges faced by the department of HRM in dealing
with the spread of deadly virus is making the remote working employees accustom to
abruptly changed work environment and new policies and procedures like person
contactless communication for office working employee implemented for smooth flow of
business operations (Deshpande and Damodar, 2020). In such a dramatic transformation of
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where and how human resources perform their roles is going to have a big implication on
the attribute P-E fit which is related to person environment suitability or the congruence
level factor between the work environment and employee possessed attributes. According
to P-E fit theory, whether it can be employee getting attracted to and excited about joining
an organization or the organization hiring the candidate depends on the common reflection
of cultures, values, ideologies and beliefs (Gigauri, 2020). Employees with high value of P-E
fit in accordance with the organizational standards perform excellently and get elevated
levels of engagement, satisfaction and finally well-being in many aspects. In pre covid era,
work environment used to support all the employee needs and requirements but due to
covid onset organizations were forced to make some changes to their strategies abruptly
sensing the alarm of reduced P-E fit due to elongated working hours impacting health due to
prolonged setting as the employees can’t do any physical activity due to highly demanding
requirements leading to misfit (Linjuan and Cen, 2020).
In the times of pandemic, organizations should amend their HRM activities accordingly
comprehending how the unexpected transformations impact the attribute of P-E fit and in
this circumspective the critical aspect is resolving the misfit potentially (Liu et al, 2020). As
an exemplary situation, organizations should do transition from orthodox to virtual
recruitment, hiring and employee training instead of face-to-face communication, this will
turn increasingly significant to interpret the way in such activities influence the future of
organizational culture because such actions allure while retaining people in a different style
than the conventional in-person interview (Nutsubidze et al, 2021). At the end of the
research, effects created by COVID on the process of employee job search and how the
transformation to virtual hiring impacts the candidate’s ability in understanding the P-E fit
and the effectiveness of training, interviewing and assessing virtually will be explained
(Sarwani, 2020).
According to Rossi (2021), it is necessary to understand if some specific practices of
socialization prove handy in rebalancing employees existing discernment on misfit and the
best approach of executing them. Employees nowadays are working from remote locations
and not willing to go out of the home to meet other person unless desperately needed
which is lacking socialization and to facilitate the social relationships, the current trend
followed is virtual socialization like virtual happy hours, lunches and coffee breaks
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(Carnevale et al, 2020). Though such activities mitigate misfit perceptions due to sudden
drastic change of work culture in social aspects, some participants may not get the feel of
workplace interactions that used to take place before pandemic outburst. In accordance,
further research is required for more comprehending the way in which the transfigured
practices of community building transcribe in rebalancing the attribute P-E misfit (Caligiuri et
al, 2020). In virtual socialization meetings organised by companies, employees are getting
opportunities in expressing their talents like singing, dancing, playing musical instruments,
mimicry, painting, fun times, playing humorous jokes and organizing games which improved
the P-E fit value highly (Bailey et al, 2020). In the near future, such virtualization can
supersede personal gatherings.
Disproportionate effects in work-family life
Organizations are successful in the COVID period in completing the work on time and
impressing the highly demanding clients by aligning the human resources accordingly (Bailey
et al, 2020). The attention that organisations paid to the employees is not up to the mark as
some employees got effected disproportionately due to amendments made in work
environment. The main repercussion is no time for family life in the homes where both
husband and wife are working remotely more than half a day where they can’t socialize with
their children. As a result, the kids are feeling very bored as the parents not left with any
other option telling them to attend online music or any other classes after virtual school
lectures (Butterick and Andy, 2021). Since the last four to five years there has been a raising
interest of employees in an organization regarding flexible arrangements like on premises
childcare along with subsidies. Such policies help in mitigating family to work conflicts
mainly for teleworking employees (Akkermans et al, 2020).
The pandemic situation is characterised by uncertainty going from normal to unfolding and
vice versa further intensifying the work family conflict (Baert et al, 2020). Along with
managing increasing stress and strain raising due to transition to teleworking especially for
those who haven’t worked before in this environment, additional burden on the head is
carried out by the parents due to concerns over their kids suffering from fatigue as many
schools and childcare centres got suspended on the concerns of health and safety. If this
situation is continued, it will become more difficult for parents in balancing the interrelated
personal and professional aspects (Carnevale and Hatak, 2020).
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In accordance, comprehending the effect created by the tough family requirements in
coordination with elevated levels of self-responsibility and work autonomy show on
employee wellness and productivity, HRM department in organizations should identify the
practices which mitigate the work family conflicts (Hamouche, 2020). Experts in HRM should
gain deeper insights about what additional support from organization beyond the
instrumental or emotional factors help in dealing with work family conflict for employee
well-being. Informational support is one kind of support turning increasingly an employee
need helping to balance work family life. In current scenario, supporting employees through
information constitute latest health and safety developments, childcare services, elderly
care centres, training and self-development opportunities, dance classes and other physical
fitness centres which act as energy boosters and stress relievers (Linjuan and Cen, 2020).
Outcomes from many research in recent times pinpoints the significance of self-affirmation
to support employees in aligning values and requirements with the work environment
transformed which may turn as a foundation for future research in dealing with work family
disputes and conflicts going on in current period (Rakowska, 2014). Additionally, inductive
approaches highlighting about how human resources get accustomed to new dynamic wok
culture and achieve balance between work and personal life may create new ways in dealing
with conflicts and provide pragmatic implications for companies who are motivating
employees who are going through disruptions at extreme level in balancing work and life.
The discussions provided in previous paragraphs put forward the suggestions to follow the
practices in dealing with the work life balancing challenges of employees in COVID times
(Rossi, 2021). Additionally, the researcher trusts that guiding on the process of how
companies can acclimate the HR operations for mitigating the above issues and boost the
employee capability in flourishing and excelling in the tough dynamic and unprecedented
times can be derived by making changes to existing HR strategies accordingly. Particularly,
entrepreneurship discipline which emphasizes on identifying, evaluating and exploiting
opportunities in dynamic and volatile business environment offers good insights likely
(Yadav et al, 2020).
As explained in previous sections of report, pandemic is going to show profound
implications on social, physical, technical and psychological implications on employees in
accustoming to abruptly transformed work culture (Zhong et al, 2021). Some challenges
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aroused are unique and needs new approaches for addressing some employee related
issues where other issues faced are similar to the ones faced by entrepreneurs. Moreover,
entrepreneurs are confronted often with challenging work environment issues like high
uncertainty, holding big responsibility in being flexible to dynamic environment, accustom
to new scenario and implement strategy to reduce employee work-life disputes (Sarwani,
2020).
Key HRM Operations Impacted negatively by COVID
According to Hatak & Carnevale (2020), the teleworking culture which turned extensive in
COVID period impacted the man power immensely which is the biggest organizational asset.
In this standpoint, Gigauri (2020) stated that the biggest challenge for organizations is in
dealing with collaboration tools for coaching, mentoring, training and other group
conferences. Due to the transformed work structure amidst the health calamity, core HRM
operations got affected creating big impact on the processes of hiring, resourcing, employee
engagement and performance management. Baert et al (2020) stated that recruitment is
the peremptory function in HRM and managers in the department should meticulously plan
and recruit the right resource on the basis of skills needed for the role requirement set.
When the COVID cases started emerging all over the world majority of the organizations
halted hiring and recruitment processes to cut down costs and also many projects were
postponed and stopped forcing the organizations to layoff many people Zhong et al (2021). As
team shrinking has become norm for many organizations HR managers are reluctantly
forced to terminate some employees smoothly, especially the people with high salary
packages as things are going fine with the resources of less experienced (Shetty, 2021).
Staffing process and its affects
The staffing process pertains to alluring, hiring new and retention of existing capable
resources for reaching the business targets (Hamouche, 2020). The process is impacted
greatly due to COVID-19 that restructured dynamics in all the organizations. Butterick et al
(2021) stated that in pandemic times organizations facing instabilities financially adopted to
the practices of down-skilling through hiring low skill jobs more than the high skill jobs for
business sustainment. Gigauri (2020) stated that employee layoff is tough decision for the
companies but cannot be avoided in the times of crisis like pandemic and economic
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recession. In the perspective of HRM experts, biggest challenge faced is in supporting
employees, leads, supervisors and managers in providing the information accurately. Some
businesses which expanded in pandemic era encountered other challenges in staffing
process. There are organizations where, rather than terminating or laying off people in
COVID times placed them in bench without paying them such that they will be assigned on
work based on the project’s availability temporary, permanent or freelance, skills and
experience (Rossi, 2021). It is affecting the motivation levels of the employees and it will be
more evident on a long-term basis.
Employee Engagement
According to Mckeown & Leighton (2020), a substantial part is played by HR managers in
engaging the employees. In global international firms, employee engagement is pivotal for
HRs because their main emphasis should be on long term employee motivation and
engagement (Sarwani, 2020). There are many start-ups and small-scale organisations where
the management information systems to carry out HRM activities are to be digitalized. In
the current teleworking culture, the main challenge is to speed up the work with formal
communication mode which is restricting the transparent communication in the team.
Hamouche (2020) stated that amid the COVID outburst, companies worked coherently for
developing and integrating software apps to their HRM operations for increasing employee
commitment and contentment while making the work getting completed faster and
ensuring that human resources can achieve balance in their personal and professional lives
(Lokke & Wunderlich, 2020) but for an observer’s point of view, the companies are making
the skills as currency and it has become a central outfit of many organisations.
Performance Management
Another pivotal aspect for employee retention in an organization is performance
management. Damodar & Deshpande (2020) stated that the systems of performance
management enable human resources in accomplishing their goals in the COVID period. It
has been observed that the effectiveness of performance management in teleworking
depends on the job and industry types (Dermot & Bailey, 2020; Zhong et al 2021). Some
sectors or industries like education and information technology in teleworking culture
recorded optimal performance in terms of efficiency others like hospitality and
entertainment incurred enormous losses as parameters for indicating the employee
performance were not set precisely due to which the human resources have undergone pay
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decrements and received average performance results despite their hard work they have
done irrespective of day and night shifts (Cen & Linujan, 2020). Based on their view, it can
be concluded that the recruitment process is not smart and effective enough;
communication systems are of older versions which resulted in lacking of transparent
communication; performance metrics and expectations set very high which is not possible
to achieve for employees in the current health crisis era in teleworking environment adding
more intricacies. Shetty (2021) in reference with the views of Cen & Linujan (2020) and
stated that such loopholes must be acknowledged for narrowing the gaps between
employees and management in COVID where people are working from distant locations
(Shetty 2021; Cen & Linujan 2020; Dermot & Bailey, 2020).
Compensation management
The compensation management corresponds to rewards intrinsic as well as extrinsic which
the human resources get in doing their jobs where monetary rewards like base pay, bonuses
and variable pay are covered and non-monetary rewards like insurance and other benefits
will be covered (Rakowska, 2014). The employee morale, motivation and performance will
be influenced by compensation. In the study organised by Andy & Butterick (2012), it is
revealed that employee retention will be increased in an organisation due to monetary and
other non-monetary benefits provided.
In the outburst of pandemic, some nations enacted policies similar to the governments in
financially and morally supporting employees who are teleworking in the health catastrophe
scenario and for the employees who have to mandatorily come to office are assigned the
work part time for obeying the lock down timings set locally for business continuity (Rossi,
2021). Organisations retaining and laying off the employees completely depends on the
projects available and the skillset possessed by the workforce. In the situation where
employees got rolled off from projects as clients cancelled the contract due to financial
issues amidst pandemic, the giant companies provided a grace period of three months for
employees to search for roles in same company paying them only half the monthly salary
and this strategy is successful by 70 percent. HR managers should think beyond the
pandemic and amend policies, procedures and guidelines accordingly else the trend will drift
towards losing work force in the coming year (Sarwani, 2020).
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Training and career development
According to Hamouche (2020) and Zhong et al (2021), in health crisis scenarios like
epidemics or pandemics, pivotal role is played by safety awareness training programs. They
help the employees in knowing about the dos and don’ts in panicking situations like COVID
to prevent virus spread while supporting them psychologically and morally in teleworking
environment transformed from office working structure. Organizations should train the
employees in using the digital collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Cisco Jabber and
WebEx Manager. Liu et al (2020) stated that organizations are facing hindrances and
challenges in upgrading the skills of workforce to combat risks and uncertainties. In such
aspects and perspectives, HRM practitioners should think beyond the conventional training
approached and tough challenge for them can be making the work complete on time. It can
be done also by ensuring social distancing and contactless communication between people
in office and for teleworking people it can be making them understand the digital virtual
tools used for collaboration through appropriate training initiatives (McKeown and Leighton,
2020).
According to Sarwani (2020), positive results can be achieved in teleworking through the
ability of managers in effectively guiding the employees in virtual environment. In such
conditions, HRM experts should support the managers strategically and train them in
guiding the teleworking virtual team helping them to overcome the hindrances in working
collaboratively to achieve the targets (Hatak & Carnevale, 2020). COVID created big
challenge for managers in all departments for ensuring career development for employees
where many didn’t get promoted due to lack of opportunities as world turned dormant and
people are in a situation where holding a job is a big privilege. In this circumstance, Baert et
al (2020) stated that in 2020, from March to December people were in a very scary situation
due to job security concerns amidst COVID and after the collaborative efforts of government
and private organisations, layoffs were reduced to a very big extent though they were not
able to stop some people limited in number fairly due to unavoidable circumstances. People
who got disappointed because of not getting promoted in 2020 moved a step up in the
career ladder in the end of second quarter in 2021 (Zhong et al 2021; Hatak & Carnevale,
2020).
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Emerging HR Strategies for efficient people management amidst
pandemic
In one of the health calamities COVID, HRM role turned substantial as they have to
strategically plan the people collaboration and management activities. The HRM people
should align the strategies by considering the holistic view of all departments involved in
reaching the business targets (Yadav et al, 2020). In line to these views, Gigauri (2020) also
stated that as the management style is gradually getting transformed all over the globe, HR
has to work on additional responsibilities like restructuring organizational culture in terms of
new trends emerged along with people management Damodar & Deshpande (2020). In the
digital era, HRM discipline integrated and incorporated niche technologies in to the business
practices. Organizations should plan accordingly for business sustainment by considering
current and by predicting future trends (Liu et al, 2020). In pandemic, HR also acted as a
representative or mediator who is the point of contact for COVID related queries like dos
and don’ts in office, medical bills reimbursement and other health concerns. Gigauri (2020)
stated that HR should create a transparent collaboration medium through webinars, video
conferences, phone calls and mails and also ensure steps for enhancing employee
satisfaction while creating sense of belongingness. Without the above work force strategies,
it will be hard for the employees as well as employers to stay in the competitive market.
Baert et al (2020) stated that HR should eliminate gaps in communication by implementing a
people centric approach by creating discussion forums where people can express their
opinions and concerns and also organizing fun events where employees can showcase their
talent in the areas like music, painting and others. Companies should provide the benefits to
employees like recognition points, rewards and health insurance based on the internal and
also market conditions. Many organizations these days to the maximum extent are trying to
utilise the existing people through skills upgradation and other programs for reaching the
business outcomes rather than hiring external talent. Even after pandemic era, HRs should
be able to handle the adhoc situations through appropriate methodologies and framework
which should be amended if necessity arises (Akkermans et al, 2020; Damodar & Deshpande
2020).
Perspective of Stakeholders
Carnevale and Hatak (2020) stated that the global health disaster COVID has proven the
confined focus of strategic HRM as it is mostly inclined to the value of shareholder as
17

primary outcome. Hamouche (2020) created a seminal architectural framework considering
the attributes of shareholders, trade unions, government, management, employees and
shareholders. The framework also considers various factors like economy, society and
employee wellbeing which rarely exists in the literature of strategic HRM. Though COVID-19
created a very big loss for the world, it elevated human resources in the organisation as
condemnatory stakeholders. Yadav et al (2020) stated that COVID is a very big threat for
employees working in an office as if one gets infected, everyone will be at risk not only in
the office premises but also the surroundings and it’s difficult to predict how far it goes and
HRs should design guidelines for alleviating such threats and implement. There are cases
where organizations by considering achieving short term goals lost many opportunities to
sustain in long-term thus lagging behind to balance the workforce requirements.
In the pandemic era, customers are elevated to the level of stakeholders in many
organizations. Cen and Linjuan (2020) stated that customers have been the least priority
given stakeholders in the process of strategic HRM despite many of them expressing their
interests continuously.
It was a massive change of perspectives due to the Covid pandemic, various roles in
organisations have come up with their relevance in no time. There were changing patterns
in identifying the essentiality of the groups or individuals in a company Rossi (2021).
Organizations should ensure that trade-offs are well managed between customers,
shareholders and workforce. In pandemic, employees of some departments worked from
office as their nature of work don’t support teleworking and also customers mandatorily
needed their services at any cost, firms managed the business operations at the cost of
shareholder business returns Damodar & Deshpande (2020).
Rossi (2021) also stated that HR managers should amend their strategies by considering
transformations in service delivery, continuous digital transformations, reducing the manual
intervention and increasing contactless communication between people for completing the
work in timelines specified amidst pandemic period. Zhong et al (2021) stated that along
with quality of services provided customers nowadays turned apprehensive on COVID
practices followed by organization and organizations should make the customers aware of
health and safety guidelines followed in rendering the high-quality services.
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COVID-19 pandemic’s practical implications
Damodar & Deshpande (2020) stated that in the current pandemic era where future is
unpredictable and uncertain due to the different virus mutants and variants specific to
nations are being reported the researchers suggest in moving to hybrid work environment
that supports flexibility through facilitating both office and teleworking by considering
future perspectives. The experts in HRM should be ready to accept transformation, redesign
the work model and motivate the employees in getting adjusted to it.
In the same context Cen & Linujan (2020) stated that addressing and approaching to needed
work related activities provide more flexibility and agility to the business operations rather
than considering the holistic view. Organizations should support the employees in their skills
upgradation and career advancements in the pandemic era else there will be high chances
of attrition which took place in some of the giant IT companies. Rossi (2021) stated that
companies must be reinventing themselves according to trends through incorporating
entrepreneurship competencies in human resources enabling them in calibrating to risks
and uncertainties occurring in an ad hoc without any preliminary signs in dynamic and
volatile business environments (Damodar & Deshpande, 2020).
Rakowska (2014) stated that redesign and rebuild of organizational culture enables the firms
in adapting to flexible work environment and transfiguring to hybrid work model. A cohesive
and collaborative work environment needs to be created and maintained supporting
employees in doing their work from remote and distant locations. Virtual collaboration may
not completely facilitate the process of socialization and such interaction has drawback in
gaining the tacit knowledge pertaining to organizational culture. Bart et al (2020) stated that
a handbook explaining the organizational culture, values, guidelines and digital practices
should be made in reach of the employees in company website or common shared folder
where every employee will be having access.
Conclusion
This chapter demonstrated familiarity with a body of knowledge pertaining to the future
work force management. The views of the authors were analysed to critically analyse the
literature. The chapter also linked the background of the thesis with the critical analysis of
19

the chosen topic. The next chapter research methodology will deal with the explanation of
route and pathway of this activities conducted in this research.
CHAPTER FOUR – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Any research that aims to gain specific information about a research topic must be
conducted using a framework or path, also referred to as the methodology (Rensburg,
2017). The methodology indicates ‘how’ the researcher will consider and select different
methods, tools and strategies associated with the research. As the attainment of research
objectives is often the ultimate goal of the research, the selection of suitable methodologies
will gain increasing significance in a research (Bowman, 2012). To improve the usefulness
and the effectiveness of any research, it is essential for the researchers to ensure that the
research is rigorous, valid, controlled and empirical apart from being systematic and critical.
The aim of this research is to evaluate the evolving human resource management
approaches and patter in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this aim, the
research methods and tools used by the researcher are discussed in detail in this section.
Research Philosophy
The philosophy of a research points out to the underlying beliefs and thoughts of the
researchers about how the knowledge must be developed about a particular aspect or
subject. One of the primary classifications of the basic research philosophies include
doxology and epistemology (Collis and Hussey, 2013). The researchers making use of the
doxology think about what is believed to be true whereas the researchers using the
epistemology think from the perspective of what is known to be true. Some of the further
classifications of the research philosophy that are commonly used by researchers include
positivism and interpretivism.
One of the main assumptions behind the use of the positivism research philosophy is that
the reality is independent and can be viewed and understood from an objective viewpoint
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(Rensburg, 2017). The studies carried out using the positivism research philosophy are
carried out by the researchers without interfering with the phenomenon being studied. One
of the main characteristics of the positivist studies include that the observations are
repeatable and the phenomena must be isolated while carrying out the research. There
have been several debates among the academicians about the suitability of the positivism
research philosophy in social sciences as many authors are increasingly expressing the need
to make use of a pluralist attitude towards the research (Kauda, 2018).
One of the important differences between the positivism and the interpretivism research
philosophies lies in the understanding of the reality (Bowman, 2012). Interpretivists argue
that the actual reality regarding any phenomena cannot be fully understood without only
through objective interpretation and therefore it is important and essential to make use of
subjective interpretation to gain a full and deeper understanding of the reality (Patten,
2017). The emphasis of the studies conducted by the researchers using interpretivist
research philosophy is that the studies are carried out by keeping the phenomena in their
natural environment and without being subjected to external influences.
Interpretivists also argue that the use of subjective viewpoints to carry out a research can
result in multiple variations of reality and consider them as a part of the scientific
knowledge gathered through the research (Kumar, 2014). While the positivist studies are
more scientific in nature as they are carried out using laboratory experiments, surveys,
simulation, forecasting and case studies, they are more suited to the quantitative studies.
On the other hand, interpretivism research philosophy enables the researcher to make use
of reviews and are subjective in nature. As personal interviews are being used to collected
the required information from the participants of chosen companies, interpretivism
research philosophy is used by the researcher (Patten, 2017).
Research Approach
To gain new knowledge on a particular subject under investigation, the researcher can make
use of different approaches such as inductive and deductive. As a systematic approach is
necessary for a researcher to arrive at a conclusion, the selection of these approaches will
hold a greater significance for the researchers (Creswell, 2017). Inductive approach, also
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referred to as the inductive reasoning, can be understood to be an approach that enables
the researchers to begin with observations that can lead to the development of theories by
the end of the study. By searching for patterns from the observation, the researchers
making use of inductive reasoning thus move from specifics to generalisations (Patten,
2017). In other words, the inductive approach requires the researchers to move from data
to theory. The research studies making use of the inductive reasoning move towards
abstract ideas and generalisations after beginning from detailed observations of the world.
On the other hand, the deductive approach is mainly based on theory as the researches
using deductive reasoning will start by studying the existing theories on the subject and
move towards specific from generalisations (Kumar, 2014). Compared to that of the
inductive approach, the deductive approaches are usually preferred by the researchers for
conducting quantitative studies. In the studies carried out the researches using deductive
reasoning, the researcher typically starts by studying the works carried out on the research
subject under investigation by others and then test the assumptions or the hypotheses that
emerge from the previous studies (Bowman, 2012). Thus, it can be said that the deductive
approaches move from particular to the general. Some of advantages of the deductive
approach include the possibility of quantitative measurement of the concepts, explain
casual relationships between variables and the possibility to generalise research findings
(Patten, 2017). This research, however, makes use of inductive approach as qualitative
information through personal interviews is gathered by the researcher to move from
general to specific areas of the research area.
Research Methods
The methods used by the researchers can be classified into quantitative and qualitative
methods. The researchers making use of quantitative research will make use of graphs or
numbers in order to confirm the assumptions or existing theories and the focuses of these
studies will largely remain on construction of the hypotheses and testing them. To conduct
the quantitative research, it is a requirement for the researchers to collect data from large
number of respondents compared to the qualitative research where it is not required
necessarily. Some of the key terms that are associated with the quantitative research
include replicability, objectivity, measurement and test. The outcomes of the research
studies conducted using quantitative tools such as questionnaires, surveys or opinion polls
22

are mainly expressed using graphs, tables and are then analysed using statistical techniques.
On the other hand, the qualitative research mainly focuses on collecting the responses from
the participants to explore ideas and opinions on the research subject. The responses
collected by the researcher in the qualitative studies are subjective in nature and are mainly
expressed in words. Some of the key terms related to the qualitative research are
subjectivity, complexity and context. This research is carried out using qualitative research
tools such as personal interviews and hence it can be referred to as a qualitative research.
Data Collection and Analysis
To test various aspects of this research such as the impact of the ongoing COVID-19
pandemic on the HRM approaches in the UK, the researcher used qualitative data collection
instruments such as personal interviews. The formulation of the interview questions is
inspired by the inputs offered by the authors in the literature review section. Prior
appointments were sought from the HR managers of selected retail stores based in Preston
such as ‘B&M – Preston Ringway’ and ‘The Range-Preston’. The analysis of the data
gathered through the interviews included the discussion of the interview responses and
comparing them with the inputs from literature review using ‘Content analysis’ method to
look for emerging themes.
Sampling
As personal interviews are used to collected the data from the research participants,
‘Convenience’ sampling technique is used by the researcher to select the HR manages of the
selected retails stores in Preston. Out of 8 requests put forward for various retail stores
based in Preston, UK, two requests have been approved by the participants of this research.
Ethical Considerations
The following are the key ethical considerations in this research:
 Maintaining anonymity of the participants
 Ensuring the confidentiality of the responses using password protected files for data
storage
 Ensuring voluntary participation &
 Giving option to withdraw from the research during any stage
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Limitations
Limited number of personal interviews is the main limitation of this research. This can be
dealt with in the future by including a higher number of research participants to conduct
personal interviews from.
Conclusion
The use of the inductive research approach and interpretivism research philosophy enabled
the researcher to move develop new knowledge on various emerging trends of HRM in the
UK retail industry since the onset of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
CHAPTER FOUR – FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the human resource management
approaches, the research conducted two personal interviews with the HR managers of ‘The
Range – Preston’ and ‘B & M Preston Ringway’. The responses obtained from the managers
are discussed in this section and the emerging themes were identified. The outcomes were
also compared with the key findings of literature review.
INTERVIEW ONE - HR Manager of ‘The Range – Preston’ retail store
1) How is this pandemic affecting the way your organisation operates in
terms of human resources planning?
The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic on such an unexpected scale left many of the
businesses including ours unprepared in terms of dealing with the consequences. It had a
major impact on the working conditions within our organisation and the way the manpower
planning is carried out. One of the primary challenges that we faced with our human
resource planning is to ensure that the effect of the pandemic is minimised on our
employees. Although situations such as temporary closures and lockdowns have left with no
options other than to close our stores, we tried not to lay-off our workers and found ways to
offer them work to keep the continuity going. Although we had few plays to recruit new
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staff based on our short-term goals in the near future, the pandemic has forced us to stop
those plans and revise our human resource planning activities.
2) What measures did you put in place to cross-training the employees to
enable them perform multiple duties?
One of the challenges that we faced since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic is to cross-train
our employees on various aspects to follow the guidelines offered by the government. Apart
from the in-store activities, training measures have been introduced to ensure that the
employees are trained on precautions they need to take while offering services to the
customers. Re-skilling the workforce has remained the major focus on the HR team within
our organisation and we arrange several meetings with the managers of various
departments. We discussed the overall changes in the processes, systems and procedures
that must be communicated to employees to operate efficiently during this pandemic time.
One of the primary reasons for cross-training the employees during this period is to enable
workers to cover the activities of someone who could be absent due to illness, quarantining
and other reasons.
3) What challenges did you face in improving employee engagement during
this pandemic and how did you overcome them?
Engagement with employees in our stores has always been physical and direct to the
employees. Prior to the pandemic we used to conduct regular meetings to discuss the
targets, plan of action, review measures and other needs that are to be addressed.
However, the sudden onset of this pandemic changed the way we approached our
employee engagement. The HR team in our organisation discussed with the management
about various aspects that need to be addressed in these difficult times. We focused on
addressing the concerns of the employees, the need to decrease their stress and anxiety
and coaching the managers to deal with the emotions of the employees. To overcome the
challenges of employee motivation and engagement, we ensured that the communication
25

lines are clear and the managers are more responsive, attentive and be empathetic towards
the employees.
4) What new skills did the workforce require in particular to perform their
duties effectively during this pandemic?
Although the employees need specific skills that are essential to deliver their duties
effectively, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought in new challenges. To deal with them, the
employees must possess additional soft skills such as adaptability, critical thinking,
emotional intelligence, creativity and innovation and leadership. We made it a point in our
store to ensure that all the employees demonstrate leadership skills in terms of taking
accountability, taking initiatives even though they may not in leadership positions. It is
important to make use of critical thinking skills to ensure that right questions are asked and
obtain information they need to conduct their duties responsibly.
5) What challenges did you face to improve the morale of the employees
particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Dealing with the mental implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on our workforce has been
one of the major challenges we faced since its onset. Some of the aspects that affected
morale of the workforce is the temporary closures due to lockdowns, flow of financials,
anxiety, fear and in some cases depression. To deal with these challenges, we initiated
several initiatives to strengthen health and wellness among the employees including
offering health support and care and ensuring their safety while they work in our premises.
Apart from this, we have also improved flexibility in work practices and ensured that the
employees deliver their responsibilities in a convenient manner.
6) Did the recruitment and selection procedures in your organisation evolve
during this pandemic? What are the key changes that took place?
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Yes. We have made some key changes to the recruitment and selection procedures in our
company. Some of them include replacing some of the traditional face-to-face recruitment
and selection with virtual tools including personal interviews of the candidates. To deal with
the surge in demand, we have also recruited some short-term temporary workforce and
assigned them to specific tasks. Apart from the standard skills that we look in among the
new candidates, we have made changes to the recruitment policies to ensure that the new
recruits possess additional skills to deal with the challenges at workplace in the times of this
pandemic.
7) What are the key changes that you made to compensation management
for your employees, keeping in view of the ongoing pandemic?
Several changes have to be made for the compensation management policies and guidelines
we have been using to reward our employees. The impact of COVID-19 on the performance
of the employees are now being taken into account while deciding the compensation
packages to support our workers and to enhance their morale and commitment towards the
organisation. Addressing the concerns around the fairness and pay equity has now become
more important than ever and we are taking the necessary measures to ensure that the
layoffs are minimised and to boost the customer sentiment.
8) In what way did the performance management evaluations in your
organisations got affected by the pandemic
Although we have been using annual performance reviews to manage and monitor the
performance of the employees, the onset of the pandemic called for significant changes to
our policies. To primary focus of our current performance management include making it
more flexible in order to offer greater support to the employees, enhance their motivation
and support their development during these times. Some of the important considerations
that are associated with evaluating employee performance since the onset of the pandemic
include reduced hours, remote working, balancing childcare responsibilities and other issues
that may have affected the family members of the employees.
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9) Are there any changes you made to workplace policies since the onset of
COVID-19? Please explain
Yes. We made several changes to the workplace policies as it is necessary to review and
analyse them in the wake of the pandemic to adjust to the new normal. Some of the manual
processes in the organisation have been digitalised including the sign-ins, attendance,
replacement of paper notices with digital boards, changes in the working hours, emphasis
on more flexibility offered to the employees. We have introduced basic health surveillance
techniques to monitor the health of the workers coming to the organisation on an ongoing
basis. Changes have also been made in terms of using common areas, operating procedures
within the company, regular sanitisation of the equipment, social distancing measures,
positive internal communications to boost the morale of the employees and encouraging
employees on offering feedback and suggestions to the management.
10) What measures are you putting in place to maximise employee
productivity while dealing with similar circumstances in the future?
Workforce productivity in these difficult times remains a key challenge not only during this
pandemic but also in the future. To address the possible challenges that may unfold in the
future, we are focusing on reskilling and upskilling the workforce and ensuring they function
smartly with optimal utilisation of the resources. Employee engagement is another
important area that we strongly feel makes a key difference in terms of the overall
employee productivity particularly in the times such as the ongoing pandemic. To handle
these challenges in the future effectively, we are emphasizing the need to improve
employee engagement through constant and ongoing interpersonal communication.
INTERVIEW TWO – HR manager of ‘B&M – Preston Ringway’ retail store
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1) How is this pandemic affecting the way your organisation operates in
terms of human resources planning?
To overcome the challenges that the pandemic threw at us, we as human resource
managers had to rethink our roles to ensure that the workflow of the business is not
affected drastically. Apart from adjusting our practices to the new normal including social
distancing practices, use of face masks, sanitisation, there has been an increase in the focus
on health and safety in general. Based on the new developments, we had to revise our
demand forecasts and supply forecasts again considering the macro-environmental factors
and re-formulate our human resource planning. This included recruiting new workers with
specific skills, allowing workers to take leaves considering their personal circumstances and
reducing the costs associated with human resource planning. Among the first things that we
did soon after the pandemic, we reimagined all the processes involved in our business from
the eyes of the workforce and understood what needs to be changed to create a safe and
secure working environment.
2) What measures did you put in place to cross-training the employees to
enable them perform multiple duties?
The importance of developing a flexible workforce is the need of the hour as we are still
fighting this COVID-19 pandemic. In line to this, we have tried to assess the current skills of
the workforce and introduced measures to train the workforce on aspects that are central
to business continuity and performance. Apart from the short-term benefits, the cross-
training and upskilling the employees will also help our organisation to create future leaders
and to deal with similar circumstances in the future efficiently. As the likelihood of some
employees taking holidays under sick leave has increased significantly during the times of
this pandemic, we felt it is critical to train the employees on other responsibilities and
activities to ensure they are in a position to perform on behalf of others who are on leave.
This is vital for successful completion of tasks and minimise delays.
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3) What challenges did you face in improving employee engagement during
this pandemic and how did you overcome them?
Yes. We did face some challenges since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the
uncertainties associated with it. One of them is the way we have been engaging our
employees and the need to review them. As we had to close our stores following the
guidelines issued by the government and re-opened in a phased manner, our workers went
under tremendous stress and anxiety. The members of the HR department recognised the
need to boost the morale of the employees and created communication lines both digital
and verbal to address employee concerns and apprehensions about their jobs. The leaders
of various departments played an active role in addressing the employee engagement
challenges by communicating with the employees more often and talking about the plans
put in place by the store to deal with the situation.
4) What new skills did the workforce require in particular to perform their
duties effectively during this pandemic?
Due to the sudden closures, the reopening of the stores required double the efforts from all
the managers and the subordinates across several departments. So, one of the major skills
that we focused on is to improve the agility among the workforce. Dealing with the
increasing demand for some of products and delivering multiple orders at once not only
require careful assessment and planning but also agility from the workforce to complete the
tasks within the stipulated timeframe. One of the key skills that we also expected from the
workforce since the onset of the pandemic is to manage the stress and remain calm while at
workplace. We observed that many of the family members were either affected or taking
care of them affected with the COVID-19 disease. This may directly or indirectly have an
impact on the morale and motivation of the employees. Therefore, we emphasised on
handling stress and provided the support the employees needed to complete their tasks.
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5) What challenges did you face to improve the morale of the employees
particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic?
There have been several challenges in this regard. One of them is to deal with employee
concerns and apprehensions due to the uncertain nature of the pandemic and the confusion
regarding the lockdowns and other government policies. The major challenge for us as the
human resource managers is to ensure the well-being of the employees by taking care of
their mental health. Some of the other challenges include encouraging mindfulness,
redesigning the salary structures and incentives to enhance the employee morale.
6) Did the recruitment and selection procedures in your organisation evolve
during this pandemic? What are the key changes that took place?
The onset of this pandemic forced us to look at our existing recruitment and selection
procedures and reconsider some of them. One of the notable changes included the
introduction of the video interviews for the selection process. Although the candidates were
not able to come to our organisation physically for the interviews, we facilitated virtual
interviews to ensure the right candidates are recruited for the suitable roles. Apart from
their short-term goals and expectations from the company, we have also focused on the
mental well-being of the candidates to ensure they do not face any difficulties later.
7) What are the key changes that you made to compensation management
for your employees, keeping in view of the ongoing pandemic?
As there are economic implications of the ongoing pandemic on the businesses as well as on
the employees, the role of human resource managers has become particularly important
during these times. Apart from revisiting and redesigning our compensation programs, we
are also paying closer attention to temporary wage reduction in order to ensure that the
employees who are not able to work in a full-fledged manner are not terminated from
employment. Another important area that we are currently working on is to make the
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compensation strategies as dynamic as possible due to the uncertain circumstances
surrounding around the ongoing pandemic.
8) In what way did the performance management evaluations in your
organisations got affected by the pandemic
As the performance of our employees is linked directly to their emotional and mental well-
being, the human resources management team is working closely with other departmental
managers to assess the employees’ welfare. To monitor and assess the performance of our
employees, we are now focusing more on ongoing and personalised support to enhance
their morale. We have initiated ongoing conversations to ensure that employees can freely
express their concerns and fears to the management. This allowed us to understand the
barriers of employee performance and enabled us to address them efficiently.
9) Are there any changes you made to workplace policies since the onset of
COVID-19? Please explain
Some of the important changes that were made to our workplace policies include focusing
on individual employee well-being by initiating conversations with them, using daily shift
briefings, weekly team alignment sessions, cross training opportunities for employees and
exploring new methods to ensure employees are connected to the organisation. Apart from
these, changes are also made to the standard operating procedures in terms of visiting,
operating within the premises and leaving the premises.
10) What measures are you putting in place to maximise employee
productivity while dealing with similar circumstances in the future?
As this pandemic has taught us several new lessons, it is important to take this learning
forward to meet similar challenges in the future. Some of the important measures that we
are putting in place include changes to the leave policies, focusing on health and wellness by
introducing new programs, creating remote work-schedules to balance work-life, use of
workforce analytical tools for strategic workforce planning and evaluation of employee
32

performance. To maximise employee productivity, apart from offering ongoing support on
an individual basis to mitigate their fears, the management also introduced several training
and development measures to equip employees with specific skills need to handle similar
situations in the future.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Themes emerged from the interviews
The following themes are evolved from the responses gathered from the research
participants, the HR managers of the selected organisations, through personal interviews.
Flexibility
The responses collected by the researcher from the two personal interviews from the HR
managers of selected organisations point out to the need to facilitate greater levels of
flexibility to the employees. As the COVID-19 posed diverse set of challenges to both
employers and the employees, HR managers are focusing on exploring ways to improve
flexibility offered to the workforce. The outcomes of the interviews correlate with the views
expressed by Baert et al (2020) and point out the need to enhance flexibility in the way
employee relations are managed by the HR managers.
Ongoing support
One of the key findings of the review of the literature review is the need to improve the
level of ongoing support offered to the employees. As per Caligiuri et al (2020), it was clear
that employees need support during these difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic in
terms of emotional, financial and the assurance about their jobs. The responses obtained by
the researcher through the personal interviews of HR managers in this research also
indicated similar sentiment in terms of ongoing support needed for the employees.
Understanding the concerns of the employees through two-way communication and
33

providing individualised support that may differ from one employee to another are the key
outcomes of this research.
Engagement
Employee engagement is another key aspect talked about by both the participants of the
research. The HR managers of the chosen organisations for this research indicated that the
emphasis on employee engagement has increased since the start of the pandemic and
opined that through higher levels of engagement, the concerns and fears of the employees
can be better understood. Apart from that, the responses also revealed that employee
engagement is key to enable the workforce to make some key decisions and improve the
productivity without affecting the overall performance. As indicated by Deshpande and
Damodar (2020) in literature review, there is a need to entrust employees with new
responsibilities and the interview responses also indicated the same.
Emotional well-being
Liu et al (2020) talked about the COVID-19 pandemic has exerted tremendous influence on
the emotional well-being of the employees and stated that HR managers must pay more
attention to this aspect. In line with the views expressed by the author, the interview
responses indicated several measures that HR are introducing in their respective
organisations to look after the emotional well-being of the employees. The results also
indicated that the managers must show more appreciation towards the employees by
communicating with the employees more often on various aspects of emotional well-being.
Reskilling
As per Hamouche (2020), the importance of reskilling and upskilling the workforce cannot
be undermined in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. As per the responses received by
the researcher through personal interviews, employers are looking for new skills and are
introducing measures to enhance their existing skills and acquiring new skills. Reskilling can
be understood to be the development of additional skills and acquiring new capabilities that
will enable employees to perform multiple roles. The responses from the interviews pointed
out to the need for employees to be able to carry out different functions to cope with the
challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Training and development
Sarwani (2020) stated that the social distancing requirements and the emerging challenges
posed by the COVID-19 pandemic forced HR managers to embrace new methods of training
and development. The outcomes obtained through the collection of primary data in this
research also highlighted the need and the focus on training and development on several
new operational procedures and policies put in place. The results also indicated the need for
both in-house as well as the virtual training for the employees. The results also denote a
greater emphasis of training and development programs on enhancing their competencies,
offering moral support and enabling employees to enhance their performance. The training
and development programs in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic are more ongoing and
continuous in nature as the challenges faced by the employers are dynamic in nature.
Operational procedures
Changes in the operational procedures, processes and systems is among the biggest impacts
of the pandemic on the way businesses operate. The opinions of Zhong et al (2021) also
highlight the need for additional changes that HR management must introduce to re-design
the basic workplace operations. The responses collected from the HR managers of the
selected organisations in this research highlighted several changes in operational
procedures such as usability of common areas, health and safety protocols, reporting the
incidents and equipping employees with adequate knowledge on revised policies. The
primary purpose behind these measures introduced by HR managers is to prevent the
discrimination and stigma in the workplace, prioritising the well-being of the employees,
avoiding cross contamination and dealing with health implications in the workplace.
Performance considerations
It is evident from the results obtained from the interviews and the opinions of authors such
as Yadav et al (2020) that performance cannot be measured during the COVID-19 pandemic
times using policies used earlier. The research outcomes highlighted the need to assess the
performance of employees by being more considerate to them and by considering the
challenges they have been facing during the pandemic. As the uncertainty caused by the
35

pandemic can naturally affect the productivity and performance of the employees, these
aspects must be taken into consideration by the HR managers while evaluating the
performance of the employees.
Morale and motivation
The review of the primary and secondary sources of data in this research indicate the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on motivation and morale of the workforce in the UK.
Butterick and Andy (2021) pointed out the lack of transparency among the important
reasons for low employee engagement. In line with these observations, the responses from
interviews also highlight the need for two-way communication and the measures that were
put in place by the respective organisations to foster information transparency. As it is
natural for the employees to have fears about returning to work during the times of COVID-
19 pandemic, HR managers introduced measures to mitigate the fears and confusions
among the workforce. As the new worksite dynamics are emerging as managers try to deal
with the implications of the pandemic, several new protocols and policies were put in place
and this may lead to additional burden on the employees. The results also pointed out the
need for greater discussion and engagement on a personal level to improve the motivation
and morale of the employees.
Conclusion
The review of the responses collected by the researcher using personal interviews and the
comparison with the inputs from literature review section indicated several changes in the
human resource management approaches since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart
from changes needed in the traditional HR management functions such as recruitment and
selection, training and development and performance management, this research
highlighted the need for changes in compensation packages, reskilling the workforce,
offering greater flexibility and enhancing two-way communication. As the pandemic is still
ongoing, the research outcomes indicate the ongoing changes made to the approaches used
by HR managers to manage workforce productivity, well-being and engagement efficiently.
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CHAPTER FIVE – CONCLUSIONS
This research set out to investigate various aspects regarding the changes took place in the
workforce management by understanding the emerging challenges, patterns and key
trends. To achieve this, a wide range of literary sources have been reviewed and several key
aspects of human resource management in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic were
critically analysed. These inputs were further tested using the qualitative data collection
tools such as personal interviews by the researcher. One of the objectives of this research is
to investigate the transformative role played by HR managers in the wake of this pandemic.
The research outcomes indicated that HR managers are playing a phenomenal role in
facilitating new approaches to deal with the implications of the pandemic on the workforce
productivity, morale, motivation and performance. Right from redesigning the recruitment
and selection procedures used to fulfil the staffing needs to compensation management
during these pandemic times, HR managers are playing an influential role in fostering
employee performance.
37

Reviewing innovative HR approaches towards workforce productivity and employee
engagement is another key objective of this research. The questions designed to conduct
the personal objectives were aimed at achieving this research objective. The results indicate
that HR managers are introducing new ways to improve flexibility offered to the employees,
empower them with necessity skills and competencies to make decisions and adapt to the
changing work environment, offer ongoing and support, reskilling employees to cope with
additional responsibilities. The research outcomes also suggest a growing emphasis on
engagement of employees through regular two-way communication approaches,
transparent information exchange, providing ongoing and continuous support,
understanding their emotional well-being and taking appropriate measures to address
them. Assessing the measures that HR managers can adopt to cope with the challenges
posed by this pandemic is another key research objective. From the research outcomes, it
can be understood that HR managers can make use of number of measures to cope with the
challenges amidst the ongoing pandemic. Some of them are reskilling and upskilling the
employees, providing ongoing support, redesigning the workplace policies, enhancing
engagement through regular meetings, reassessing performance considerations and
emphasis on increasing flexibility offered to the customers.
The following are among the key improvements that can made to HRM approaches used by
the case study organisations to enhance employee morale, productivity, motivation and
engagement:
Scenario Planning – As the uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic still
continues, it is important for human resource managers to plan for multiple scenarios and
prepare HR plans accordingly. This could include human resource planning, talent
acquisition, performance management, compensation packages, perks and benefits and
realigning HR activities to the emerging goals and objectives of the organisation.
Build future proof HR capabilities – To ensure that HR managers can successfully deal
with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of workforce management, it
is imperative for them to acquire key capabilities required to thrive in the new normal. It is
important to prioritise HR process improvements that not only reduce the HR costs but also
enhance the workforce productivity. It is important to make the HR functions more cost
38

effective and sustainable as the businesses are likely to face financial implications of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the next few years.
Sensing employees need for support – Although the HR managers are making
conscious efforts to understand and mitigate the fears and apprehensions of employees, it is
important to make this an ongoing effort. The information and emotional needs of the
employees may evolve as the pandemic continues to make its impact felt on the businesses.
It is therefore imperative for the HR managers to seek new ways of sensing the need for
support among the employees.
Reinforcing organisational values – Well-being of the employees at the workplace
must be constantly monitored as it could not only impact their performance but could also
affect overall organisational productivity. It is imperative for the HR managers to ensure that
employee misconduct during these stressful times of the pandemic is reported and dealt
with appropriate to ensure that unethical behaviours are not tolerated within the
organisation. It is important to communicate the organisational values on a consistent basis
to the employees and emphasise the punitive measures for non-compliance.
Recognising employee efforts – As the ongoing pandemic caused several disruptions, it
had a significant impact on the employee engagement levels. It is now important for HR
managers to boost the recognition initiatives to reward efforts of the employees to achieve
excellence in these challenging times. Effective employee recognition programs not only
motivate the recipients but will also drive other employees to emulate their efforts which
can lead to increased overall organisational productivity. Apart from these, it will also
reinforcement the long-term commitment of the employees towards the organisation.
Framing new age policies – Post COVID-19, it is essential for businesses to have a
comprehensive human resource management plans to deal with similar circumstances in
the future. HR managers must play a proactive role in improving workplace flexibility,
contractual staffing, talent management, leadership development and remote working
policies to deal with the unforeseen circumstances more efficiently. These policies must
include key considerations about the physical and emotional well-being of the workforce.
This can be achieved by designing holistic employee benefit programs.
39

Limitations and scope for future research
One of the main limitations of this research is limited number of interviews due to the time
constraints associated with this research. The reliability and generalisability of these
research outcomes can be further enhanced by conducting more interviews from businesses
selected from diverse sectors apart from retail and by carrying out a comparative analysis
on the same. This research was conducted to explore the perspective of the HR managers
about the implications of the pandemic on the workforce management and did not take into
consideration the employees’ perspective, which is another research limitation. Any future
studies to this research further must make use of interviews from the employees to better
understand their expectations from the HR managers and the measures that could be put in
place to enhance their morale and motivation.
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APPENDICES
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1) How is this pandemic affecting the way your organisation operates in
terms of human resources planning?
2) What measures did you put in place to cross-training the employees to
enable them perform multiple duties?
3) What challenges did you face in improving employee engagement during
this pandemic and how did you overcome them?
4) What new skills did the workforce require in particular to perform their
duties effectively during this pandemic?
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5) What challenges did you face to improve the morale of the employees
particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic?
6) Did the recruitment and selection procedures in your organisation evolve
during this pandemic? What are the key changes that took place?
7) What are the key changes that you made to compensation management
for your employees, keeping in view of the ongoing pandemic?
8) In what way did the performance management evaluations in your
organisations got affected by the pandemic
9) Are there any changes you made to workplace policies since the onset of
COVID-19? Please explain
10) What measures are you putting in place to maximise employee
productivity while dealing with similar circumstances in the future?
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SIGNED ETHICS FORM
Lancashire School of Business and Enterprise Research Ethics
Approval Form
LSBE is concerned to protect the dignity, rights, safety and well-being of all
participants in any research study that involves people. The avoidance of harm to
research subjects should therefore be a prime consideration for all LSBE
researchers and students. This ethics approval form must be completed by all UG
and PG students who are undertaking a research project and be signed by both
the student and the supervisor.
If the research is not NHS-based, please complete the questions below and hand in
the form to your supervisor (type written). Once your supervisor has approved and
signed off the form, they will retain it for the duration of the project. It is wise to
complete the form in a timely fashion as your supervisor might ask you to make
amendments prior to approving it.
To be completed by student
Student Name Jayachandra Naidu Potturu
Email Address [e-mail]
Student Number 20835793
Programme of Study Master of Business Administration with
Work-Based Learning
Name of Student Supervisor Rebekah Powell
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Project Title COVID-19 and the future of workforce
management – Evolving patterns,
challenges and key opportunities in the
UK’s retail industry
Proposed project start date 18/07/2021
Proposed project end date 26/11/2021
1. Does the research project involve any of the following risk factors?
Research involving health sector
organisations
If YES, tick here - NO
Research involving children or vulnerable
groups
If YES, tick here - NO
Research involving sensitive topics If YES, tick here - NO
Research involving aerospace/defence
organisations
If YES, tick here - NO
Research involving nuclear production
organisations
If YES, tick here - NO
Research findings that will be shared by an
outside organisation
If YES, tick here - NO
2. Provide a brief outline of the aim and objectives of the proposed
research project
Investigating the emerging approaches towards workforce planning and
management in UK’s retail businesses is the main aim of this research.
The research objectives are as follows:
 To evaluate the implications of COVID-19 on workforce planning and
management among UK’s retail businesses
 To critically analyse the role of workforce management in capturing
competitive advantage post COVID-19 scenario
 To assess the opportunities and challenges associated with emerging
workforce planning trends emanated after the COVID-19
3. Outline the proposed research design and any details of the type of
data to be collected from human participants (e.g., questionnaire,
interview, observation etc.)
This research will be a qualitative research. Primary data will be collected by the
researcher using qualitative data collection technique – ‘Personal Interviews’.
Personal Interviews with HR and line managers of selected organisations will be
46

used to collect primary data.
4. Does the proposed research contain any potential contentious issues
that might affect the physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing of
the research participants?
The risk to the participants as a part of this investigation is very low. However, to
make the participants taking part feel comfortable, their potential concerns will be
addressed by the researcher. This includes giving the participants the opportunity
to withdraw from the study at any time.
5. Detail how you will gain the informed consent from the individuals
and/or organisations participating in the research. If possible, attach a
copy of your draft consent form.
Informed consent will be obtained from the selected individuals (Human resource
and line managers) working in selected retail organisations in the UK by explaining
the purpose of the research and their importance of their inputs towards the
completion of this research. The participants will also be informed about how their
data will be used for this research. To ensure anonymity and confidentiality of the
participants, no personal details will be sought from them that could be used to
identify them. The measures such as using password protected files to restrict
unauthorised access will be explained to the participants to ensure they
understand how confidentiality is maintained by the researcher. A draft consent
form is also attached with this ethics form.
6. Which of the following methods of assuring confidentiality of data will
be implemented?
Please tick all that apply
Data to be kept in a locked filing cabinet If YES, tick here - NO
Access to computer files to be available by password only If YES, tick here - 
Storage on an encrypted device (e.g., laptop, hard drive,
USB)
If YES, tick here - 
Storage at another site If YES, tick here - NO
If stored at another site, please give
details
Student Signature Date
Jayachandra.p 19/08/2021
Please load this form to Turnitin via Blackboard, pass a copy to your Supervisor and
47

include a copy when you submit your work in the Appendices
To be completed by supervisor
For the attention of UG and PG Research Supervisors
If you are satisfied that this ethics application can be approved – then sign in the box
below and retain the form for the duration of the research. If there are any ethical issues
which you are uncomfortable with, and in your opinion require additional scrutiny then
forward this to: [e-mail]
Supervisor Signature Date
Rebekah Powell 20/08/2021
If you are unable to sign this application form, please briefly state your
reasons/concerns which must be addressed by the student before resubmission.
48