Introduction to People Management during COVID-19

This report discusses the issues faced by line managers in the pandemic and the skills developed to overcome the changes and issues. It also details the efforts made by the HR team to promote workforce performance.

Introduction to People
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Contemporary issues faced by people management during COVID-19.....................................3
Knowledge, skills and behaviours are needed to be an effective people manager in this
epidemic......................................................................................................................................4
Endeavours made by human resource process and support management in order to enhance
the performance management ....................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................7
Books and Journal.......................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
People management is considered to be one of the major roles of human resources in order to
plan, manage and control the activities and functions performed by the employees of the
organisation (Jyoti, 2019). The unexpected misfortune created several problems for each and
everyone. Eevn the sudden shift in work culture created a chios, which affected all over world
and thus, it has brought new challenges and endless issues. The top most concern of
professionals HR are to provide the right communication channels for them, various tools for
remote work and keeping all employees engaged. This report discusses about the issues faced by
the line mangers in the pandemic and the skills developed by the same to overcome the
prevailing changes and issues. It also details about the efforts made by the HR team in order to
promote the performance of the workforce in the organisation.
MAIN BODY
Contemporary issues faced by people management during COVID-19
Line managers can be termed as catalyst responsible for communicating the decisions,
procedures and policies set my the top management to the lower level management of the
business organisation. The organisation now have to rely and trust more than ever on their HR
departments in order to make sure their workforce feel as safe as possible during this unexpected
and unpredictable time. During the ongoing pandemic, the line managers of the business
organisations also faced numerous which impacted the overall functioning of the organisation.
Some of the relevant issues faces by them are mentioned below :-
Remote work management : One of the major issues faced by the line managers was to
handle the employees working from home (Cooke, Dickmann and Parry, 2020). The transition to
remote work culture is not as easy as it seems. According to studies, there were 50 percent
industries and organisations which already had a remote work policy. As banking sector and
other indutries did not enourged remote work, but now all are adopting and rushing to build
remote work strategies. This had revealed many undiscovered problems. HR mangers ar
continously trying to tackle this problem by creating seamless routes and strategies in order to
overcome these challenges that it brings. Management of remote work is not an easy task,
various difficulties such as ineffective work, poor performance, misinterpretation of the work
assigned, poor network connection etc. may arise due to the same and line managers are

expected to find an effective solution for the same in order to run the operations of the business
enterprises smoothly and without any interruption. For instance, IT and software companies such
as Microsoft require a lot of in office work and specifications.
Communication difficulties : Communication is a very important element that helps in
facilitating the management functions of an organisation. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has
really impacted the communication channels of business organisations and people managers of
the same are also under pressure to carry out effective communication within the employees of
the organisation in order to reduce or eliminate any faults or errors associated with business
operations of the organisations.
Risks and uncertainties : COVID -19 has created a void in the lives of individuals and
the world has become very uncertain. Individuals are at a high risk and everyone wants to ensure
their safety in order to protect themselves and their families from the spread of the virus. People's
managers needs to patiently deal with the employees feeling the fear and discomfort due to the
epidemic and the human resource department are facing numerous challenges and difficulties in
order to align their functions towards the same.
Trust: As many companies adopted remote work policy sooner or later, unfortunately
this was not by choice. This sudden shift in culture a lot of businesses that happened overnight.
As the fact transparency or trust is an essential element of working from home. There should be
complete transparency between employees and HR manager. Team and employees performance
can be measured by KPI matrix and should updated and reported weekly by each team of CEO.
There should be honest communication between employees and office staff.
Lack of Agility- It is one of major concern from which professionals struggling due to
lack of agility. Well none of them was pre-ready for this pandemic as well as it was new
experience to all from which all were struggling at their stage in order to protect themselves.
HR team are not designed for agility which affected them big time. In these type of crisis it is
impossible to react fast or quickly. Due to these facts it slows down the collecting data, to
become more agile in their approach and to stay focused on organisations goals there should
honest communication and alignment among middle management and executives.
Uncertainty- Uncertainties can affect anyone at any point. Well I this pandemic many
people get effected either mentally or physically. Staying home and doing work in the absence of
motivation became more hectic and stressful as compared to ding work in workplace or offices.

The daunting feeling of not knowing about future and what measures should organisation take to
sustain the organisation goals is a huge challenge. At one point during pandemic, we all get
affected more and less by uncertainty. All employees affected mentally, not knowing which path
this future leads too, and on the other hand HR struggled to put everything in alignment.
Employee engagement: Main objective of engagement of employee is a ultimate
company goal is the productivity of employee. It is experienced by various organisation that it is
little bit challenging to engage each and every employee while he or she is doing remote work
and that too, in crisis. Well keeping everyone on same page when internal communication
compromised so it becomes tough. As well as in remote work, it is hard to follow a patent
routine and expect a smooth workflow. Decreasing work load to employees perhaps help the
department to tackle this problem.
Knowledge, skills and behaviours are needed to be an effective people manager in this epidemic
Due to the ongoing epidemic, the companies around the world are facing numerous challenges.
In order to deal with this situation, it is very essential for the human resource department to
enhance the effectiveness of their operations and facilitate in coping up and overcoming the
difficulties prevailing in the market environment (Hurmelinna-Laukkanen and Olander, 2019).
Some of the skills, knowledge and competencies required by the people manager or human
resource manager so as to increase the productivity of business operations in this pandemic areas
follow :
Redefine the team dynamics : People's manager is expected to introduce new and
innovative norms in the business organisations so as to enhance the communication and
interaction within the employees working in the organisation. Due to this activity there will be
honest communication which can improve relationship within employees and HR managers.
Further it can be considered as beneficial for long term. In this crisis, it will help to conduct more
plans and strategies in order to increase productivity and efficiency of an organisation. These
interactions and conversations can also help the manager to identify the mental as well as
physical well being its employees which in turn will help the same to motivate and guide them
effectively.
Effectively deal with behavioural changes : The pandemic has affected the lives of
millions across the globe. The behaviours of employees working in the organisation has also
changed due to the same. Staying home and doing work became tough for the employees. As

employees wanted a reassurance that the they will not going to loose job and will get paid leave
if they fall sick due to virus. According to studies, the employees have become more insecure,
vulnerable and impulsive and it is the role of people's manager to comfort them and make sure
that they are able to give their best potential while performing their tasks and duties.
Safety and health measures : People's manager needs to make sure that proper
sanitisation is taking place in the office environment in order to reduce the risk of spread of
COVID-19. As per government rule it should be mandatory to all staff and employees to follow.
Employees needs to wear masks regularly in the office premises and their body temperatures
should be tested everyday in order to identify their health conditions (high fever). They should
carry own sanitizer and mask and should take proper security measures for themselves as well as
for their colleagues, if someone feel sick they should provide paid leaves. For example, Tesco
has led down guideline that wearing masks and proper sanitisation is a compulsion.
Endeavours made by human resource process and support management in order to enhance the
performance management
Human resource managers and support management of the business organisations are always
coming up with strategies and plans so as to boost the employees or workforce performance in
the business organisation (Baran and Bible, 2019). HR department took many measure to
decrease the communication gap as well, in order to attain the better performance of employees.
Many steps are taken by the same to incite and motivate the employees working in the
organisation. Few of the efforts made by the HR team and support management are listed
below :-
Time flexibility : Nowadays, business organisations considers the time preferences of the
employees in order to assign them their respective work and duties in order to make them
comfortable within the organisation and enhance their work satisfaction (Liu, 2019). Human
resource managers are also facilitating remote work to the employees who are residing in other
cities as well. Various digital apps also introduced to reduce the barriers between employees and
organisation such as: Zoom app, Skype etc. To make employees more comfortable to open and
express their doubts, to decrease their queries daily online group meeting session held which
improved progress and performance of employees. For example, Nestle has provided the
opportunity to its employees to work flexibly according to their time and preferences.

Compensation and benefits : In order to enhance the performance of the workforce, HR
individuals provide them various compensation benefits and perk in order to increase their
willingness to work which in turn helps the organisation to raise the standard of performance in
the organisation. More strategies should be considered as beneficial in order to increase
employees productivity such as: overtime, hence it can help employees mentally as well,
indulging them in work as per their wish can give productivity, enhance skills of employees as
well as help organisation to be focused on the goals and achievement for future purpose.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the business environment completely.
Line managers are hugely impacted by the same and have faced various difficulties in their
operations (Shahane, 2020). In order to react and respond these difficult situations managers
have set up various new and innovative plans and procedures which will help them to respond to
the dynamic environment. Business organisations are trying their best to encourage employees
and enhance performance of the same in order to survive in these challenging situations. As
Covid-19 has impacted all sectors either it is private or government, this sudden shift created
endless problems for every human such as: unemployment, depression , recession etc.
REFRENCES
Books and Journal
Baran, B.E. and Bible, S.C., 2019. Agility and Agile: An Introduction for People, Teams, and
Organizations.
Cooke, F.L., Dickmann, M. and Parry, E., 2020. Important issues in human resource
management: introduction to the 2020 review issue.
Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, P. and Olander, H., 2019. Introduction to managing people for
technological innovation. Int. J. Technology Management, 79(3/4), p.211.

Jyoti, K., 2019. Green HRM–People Management Commitment to Environmental Sustainability.
In Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Digital Strategies for
Organizational Success.
Liu, Y., 2019. Introduction: International talent management research–a multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary approach. In Research Handbook of International Talent Management.
Edward Elgar Publishing.
Shahane, R., 2020. Introduction to Management, Leadership, Motivation, Coordination,
Controlling.