Preparing your workforce for recovery

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Preparing your workforce for recovery

Businesses are abuzz with relief and renewed positivity about lockdowns being lifted and workplaces reopening. Clearly no one is delusional about being out of the woods. Pragmatism and tenacity remain the order of the day as the economy braces for the full impact of the pandemic when government reliefs run dry.

Leaders are still under tremendous pressure. Companies are still navigating uncertainty with caution and cost reductions, hiring freezes and interim strategies. Major investments and projects are put on hold to preserve cash flows for the long journey beyond Covid-19. Job losses are still taking place daily. The human impact is real.

What now and what’s next for HR and talent acquisition leads? Between addressing immediate workforce needs and concerns, tenacious heads of HR and talent acquisition are keeping an eye on positioning the workforce to meet organisational demand when the market bounces back.

What needs to be considered to position our organisations for an efficient and proactive recovery?

1) Forecast of workforce requirements
Do we have immediate hiring requirements anticipated for our organisations to springboard to recovery?

There is still a lot of uncertainty moving forward for businesses and companies. It is necessary to assess the workload and not just the skill gaps, with the view of improving business flexibility for the sake of business sustainability for the future as well.

2) Alternative staffing models
What is the best approach to addressing our workforce requirements amidst current hiring freezes?

Alternative manpower staffing models mitigate employment risk for the organisation. These alternative solutions in the market include in-house tenured contractors, scope-of-work outsourcing, and inclusions in employment contracts for flexibility to amend employee benefits. Find out more about protecting your organisation against employment risk here in my earlier article.

Another alternative that combines human interaction with machine learning and artificial intelligence can also help talent acquisition teams scale through technology to reach a wider universe of talent more efficiently.

Organisations, with the help of HR leaders, must ensure ready-to-work resources no matter which staffing model we go with. It is important to establish flexible staffing options not only during this pandemic, but also after.

3) Building a robust and adaptable workforce
This is not just about surviving this pandemic. We’re all looking at emerging a stronger, fitter organisations that are ready to face an evolving business landscape head-on. It’s about coming up with a strategic framework to better equip ourselves for future circumstances, different or similar to the one the world is facing now.

This could mean scaling through technology, investing more in digitisation or improving business capacity through cost-effective measures. In parallel, the workforce also needs to be upskilled and readied for what the future of work means to our organisations.

Concurrent to upskilling, it’s heartening to witness organisations prioritising employee engagement, wellness and needs. Covid-19 unleashed a great deal of change, uncertainty, stress and anxiety that need to be addressed for the safety, sanity and well-being of our current and future talent.

There is something to learn from every economic cycle. What have we learnt from the current, and what can be done better to reduce human impact when faced with a similar economic shake up in the future?

With organisations and our workforce tested on all fronts in our current Covid economy, what sets tenacious HR and talent acquisition teams apart is our unwavering ability to anticipate organisational demands and provide true business partnering to our leaders to guide our workforce to recovery.

Learn more about staffing solutions that address your workforce requirements in today's market. Register your interest below to schedule a one-on-one virtual workshop at your availability.