‘Human resources come of age?’

The roles and structure of the HR function in a post Covid-19 landscape

HR functions have played a key role in the corporate responses to the pandemic. Initially this was focused on establishing safe working arrangements for their key and customer service workers facing the highest risks from Covid-19, alongside support for the health and work-life-imbalance issues faced by their office workers suddenly marooned at home, working from their kitchens and juggling home-schooling.

As the situation has evolved, we have seen a broader set of HR policy and investment responses, particularly in terms of health and wellbeing, HR systems and e-learning, with more than twice as many employers increasing their benefits spend as those forced to reduce it, three-quarters providing new and enhanced digital learning and one-third increasing their overall training spend.

Covid-19 has accelerated these trends and HR’s growing emphasis and centrality to organisation survival and performance through the crisis has given new emphasis to the importance of them. While as with all things Covid-related, there is great uncertainty, this paper highlights four shifts underway in HR’s role and response to this human crisis.