Key- If we focus on our people and their well-being; the business will take care of itself.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way businesses across the world work, raising questions about the future of workplaces. Organizations with swank offices are now entirely operational from the homes of their employees. The physical real estate where employees met each other and with their customers has moved to small windows of a virtual chatroom. The pace of change has rattled many organizations as not only has it been an arduous task for IT to ensure connectivity for employees whilst protecting company data, equally it has been tough for the workforce to adjust to working virtually.

In times like these, it is important for organizations to hold on steadfastly to and reinforce their culture & values. For us at Prione group, ‘people come first' and hence at this time, we have focused on providing psychological safety to our employees in the face of uncertainty with increased communication and positive & empathetic work experiences to help them deal with challenges associated with work-life balance, dealing with self-isolation and lack of face to face communication.

At Cloudtail, a part of the Prione Business Solutions, we have focussed on ensuring that our employees’ experience is not adversely impacted in these unprecedented times. We call it Learning, Engaging, Adapting, and Practicing (LEAP). The idea behind LEAP is to learn from what other colleagues have been doing, engage with fellow employees we have lost touch with, adapt to the new environment and practice the same in our daily lives. For instance, on Mother's Day, all the employees who were mothers were asked to make videos on how they managed work and the kids at home. It provided other female employees motivation and tips in a fun-learning way on the art of balancing.

The HR team has also conducted an exciting internal engagement activity called Balance Out Karona, which taught employees the art of balancing between home and work while working from home. And throughout this process; we have listened to employees and taken their feedback through regular surveys and crowdsourcing ideas which has helped us learn and evolve our practices.

If recent announcements by global technology majors are anything to go by, the face of future workplaces has already changed. A post-COVID-19 workplace will place a premium on a new set of skills and paradigms of productivity. The L&D function in any organization is central to driving this change and ensuring employees remained equipped with the required skills to deliver on business objectives.

In the new economy, upskilling and reskilling are critical to business success. The pace of learning needs to match the speed of disruption. This event is a shot in the arm for the virtual learning ecosystem. We, too, are leveraging it to keep are employees gainfully engaged and staying on top of their learning curve.

In one such learning drive, we saw record participation from the team who prioritized functional brown-bags, culture reinforcement sessions, and managerial capability programs. Overall, directionally we have moved into space where virtual learning sessions are the norm v/s exception.

With so much being done across the board to keep employees engaged and secure, one cannot help wonder where the next single point of focus for today's CHRO should be? We do not know how long the post-lock down phase will last, nor do we know how long it will be until the post-pandemic era begins. We must respond swiftly and boldly to deal with these unprecedented issues that we are grappling with at present; however, it is equally important to reflect on the future. We must pause to take stock of all that one has learned and then apply this learning for the future.

Effective communication and enhancing employee experience during this pandemic will go a long way in ensuring that employees understand that the organization cares about them, and it will convert them into loyalists.

Bottom-line, if we focus on our people and their well-being; the business will take care of itself.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house