Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 12 www.hrreporter.com Is HR's transformation here for the long run? During the COVID-19 crisis, HR pivoted dramatically to deal with more strategic issues such as workforce planning, work from home and digital collaboration — but it's unclear if that elevated role will last, finds John Dujay "If we think about what happened during the financial crash in 2008, what we saw was that CEOs and the C-suite looked toward the chief operating officer to try and steer the ship," she says. "[One member] said to me that, 'In 2008, we had a financial crisis with some people issues, and today we have a people crisis with some financial implications.'" HR has really become a strategic partner in business operations during the COVID-19 pandemic "to help lead them to another future state of what that organization is going to be," says Rodney Miller, president and CEO of the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (CPHR) Alberta in Calgary. "There's a real transformation of the profession moving away from being simply a tactical organization to begin- ning to lead what the future of work is going to look like." Because of that pivot, all of a sudden, the spotlight was turned on the role of the CHRO — and all of the people working in human resources — to quickly come up with creative ways "to shore up employee anxiety, to under- stand the concerns that people had in terms of how do we make the shift to remote," says Birch. strate their value and increase people's understanding of HR's role. A further 59 per cent say that they feel they have become more influential as leaders. However, while 87 per cent of execu- tives agree that the pandemic has accel- erated changes in HR, such as having greater influence, 52 per cent feel these changes are only temporary, finds Sage. And while the C-suite expects HR teams to pick up more strategic work, 57 per cent also see HR as largely an administrative function. While many HR professionals have pivoted, the world remains at a turning point that could go either way, says David Zweig, chair of the department of management at the University of Toronto-Scarborough. "Once the pandemic settles down, HR has a real opportunity to develop a new strategic approach to bringing people back to work and how they're going to manage the tension between people who want to continue working from home and people who want to actually go back to the workplace," he says. "HR can play a really important role and demonstrate, finally, that they add strategic value." How HR has been transformed HR is being counted on to provide work- place solutions much more frequently than in past emergency situations, says Jill Birch, founder and CEO of BirchGrove, a leadership development service, and chair of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) board nominating committee in Toronto. "HR found themselves as the prover- bial jack of all trades and master of none, having to provide consultation to a wide variety of different levels of concern from all sorts of different departments." One of the most important ways HR has stepped up is in maintaining employee culture and engagement, especially for employees working from home. "Zoom meetings aren't the same, but it means doing more activities over those mechanisms. It means that supervisors need to be engaging with employees on a more frequent basis," says Rick Brick, assistant lecturer in the department of strategy entrepreneurship and manage- ment at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. "One of the things we need to encourage managers to do is not only to reach out to teams as a team and have them working together as we would in a regular workplace but also those one-on-one communications become really critical. HR has been stressing the need for that." Will the changes last? But whether or not HR departments are shunted aside post-pandemic will "There's a real transformation, moving away from a tactical organization to beginning to lead what the future of work is going to look like." Rod Miller, CPHR Alberta HUMAN resources has undergone major changes during the pandemic, taking a much more stra- tegic focus around issues such as work- force planning, health and safety, work from home, reduced hours and changes to compensation, layoffs and digital technology. But once things calm down, will this transformation be forgotten? The C-suite may not be entirely convinced that the changes are permanent or more strategic, according to a recent Sage survey of 1,500 senior HR professionals, C-suite executives and employees from Canada, the U.K., U.S. and Australia. Two-thirds (65 per cent) of HR leaders say their teams have had a vital role to play in the pandemic and 72 per cent say that the crisis has helped them demon- THE FUTURE OF HR 59% HR people feel they are more influential during COVID 52% C-suite members believe changes are temporary 57% Executives say HR is strictly an administrative job Source: Sage

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