Overcoming the Top 5 HR Risks: 2020 Bonus - COVID-19 Risks

Jeff Agranoff, HR Consulting Principal, Grassi Advisors & Accountants

COVID-19 Risks
In addition to these 5 major areas of HR risk, which are all exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, there are risks inherent in the pandemic itself. Employee morale and loyalty can be severely tested in situations where furloughs and layoffs are inevitable. If you find yourself needing to make these tough decisions to contain employee-related costs, take purposeful steps to make the process easier for those who are leaving and staying. To the extent possible, communicate with remaining employees about the potential and timeline to bring furloughed employees back. Discuss how laid-off or furloughed employees’ roles will be covered. Offer departing employees job coaching and resume building services to support them in this transition.

The COVID-19 crisis has also posed challenges to work-life integration. Remote work environments make the separation between work and home life even more blurred. Encourage and enable your employees to keep these priorities intact. Continue to understand and respond to their need for flexibility to fulfill their roles outside the office – even if these roles are being performed under altered circumstances.

Employee bonding during a pandemic will need to take on different forms in a remote workforce, but some of the same best practices apply. Try to hold as many of the activities during the workday to avoid infringing on important personal or family time. And get ideas from your employees on what they want to do – not just what you think they want to do.

Finally, continue to pay close attention to the new temporary family and medical leave allowances under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which are still effective through December 31, 2020.

The COVID-19 crisis should not be a reason to delay or digress from improving your HR function. Rather, it should be a catalyst to do more to retain and encourage employees in the most uncertain of times. Now more than ever, your people are your most valuable asset.

Jeff Agranoff is Chief Human Resources Officer and Consulting Principal at Grassi Advisors & Accountants. He oversees the firm’s HR Consulting practice, which provides outsourced HR, workforce planning, employee relations and advisory services to companies that do not have an internal HR department or are looking to enrich their existing function. Jeff can be reached at [email protected].

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