Ways How HRTech Can Build Employee Resilience

Resilience is the new business buzzword going around management circles due to the coronavirus pandemic. The drastic change in the social interaction of people and society as a whole has a significant impact on many industries and profitable business models. Resilience means the ability to cope, adapt, and thrive in changing environments. Employee resilience is the workforce’s ability to maintain its level of productivity and morale when responding to those challenges.  

Coronavirus and the new normal

As an example the entertainment and tourism industry were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic even with the legislation the government implemented in response to it.  According to CNBC, almost 25 million people are expected to lose their jobs due to the pandemic

Another industry hit was sports. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and other professional sports leagues are playing empty arena games in an attempt to keep their industry above water. The massive financial losses brought about by the cancellation of games due to the pandemic hurt professional teams in the order of hundreds of millions. To protect the players and keep the business going, the NBA implemented a “bubble environment” project where all teams are in a single secured location to play games with players away from their families for months at a time.

While many players and trainers are not happy with the new arrangement, the majority of the teams are excited about the prospect of being able to play again.

The lesson is clear:  organizations should start thinking about keeping their operations going in the new normal brought about by the COVID-19 and survive the storm.

Corporate resilience and HRTech

Another change that the pandemic has brought is an almost universal shift to remote work. However, the most fundamental problem of employees working at home is the physical impossibility of doing their tasks away from the job environment. Positions such as waitresses, construction workers, mechanics, and even skilled workers such as nuclear power technicians need to be “on-site” to perform their duties.

But on-site tasks are not the only reason why people work in an office environment. Here are some of the common advantages of working in an office:

•  Access to corporate resources
•  Easier collaboration and communication
•  Easier oversight and timekeeping
•  Tradition
•  Separation of work and family
•  Focused environment

Despite these challenges, COVID-19 has made work-from-home the most realistic option for most businesses to operate in the new normal.

It’s now a priority for most managers to virtualize their operations and ensure that their employees are up to the challenge. This is where HRTech and employee resilience plays a vital role. HRTech can help supervisors and HR manage employee productivity, performance, and development through its functions and capabilities. While those functions differ from one service to another depending on the specific technology, it all depends on the level of oversight and corporate culture.

HRTech also helps facilitate employee resilience by giving them the tools they need to cope with ever-changing situations and reduce work-related stress. Having the Human Resource Department handhold employees while they transition to an office environment to a remote one can mitigate the stress brought about by the change.

What is HRTech, and what can it do?

HRtech is a catch-all phrase for digital technology that helps the Human Resources Department do their jobs more efficiently. New technologies such as big data and AI help personnel managers gain more insight into employee performance. Biometrics and Cloud Computing make it more accurate and accessible. All of it adds a whole new dimension to an age-old business process.

There are specific technologies focused on certain aspects of HR operations. There are also robust programs that try to do it all under one roof, depending on your particular need and business operations. One or several HRTech solutions can help streamline your company.

Here is a shortlist of the types of HR Tech:

•  HRMS (Human Resource Management System) or HRIS (Human Resource Information System) – Keeping employee records are among the most basic HR functions.  A database platform geared explicitly toward employee profiles, performance, and history over time is an invaluable tool for the HRD.
•  Performance Solutions – It follows that before such records and history are filed, a separate system (or function) is needed to gather it. Performance solutions allow direct supervisors to set metrics and gain insights into their direct subordinates’ impact and performance.
• Payroll Software – Employee compensation is not simple, especially in large companies. Factor in taxes, bonuses, commissions, reimbursables, allowances, and social security deductions, it becomes a tedious exercise. Payroll Software automates this function and makes it easy for employees, managers, and HR to manage and implement transparency.
• Benefits Management Platform – Monetary compensation is not the only way companies reward their employees for their time and productivity. A Benefits Management Platform helps the HRD manage those non-monetary compensations.
• Employee Engagement Tools –  This HRTech is focused on employee success and engagement, and is constantly measuring employee performance and motivation, while giving the employer tools how to improve them. 

HRTech and employee resilience

No other department needs to juggle the corporate obligation and flexibility more than Human Resources. Computers act in a predictable manner, accounting numbers adhere to strict rules, and sales and marketing always follow the same trends.

But individuals have a unique way of reacting even under similar conditions —the more stressful the situation, the broader the spectrum. A pandemic definitely falls under stressful situations.

Employee engagement and assistance, coupled with specific resiliency programs, foster a mentally healthy workforce that benefits the company in the form of lower health care costs, higher productivity, lower absenteeism, and decreased turnover.

HRTech helps with the changing paradigm of fostering employees to be more independent than traditional checks and balances oversight. A remote workplace forces any organization to adopt the employee autonomy culture if they want to survive in the COVID-19 plagued world.