Covid-19's Global Impacts on Human Resource Management - Essay Sample

Introduction

Since the declaration of Covid-19 as a global pandemic, the disease has had significant impacts on the global economy. According to Hamouche (2020), although most countries across the globe have demonstrated strong leadership by developing and implementing measures that prevent the infection from spreading further in various areas such as the schools, and restaurants, Covid-19, continues to pose significant threats or impacts to human resource management. According to the article, the pandemic has mainly affected the worker's mental health by introducing numerous stressors that crippled and halted operations in most organizations across the country. According to Carnevale & Hatak (2020), the pandemic has created a challenging environment for human resource management. This has motivated most organizations to navigate unprecedented situations and find solutions to the various problems that arise across the different areas of operation. According to Paula & Helen (2020), the pandemic has forced most employees across the country to change their working environment, thus creating numerous problems to the worker's well-being. This has motivated organizations to explore and encourage the implementation of various practices that improvise worker's wellbeing.

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Summary and synthesis on Covid-19 Impacts on Human Resource Management

Difficulty Adjusting the Current and New Employees

The human resource management finds it hard to adjust the current and the new workers to the drastically changed working environment. For instance, shifting the workers to remote working environments and implementing new work procedures and policies. These drastic changes and alterations by human resource management are perceived to have significant impacts on the worker's experience of the personal environment fit. The workers who join an organization whereby the personal environment fit is maximized usually excel and experience an increased level of job satisfaction. However, when the environment that supports the achievement of these desires and needs is changed drastically, like in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic, the workers usually do not perform well in their daily obligations and also tend to experience reduced work satisfaction. To overcome this challenge, the organizations will have to change to the virtual selection, recruitment, and training methods to avoid the drastic impacts on the workers (Paula & Helen, 2020).

Disproportionate Family Work Effects

The Covid-19 pandemic has left most of the workers disproportionally impacted by the current changes in the working environment. In the recent past, the changes that have been introduced in response to the pandemic have started to create work-family conflicts. The work-family conflict is perceived to be an inter-role conflict through which the role pressure from family and work domains fail to be compatible. Currently, most organizations have created a family-friendly environment that offers several services, such as on-site childcare services (Carnevale & Hatak 2020). These services usually play a key role in reducing cases of family to work conflict; however, the Covid-19 pandemic denied most workers access to these services, thus triggering the conflict. The Covid-19 pandemic has also made it hard to control work-related conflicts since the employees are forced to work from home where the organization is not able to offer these services.

Disproportionate Impacts on the Workers Alternative Family Structure

The current Covid-19 pandemic has shown increased vulnerabilities in the contemporary family structure involving single and childless workers. In the recent past, the rate of delayed firstborn births and childless workers has been increasing in the United States, causing a societal change that is likely to have significant workplace implications. The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to put the childless individuals and the people with delayed firstborn births at higher risk of loneliness and social exclusion due to the lack of binding ties and lacking the needed motivation. This reduces their performance levels, and in some cases, they tend to give up their current employment positions. In order to minimize the impacts of Covid-19, human resource management should encourage the workers to take part in virtue social time.

Increased Impact on the Employee’s Mental Health

The Covid-19 pandemic had been linked to numerous stressors that drain the worker's mental health during the pandemic. Some of the main stressors that the workers are likely to develop during the Covid-19 pandemic include confinement and quarantine, gob security and financial loss, and the perception of threat, safety, and the contagion risk. In most cases, these stressors are associated with a high or increased prevalence of signs and symptoms of psychological disorders and distress. These impacts affect the worker's ability’s to perform his or her duties effectively, thus affecting the organization's performance levels. Some of the stressors of Covid-19, such as job security and financial loss, are perceived to have long-lasting effects that may cause business disruption and the collapse of some of the organizations that may take time to recover (Hamouche, 2020). The stressors may also cause a spillover impact on the current and future employment market with a possible long-lasting effect on the worker's finances.

Personal Reflection

The Covid-19 pandemic has also had a strong impact on my work situation since it has changed or altered my daily working routine and the manner in which I am expected to handle my operation. My work situation relates to the article because it clearly illustrates some of the challenges and impacts that human resource management is experiencing. The articles also provide clear information on the measures that are being put in place to curb the issue. The article applies to my situation since it clarifies and provides an insight on some of the factors causing various issues such as mental health and the family-work effects and also provides a clear strategy on how I should avoid these issues or factors. This information has played a key role in enabling me to overcome some of the impacts of Covid-19 that I am experiencing.

Conclusion

Covid-19 pandemic has caused numerous impacts on the global economy, with most countries trying to put various measures to curb its spread. Since the onset of the pandemic, it has caused several impacts on human resource management, which are observed through the reduced the workers and organization performance level. Some of the impacts of the pandemic on human resource management include, first, difficulty adjusting the current and new employees. Secondly, an increased impact on the employee’s mental health. Thirdly, disproportionate family work effects. Fourth disproportionate impacts on the worker's alternative family structure.

References

Carnevale, J. B., & Hatak, I. (2020). Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of COVID-19: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Business Research. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320303301

Hamouche, S. (2020). COVID-19 and employees' mental health: stressors, moderators, and agenda for organizational actions. Emerald Open Research, 2(15), 15. https://emeraldopenresearch.s3.amazonaws.com/manuscripts/14621/34ba583f-5c2c-42c9-8aea-55a8d46f4183_13550_-_salima_hamouche.pdf?doi=10.35241/emeraldopenres.13550.1&numberOfBrowsableCollections=4&numberOfBrowsableInstitutionalCollections=0&numberOfBrowsableGateways=6

Paula Caligiuri Distinguished Professor of International Business and Strategy, & Helen De Cieri Professor of Management. (2020, May 07). 4 ways companies can support their workers during the coronavirus crisis. https://theconversation.com/4-ways-companies-can-support-their-workers-during-the-coronavirus-crisis-134732