Role of HR Tech technology in the second wave of COVID-19 Pandemic
Like the rest of civilization, we hoped that by the time the vacation season was knocking at our door things would be to some extent where we didn’t need to worry about a second wave. But we all know the inevitable reality that it’s coming, and in some parts of the country, it’s already here. With the upcoming arrival of the second wave, challenges still pile up for employers and employees alike.
Whether they’re within the office or working from home, employees now expect a high-speed, personalized, and interconnected workplace. This has put additional pressure on HR teams, who are liable for keeping people well, located, and productive – even within the new world of remote work.
The second wave of COVID-19 has made the collaboration between HR and technology even more significant, helping us tackle a variety of issues related to remote and hybrid working, mental health emergencies, and changing employee expectations and requirements.
How the Right HR Tech can help you overcome the challenges posed by the second wave of COVID-19
The right HR tech can keep your staff well, engaged and productive, which may be a difficult undertaking in the current situation.
They Can Help Reduce Zoom Fatigue in Employees
HR Tech has risen to the challenge of enabling entire workforces to work from home, sometimes even overnight, thanks to tools like Slack, Trello, Teams, and Zoom. But screen-based meetings may be extremely hard on the brain, increasing fatigue and decreasing your productivity – a phenomenon most commonly known as ‘Zoom fatigue’.
With remote and hybrid working here to stay, it’s important to make sure you help your people stay engaged in the long-term by exploring a broader range of communication tools. This suggests moving far from your reliance on video calls. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here – different people have different ways.
However, you may want to consider some tools like Senti-meter, Organization social networking (OSN), Employee recognition platform as an example, which help increase collaboration, virtual interaction, assess employee sentiments and enable brainstorming sessions.
They Can Help with Employee Mental Health and Wellbeing
Throughout this pandemic, employee wellbeing has developed an entirely new meaning – from both a physical and mental health perspective. The health implications of the second wave on remote as well as in-office employees are multifaceted.
Employees are experiencing unprecedented levels of sustained stress with 75% of the workforce experiencing burnout, and 40% claiming this was an immediate impact of COVID-19.
HCM solutions can help reduce the strain. With 83% employees in favour of the fact that employers provide mental health supporting tech – there are many options one can go for!
AI therapists are one possibility – 34% of employees believe access to an AI-therapist provides a judgment-free space, 30% believe this is often able to act as an unbiased platform to share problems and 29% think it would provide quick & easy solutions to health-related issues.
Chatbots are an alternative choice, which could effectively guide employees to mental health resources and advice. When it involves physical health, there are plenty of HR tech options out there. Virtual GPs are a rapidly growing trend, which could help UK businesses save a huge amount of up to £1.5 billion.
Such tools provide employees with access to medical advice and resources to not just monitor, but also help them proactively manage their health.
In addition to implementing social distancing measures, installing sensor-based technologies throughout the workplace can help minimize physical contact and reduce the chance of spreading the virus.
They Can Revolutionize Remote Learning for Employees
The 70-20-10 model of learning at work is widely known, whereby 70% of workers learn from experience gained on the work, 20% learn from work, and 10% learn from formal courses and learning interventions.
The Future of Jobs 2020 report from the World Economic Forum also states that 94 percent of business leaders now expect employees to learn on the job, rather than through formal training. In other words, it’s not enough to provide some online courses – you need to encourage social learning, which primarily focuses on employee engagement & productivity.
However, social distancing and remote working have effectively cut out a serious chunk of social learning. To address this challenge, there are many quick-win HR tech options.
You can set up online discussion boards, team areas, wikis, image sharing systems, and other collaboration tools on your intranet, for instance. Tools like Organization social networking are providing virtual co-working spaces to facilitate effective collaboration and brainstorming sessions.
VR is another growing tool to deliver corporate training and development programs, helping people feel like they’re in a classroom environment and, therefore, can learn from their interactions with their classmates.
Companies have experienced a year unlike any other. The second wave of COVID-19 has massively increased digital adoption rates which have led the HR tech market to grow explosively.
As we move forward, HR tech will play a key role in maintaining the world of work now, and within the years ahead. So, HR professionals should adopt newer tools like Senti-meter, Organization social networking(OSN) and Employee recognition platform to further enable online employee management, hiring and onboarding, staff engagement and feedback, and lots of other key HR functions.