The future of work reflects large-scale shifts in how people work and how business gets done, including the recent surge in remote work. It’s driving HR to rethink workforce and employee planning, management, performance and experience strategies. 

COVID-19 has significantly changed the complexion of the workforce — and work itself. .In the reset landscape, HR must ask how to get the right skills, in the right place, at the right time.  

To build the workforce needed post-pandemic, HR needs to focus less on roles — which group unrelated skills — and more on the skills needed to drive the organization’s competitive advantage and the workflows that fuel that advantage.

The implications for HR are broad and substantial, and require HR to evolve strategy around: 

• Recruiting: Seek employees with new skills, potentially in new locations, and meet applicants’ expectations for flexible workplace options, including remote work. 
  
• Critical skills and competencies: Identify new skills that drive competitive advantage, including greater digital dexterity. 
  
• Current and future leadership: Adapt management styles to fit, for example, remote team needs. 
  
• Employee experience: Create new “employee journey maps” to provide flexible work options and rethink experience for a remote/mixed workforce. 
  
• Performance management: Determine how employee evaluation and goals need to change for remote set-ups. 
  
• Embrace data and analytics: Compare talent/skill needs within the current footprint and beyond to optimize talent location strategy. 
  

In a post-pandemic world, business disruption has accelerated. The organization’s response has to build resilience and adaptability, and not be just the traditional focus on productivity and efficiency. 

Some of the most effective ways for HR to drive organizational resilience through business disruption include: 

• Demonstrate commitment to employees as they and the organization navigate the effects of COVID-19. For example, partner with organizations to redeploy displaced employees. Decisions made now will define the employer brand for years to come.
• Work with the CEO/board/C-suite: Help CEOs and boards understand the lasting impact of workforce decisions beyond just affordability or bottom-line numbers. 
• HR function strategy and management: Shift to agile operating models and flexibly deploy assets to solve problems. 
• HR in growth markets: Let regional or business-unit HR leaders lead integration efforts for talent and other processes in their specific regions/business units of expertise.  
• Talent mobility: Support reskilling and career development and build platforms to provide visibility into internal positions/opportunities.

When managing a digital workforce, it is important to consider what expectations are reasonable, for both managers and employees, especially when working remotely. 

Focus on:

• Current and future leadership: Ensure that leaders develop emotional intelligence and other soft skills to effectively communicate without face-to-face meetings. Help employees navigate expectations as you balance empathy and performance requirements. 
• Diversity and inclusion: Fortify your culture of inclusiveness. Engage workers assigned to tasks or projects in the team culture.  
• Employee experience: Take a holistic view of employee experience, supported by cross-organization partnerships.  
• Total rewards: Make benefits highly relevant to employees. A market focus or “one-size fits all” approach may no longer work.