A year into COVID-19 pandemic—what HR is facing

The year 2020 was a year of unpredictable challenges for our nation, as our personal lives turned upside down trying to adjust to living with a pandemic, social unrest, and working from home. This chaos left HR leaders facing unprecedented challenges of not only managing a remote workforce but also being looked upon for all the answers on how to resolve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) challenges in the workplace.

We are now in 2021, and we are still in the midst of a pandemic, with vaccine mandate concerns and pressure on employers from both employees and the new Biden administration for action and transparency on their DE&I initiatives. As a result, the challenges HR leaders face have grown from molehills to mountains, especially on the following issues.

Recruiting and hiring

According to a recent survey by Xpert HR, HR leaders are focusing their recruitment and hiring strategies on a remote workforce but have increasing concerns over COVID-19. Although this area of focus is not new, employers that lost employees because of the pandemic are now having to fill those positions as well as develope strategies to attract and encourage new candidates.

As part of their recruitment and hiring, HR managers establish and communicate safe workplaces and practices in efforts to attract candidates as well as policies regarding use of leave and flex schedules to accommodate various care needs that have developed and still exist during the pandemic. These clearly established policies attract candidates and assist recruiting efforts by showing the employers' concern for their employees.