The role of people-people through the pandemic.

Updated: Dec 3, 2020

Would we be showing our age if we cited that we remember the days that HR was referred to as “Personnel?”…

A LOT has changed since then. HR is no longer seen as just the annual PDR process and the department that issues contracts. The people function has earned its seat (and rightly so) as a strategic driver in every organisation, along with the understanding that people are our biggest asset and key differentiator.

Over the last few months, the People team in every business has been pushed to its limits. HR professionals are currently dealing with a rapidly evolving work environment and the direst economic circumstances we’ve seen in several generations.

As business’ have been assessed by how well they have prioritised the needs of their people and the communities within which they operate – HR has needed to navigate these complexities, alongside ever-increasing cost pressures and ever-changing policies (working from home overnight?! Impossible – at least, that’s what we used to think!!). Not to mention a need to think creatively about how to create a sense of belonging and purpose for distributed teams – as well as delicately managing the fear of entering the workplace for those deemed as “essential workers”.

Interestingly, it’s the People function who, when things get tough for the workforce, they work on the wellbeing initiatives. When redundancies are made – they work on the outplacement support. When entire workforces are Furloughed overnight – they stay up until 3 am trying to understand how to put it into practice (as well as a plan on how to keep the team engaged while not at work!)… And let’s not even mention the pain of the JSS scheme…

However, HR must take care of themselves, in order to care for others… And to make sure you can do exactly that, here are our top tips:

Here are our top tips:

• Get away from the laptop every hour. Yes, every single hour.
• Get outside every day
• Eat well – this is so important for your mind – which is no doubt being stretched!
• Learn to say no – you can’t take on everything or you’ll face burnout
• Do something just for you, every day – even if it’s just an audiobook or an hour-long soak!
• Share the tough moments – with your boss, your colleagues or a friend, it’ll help
• Be kind to yourself – some decisions you make are out of your control, you have to accept them and let them go
• Ask for help – recognise when you’re not feeling good and don’t be afraid to ask for support.
• Here at Trinity House Group – we just wanted to give a big shout out to those who work in HR – what you do doesn’t go unnoticed. We hope this article serves as a gentle reminder to take care of yourselves too… Your organisations need you!

#expertsinpeople #finance #accounting