We have all had to adapt over the last 12 months. Whether it’s regarding work, education, family life or social interaction, most facets of our lives have been disrupted. This hasn’t been without its benefits though. Whatever else a crisis offers, it invariably provides the chance to grow and perhaps also an opportunity to thrive.
The arrival of Covid-19 took people out of their usual routines and work practices, and as a result, people rapidly adapted to working from home – and mostly with great success. Clearly, different industries had to evolve different strategies, but for the most part, any occupation that was mostly based on a campus or in an office environment, employees were not only able to maintain productivity but actually outperform expectations.
Dr Abdullatif Al Shamsi recognised that things shifted within HCT campuses across the emirates.
Workplace bullies found their tactics were no longer as effective as they had been, and introverts came out from behind the screens and became more vocal and visual in their behaviours, thereby enhancing performance and surprising those who had not seen this side of them previously.
Whether you refer to this as blended or hybrid work environment, the effect is the same: adaptation and enhanced performance with surprising growth. Even those face with the added challenge of parenting and home learning exceled.
When you treat people as adults, they usually respond as such.
The role of human resources
Over the years, many companies have installed biometrics to measure attendance at work and used this to manage performance and set key product indicators.
So, the question is what happens now? Will human resource departments assume that “back into the office” also means that employees are no longer trusted to deliver without monitoring?
Have the adapted behaviours lost? Has anything been learned or adopted from the previous year? If everyone is back, has there been any preparatory work related to teamwork, counselling, communication skills, listening skills or emotional intelligence awareness?
When human resources is merely functioning as enforcement of company policies and procedures, it is stifling the work of those colleagues that create their salaries. Human resources, finance and all service departments in any company should facilitate and enable the productive components of their service users. Especially in these times of stress and huge pressure in all aspects of daily living.
Human resources, now more than ever, must be strategic and supportive as they facilitate the work of their colleagues.
There also needs to be understanding and compassion, for those dealing with breavements or isolation, or for those unable to travel home to see family members.
Human resources, now more than ever, must be strategic and supportive as they facilitate the work of their colleagues. Transactional and functional HR is not HR, it is policing. Policies and procedures are a framework to be used intuitively, not written in concrete, and the versatility and innovation of the last 12 months has proved even the most inflexible companies can adapt.
As Sarah Adil Shaw said during the Women’s Majlis at the Dubai Future Foundation in November 2020, “people and places will always have significance and that every interaction counts”.
Nicola Jane Ablett, chief disruptive innovator, innovative disruption MEA
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