To replace or transform? Every leader’s human resource dilemma amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

To replace or transform?

Every leader’s human resource dilemma amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

By Miren Sanchez

07 July 2021

There is an abundance of information on the impact of COVID-19 on organizations – whether corporate or other. But, after over a year of dealing with COVID-19, the central dilemma most organizations face is: Is it time to let certain people go from our organization? Some corporations had to act swiftly on this dilemma, even during the early stages of COVID-19, as revenues simply were not coming in during the first half of 2020. However, for those who survived the first year of COVID-19, this dilemma keeps rearing its ugly head up.

If we need to manage our costs, is cutting out people your first choice?

As an HR practitioner, I would throw caution to this knee-jerk reaction. Investing and developing people costs money, not to mention the cost of executive and managerial time in ensuring inculturation of your human capital. If you have invested strategically in your people, you have to think twice (or even thrice) before cutting anyone out to ensure good bottomlines for your organization.

Last week, this was exactly the point of Vicente “Binky” Kilayko, during the exclusive webinar: “From Replaceable to Renewable: Work Transformation during COVID-19.” The intimate learning session, held on 29 June, was attended by over 40 Human Resource and C-level officers of various companies, hosted by PhilPacific Insurance Brokers & Managers, Inc. (Philinsure), under its benefits solutions platform, bnfts.ph. As a global executive, having led teams in the Philippines, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore, for marketing, organizational re-engineering and restructuring, Binky noted that change did not necessarily mean downsizing. Instead, change, especially amidst COVID-19, means transforming your human capital for increased productivity and company longevity. Retiring as the managing director of Lee Hecht Harrison Outplacement Services & HR Consulting (LHH, for short) in 2019, Binky shared his insights from servicing multi-sectoral organizations through LHH. Specifically, he underscored how companies today face multiple simultaneous change curves, and, with each change curve, the agility of personnel was essential. Agility roots itself in a sense of fulfillment, loyalty, and connection with the organization to which a person belongs. The decision and “moxy” to be agile requires personal commitment which may or may not always be present in new hires that immediately match technical skills your company may require.

3 CORE DRIVERS OF TRANSFORMATION AMIDST COVID-19

1.     Individual commitment aligned to Company ROI.

The core driver for ensuring continued growth of an organization, despite multiple simultaneous changes, is if employee or individual commitment is aligned to achieving a high return on investment for the corporation. This takes inculturation and continued execution of work that aligns a person to his or her personal goals and dreams. A buy-in into the company is necessary for this individual commitment to be realized.

But what drives commitment?

There are 5 factors that contribute to individual commitment in a team or organization[1]:

(1) alignment of personal goals with company goals;

(2) transparency and visibility of corporate vision and goals through social contracts (tangible, doable, day-to-day planning and  implementation of tasks and activities that align with corporate goals);

(3) participation in setting goals that engender co-ownership;

(4) ownership and accountability of the team to which the individual belongs; and

(5) documentation of goals and how much the team has achieved so far (so that #4 is reinforced in the process).

2.     Foster learning in your organization for employee agility and company adaptability.

Reinforcing individual commitment fuels another driver which is the ability of an organization to be agile amidst constant change. The second driver specifically points to employees able to quickly change their mindset and be open to growing their capabilities so a company can adapt and thrive amidst ambiguity and disruption. In short, each organization must be focused on being a learning organization and create spaces for this.

What kind of spaces can you create under COVID-19 to be a learning organization?

Based on Binky’s inputs, executive and middle-manager coaching play a crucial role. This is because leaders need to talk to other leaders being faced with situations that are completely new and often complex, thereby requiring multiple disciplines and perspectives to generate responsive, authentic, and strategic answers or actions.

This reminds me of an ABC News feature by Ted Koppel on IDEO, a globally renowned product design firm in Palo Alto, California, composed of a hodge-podge of personalities: marketers, an engineer, a psychologist, a biology major, linguist, and a Harvard MBA student. Peter Skillman, a project designer at IDEO, clearly emphasized the reality that “enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of a lone genius." [2] No one person can figure out the answers in the “new normal” or when trying to come up with a new idea or new way of doing things.  IDEO is the epitome of how the practice of building on individual commitment and being a learning organization, where everyone builds on each one’s ideas (having a resilient mindset), drives an organization’s ability to innovate and transform itself, its products, and its clients’ experiences. IDEO is known for its influential design of products, from high-tech medical equipment, to your squishy-handle toothbrushes, to the 25-foot mechanical whale in the movie “Free Willy,” the first computer mouse for Apple, Nike sunglasses, NEC computer screens, and many more that have improved our day-to-day experience as consumers.

The idea of tapping into ‘group think’ is also particularly essential in responding to organizational dilemmas. Organizations that dialogue and get the perspective of all units involved in the company’s profitability and growth are more likely to come up with workable and new solutions that drive success. More importantly, it may be of value to get the perspective of others functioning at the same level from other organizations but who are also dealing with ambiguous situations like yours. Whether it is one-on-one coaching, a brownbag session, or an online dialogue with external resource persons to expand the mindset of employees, organizations need to create learning spaces to flourish in a pandemic and post-pandemic context (a.k.a. the new or the next normal).

Having actual spaces for practice will empower the teams and the organization, as a whole, in the face of multiple “new normal” situations or what LHH refers to as “change curves” in the coming years. Learning for agility is king.  

3.     Generating new ways and positive growth by bridging strategy and implementation.

Only with the first two drivers can the third driver for transformation be realized: Bridging strategy and implementation to be able to generate new sources of income or positively drive total organizational performance.

• When the world “recovers from COVID-19,” as Binky puts it, the successful rebounding organizations will be those where people:
•        United around a mission;
•        Empowered individuals to use their strengths to become star players;
•        Engaged authentically with the truth – upward and downward;
•        Allowed failures; and
•        Identified and mitigated gaps in resilience.

Growing the quality and commitment of your human resource is as important to organizational sustainability as streamlining and modernizing processes for business efficiency. Eliud Kipchoge, the current world record holder for marathons has been quoted as saying: “Athletics is not so much about the legs, it’s about the heart and the mind.”[3] To paraphrase this in the context of corporations today, business success in a time of COVID is not so much about just streamlining processes to get to bottomline numbers, it’s not just about the system that makes it work, but it’s about the quality and “stickiness” of people that give life to its vision and goals.

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About the Author

Miren Sanchez is Vice President for Strategy and Development at Philinsure. She founded Future By Design Pilipinas, a learning network of professionals focused on self-mastery towards co-creating positive realities in the Philippines. She also serves as director of e-BI Solutions, an end-to-end HR outsourcing company. Her key advocacies include Filipino leadership, digitization of public education, and mental wellness as a driver of growth.