Recently, Michele Corvino with Assurance Software sat down (virtually) with our very own Jeff Gelinas, vice president of people, product and marketing, to talk about how the coronavirus shines a spotlight on policies, especially related to the role of HR in business continuity planning and execution.
During the interview with Jeff, topics including effective HR policies for remote teams, the role of HR in planning and building better relationships between HR and BC professionals were discussed. Jeff also provided a glimpse into what the future will hold for organizations who develop resiliency. Below are highlights from the interview.
The first question focused on how the pandemic could impact HR policies when there is a shift to telecommuting. Jeff indicated that because of COVID-19, organizations are seeing a significant portion of the ‘front office’ workforce working from home. As a result, companies are scrambling to reduce their policy gaps - not only around working from home, but more importantly, security and data privacy requirements.
Some of the other questions that organizations have had to tackle over the last couple months surround furloughs – policies on them, how benefits work during them and PTO. There are also big questions around ensuring that employees have what they need to work at home and are in a good mental state. Jeff shared the key to this is agility and the ability to talk through issues as they come up and be able to respond quickly.
A key takeaway from the discussion is the importance of bringing HR into the planning discussions early. While an operations leader can ‘own’ the plan, it’s critical to include people-focused team members who will ensure that messaging and wording will have a positive approach during a critical time.
Jeff provides insights into building stronger and more effective plans that include HR teams, as they are well-suited to point out risks and vulnerabilities that other departments may miss, especially around its people. Additionally, this group has access to data that can help make a business continuity program stronger.
COVID-19 creates a unique opportunity for organizations to build operational resiliency for now and the future. By evaluating the effectiveness of HR and security policies for remote teams and building better relationships between these groups, organizations will strengthen their resiliency and set themselves up for success when the workforce returns to its pre-pandemic state.
To read the Assurance interview/article in its entirety: https://www.assurancesoftware.com/product-blog/role-of-hr-in-business-continuity-planning
