Passing the Baton
The past 18 months have put unprecedented stress on compliance and human resource programs almost universally. Although nearly every aspect of every business was impacted, some more severely than others, HR and compliance were uniquely impacted in many ways when HR had to “fill in the gap” that opened thanks to COVID.
For many businesses, that meant managing shutdowns, layoffs, restaffing, and rehiring at a scale that none of them were built for or had anticipated. Historically, downsizing an organization was thought out; employees were stacked and ranked, locations were justified, and there was a thought process behind it, giving HR time to plan and execute employee notifications.
Managing Rapid Policy Change
COVID showed us that those playbooks are great for some things, but not major events. Think about a restaurant chain with 1,000 locations. They have plans for how to open new locations and adjust their supply chains – how to hire, staff, and train for them as well as how to shutter underperforming locations and deal with severance, reassigning employees to other nearby locations, etc. However, those same plans and processes just don’t work when the order comes to shutter all 1,000 by tomorrow.
Similarly, when jurisdictions issue mask mandates, allow carryout but not indoor dining, and create employee vaccine mandates, compliance must consider massive, rapid policy changes essentially overnight. Then they have to adjust them next week when the world spins around the sun a few more times and everything changes again.
Add the complexity of a smaller business where HR and compliance are one small group being hit from all sides at once. So much of the last 18 months has required immediate action with no playbook to guide you. Decisions had to be made quickly while considering real data and actual facts, misinformation and conspiracy theories, economic realities of impacted supply chains, and employee willingness or lack of willingness to comply or even come back to work at all.
Yet largely, HR and compliance professionals stood firm in the breach left by COVID. They often made decisions that were way beyond their traditional boundaries of authority but had to be made right then and there.
Returning Policy to Normal
That gets to the point of this post – things are not normal again yet (whatever that means), but they are returning to normal. As they do, many of the decisions that had to be made on the fly in times of crisis brought on by the global pandemic and associated whiplash need to move back to their traditional homes.
So while you are sorting things out and blowing the dust off things you haven’t touched since March of 2020, if you run across that baton you were passed when the $#!& hit the fan, remember to pass it back.
The ETHIX360 blog brings you weekly updates on all things human resources and compliance.
MEET THE AUTHOR
J Rollins is the co-founder and CEO of ETHIX360. J is a well known leader and innovator who has served on senior leadership teams ranging in responsibility from Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, SVP of Product Strategy and Chief Operating Officer.
ABOUT ETHIX360
At ETHIX360, our goal is simple: to provide an affordable, flexible, and comprehensive answer to employee communication, policy management, corporate training and case management on issues related to corporate ethics, code of conduct, fraud, bribery, and workplace violence.
