According to the survey, five in 10 companies have deferred or suspended their promotion schedule; at the same time a downward trend on promotions numbers across all job levels was observed wherein 33% of organisations admitted to having reduced it. However, most organisations in IT/ITES, life sciences/pharma and retail sector have refrained from any downwards trend in overall promotion cycle.
Amidst the pandemic, organisations worldwide have taken steps to reevaluate their practices and do what’s best to sustain amid tough times. For instance, a few organisations are implementing hiring freezes and wage freezes, while others are introducing remote working alternatives, revisiting employee engagement initiatives and additional financial assistance. The survey analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on key human resource (HR) processes, policies and interventions across industries, as well as highlights the impact of the pandemic on a wide range of HR practices and processes like employee well-being, recruitment, compensation and benefits, performance management and learning and development, etc.
While 68% of the responding organisations admitted that they are mature to support remote working, only 48% are supporting their employees by providing laptops with secured connection to ensure smooth remote working. Seven in 10 organisations have re-defined their communication strategy to increase engagement of employees, virtual team meetings (70%) and briefing for employees by leadership (62%) being the top two leading engagement practices.
The survey finds that more than 40% organisations in advisory, automobile, education, energy, oil and gas sector have opted to defer the increment cycle.
“The Covid-19 crisis has disrupted the business world with a radical impact cutting across industries. Organisations are navigating an unprecedented and challenging time and are collectively at a level playing ground as none had an upper hand of being better prepared or equipped to deal with the crisis. HR professionals are being called upon to help evaluate and strategise a strong and holistic response that encompasses the evolved priorities for the organisation, its mission, values and community impact. With most organisations now moving to a new normal of working which is more liquid and flexible in nature, there is a need for strategies and new operating models for business continuity and workforce management,” said Vishalli Dongrie, partner and head, people & change, KPMG in India.
Organisations need strategies for reimagining work and workforce landscape, new operating and governance models, evolving cultures and talent priorities, new roles and capabilities, new ways of measuring performance, and enabling areas such as transformative policy frameworks, strong technology infrastructure, employee well-being and an effective leadership, said Dongrie.
315 organisations were polled across 20 key industry sectors.
