Delivering on HR

14. May, 2020

Case Study:
HR and COVID-19

John is the head of HR of a financial institution and his company has just instituted the Work From Home (WFH) policy as instructed by the government. Aside from a small group of executives in the equities and derivatives section, everyone else is working from home. Social distancing is also in place and only 2 persons could be together indoors.

While all retail outlets, bars and restaurants are closed, schools are still open for parents to send their kids to school, though parents are advised as much as possible to keep their children at home. John has started a weekly e-mail newsletter to keep everyone informed about the happenings at a corporate levels well as the local company happenings. He also has every department head to start up a WhatsApp group so that everyone could have a channel to communicate at a department level. One of the policies for this, established by the company was that there should be no porn, no politics, no controversial topics to be discussed or shared or forwarded. It was purely a channel to communicate and discuss departmental matters.

Two weeks after the WFH started, on a Wednesday, John gets a call from one of his junior managers asking if he could come into the office to work as he and his wife are constantly fighting and he cannot get his job done. He is behind on his timelines and struggling to complete his projects. He needs John’s advice on what to do. What advice would you give John on how he should respond?

You then get another call from one of your Executives saying that he is under a great deal of stress as he can't focus and is behind on his deadlines, as he has to assist in homeschooling his 3 kids with his wife. And to complicate matters his wife has been tested positive for COVID-19. He needs John’s advice on what to do and so what advice would you give John on how he should respond?

A little later a head of department calls to inform you that one of his staff had posted something on their departmental WhatsApp group chat about loneliness and isolation and some of the staff are having difficulties dealing with it.

He needs your advice and so what advice would you give John to respond to him?

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