How managing people has changed since COVID-19

As the charity sector begins to recover from the pandemic, organisations have been able to come up for air and take stock of where they stand after a tumultuous year.

Charities have had to be extremely adaptable over this period, finding new, innovative ways to address increasing demand from the donors and service users.

Human resources (HR) departments have played a particularly vital role in supporting employees and volunteers alike from afar, as work moved home and business as usual was suspended.

The silver lining for HR professionals has been more appreciation of the function by their C-suite executives. More than four in five HR leaders said they felt executives were unclear as to the value of their role prior to the pandemic, according to a report by HR software firm Sage People.

But playing such an important role has also come with an expanded workload. While 59% of HR professionals say they have become more influential within their organisation since the pandemic, a similar proportion said they had experienced an increase in their strategic and administrative workload too.

For HR teams working in charities, where employees already work across multiple functions, there is extra pressure. There is increased scrutiny on budgets, with donors wanting to see that the charity is spending their money on their cause, and with hybrid working becoming more common in the post-COVID-19 workplace, HR is having to work even harder to keep employees and volunteers engaged.

Fortunately, many departments are already looking for solutions. This can be a more daunting prospect for charities, with little time to dedicate to learning new systems and little budget with which to implement them. But it can make a huge difference to future success, especially after the transformation of working practices following the pandemic.

Currently, less than half of HR leaders say they feel fully equipped with the tools needed for the future, and one third say the lack of HR tech is holding their organisation back from entering the new world of work.

As charities begin to plan for the post-COVID-19 future, they must do so along new parameters. Where organisations may once have been hesitant to invest in HR technology, the world has now changed – many of us will likely not work in the office full-time again.

Technology will allow charities to build resilience for this brave new world. It’s still HR, but not as we know it.