Role of HR in Crisis Management

Role of HR in Crisis Management

A crisis is an uncertain or unpredictable situation characterized by insecurity and tension (Nteka, 2021). Organizations face crises due to the changes in the business environment or events that impact their reputation hence the need to create crisis management strategies to sustain business operations during a crisis. For example, an organization may experience a crisis because of changes in economic conditions or a shortage of the supplies needed to produce goods. Crisis management includes various principles and procedures that can help a business stabilize after a crisis get out of the crisis, and predict a possible crisis before it occurs to create solutions to avoid it (Vašíčková, 2020). The human resource department plays a vital role in crisis management. According to Athamneh (2018), the role of HR in crisis management is to protect employees’ welfare while ensuring that they enhance the organization’s sustainability. Therefore, HR must ensure that employees are well-prepared to deal with the crisis and can recover from it. Another role of HR is to guarantee that employees are involved in crisis management and business continuity plans. HR can organize crisis management training for employees to equip them with the appropriate skills and competencies needed to help an organization recover from a crisis so that they can participate in decision-making. HR can also ensure that employees are adequately prepared to deal with a crisis by offering effective leadership and empowering employees. Another role of HR in crisis management is to inform employees about the impact of the crisis on their work and the organization so that they are intellectually, emotionally, and physically prepared to handle the crisis and deal with its consequences. HR professionals should also facilitate the collection of feedback from employees regarding the crisis management approaches being taken to determine their effectiveness.

Skills Needed for this New Responsibility Connected to HR

One of the skills needed by HR for crisis management is communication skills. According to Frandsen & Johansen (2020), communication is essential in crisis management because it helps develop trust between the organization and stakeholders and prevents misinformation that could lead to panic and a lack of collaboration. The second skill is emotional intelligence. A crisis evokes various emotions among employees and key stakeholders, hence the need for emotional intelligence to understand and manage emotions effectively for successful crisis management. The third skill is conflict resolution skills. Conflicts are inevitable during a crisis, especially due to blame games and differences in opinions. Therefore, HR professionals need good conflict management skills to handle the conflicts that could impact employees’ participation in crisis management. The fourth skill is decision-making skills. HR professionals must make various decisions relating to employees during crisis management hence the need for good decision-making skills. For example, HR professionals may be asked to decide about laying off or suspending some employees in response to a crisis. Such a decision requires decision-making skills to determine the employees who should be suspended or laid off without impacting the organization’s sustainability. Another vital skill HR professionals need to effectively manage a crisis is active listening. Effective crisis management requires gathering the opinions of various stakeholders, including employees. Therefore, HR professionals need active listening to understand employees’ views concerning what should be done to manage a crisis. Active listening is also important in understanding the causes of a crisis from employees’ perspectives to design effective measures to resolve and prevent the crisis.

References

Athamneh, S. (2018). HR planning for Crisis Management. Human Resource Planning for the 21st Century. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75233

Frandsen, F., & Johansen, W. (2020).The future of organizational crises, Crisis Management and Crisis Communication. Crisis Communication, 565–570. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110554236-028

Nteka, N. (2021). Crises Analysis and Management. Entrepreneurship, 9(1), 64–77. https://doi.org/10.37708/ep.swu.v9i1.6

Vašíčková, V. (2020). Crisis management process – a literature review and a conceptual integration. Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 27(3–4), 61–77. https://doi.org/10.18267/

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Unit 8 DB: New HR CompetenciesUnit 8 DB: New HR Competencies
Describe at least two tasks/duties/responsibilities that should be included in a revised job description for an HR professional.

In response to your peers, discuss the critical need for education, training, etc., in the redesigned HR job descriptions reflecting leadership skills needed in today’s crisis environment.