The Need for Personalization in Business in the Age of COVID-19

The pandemic has taught the world several valuable lessons, including caring for ourselves and ensuring that our people remain safe and healthy. In this context, most organizations had to restructure and look beyond the obvious of counting on payroll HRMS to decide better. It was time to redefine safety standards and personalize things at the workplace.

HR, known for being at the core of things, had to roll up its sleeves and keep the workforce safe, motivated, and productive.

The term personalization is often used in the context of serving clients and customers. It means how you personalize the needs and wants of a client to achieve your business goals. However, we often ignore personalizing processes and making them people-centric for our workforce.

Let’s understand why personalization is the key to achieving business success and how you can be better at it.
Building a safer work environment
As the world is still fighting the pandemic, we have learned our lesson to ensure safety, regardless of the location. Offices need to follow strict protocols.

As an HR, you should know that employees will have apprehensions returning to the workplace. You can consider it as an opportunity to make an impact and offer them a safer work environment. Maintaining appropriate physical distance and sanitizing the workplace fall under essential safety protocols. But what you think beyond it makes all the difference.

How about conducting a team session to address your employees’ concerns? Isn’t it great to welcome them with a safety kit or treat them to a sumptuous meal? You can also introduce flexible working hours. Even the littlest of efforts count. By doing this, your employees may feel valued and can do away with their apprehensions gradually. Your focus should be to create a safe, healthy, and productive environment.

In today’s competitive world, one cannot deny that employees run the show and hold it together. The more you care for them, the more you can scale heights in business. Organizations that believe in building an employee-centric culture win the game.
Understanding pain points
In the previous point, we talked about addressing employees’ concerns regarding returning to the office. Let’s elaborate further on this.

Consider a case of an employee who is also a mother. She would have apprehensions related to the safety of her child when she returns home after work. How do you handle this situation? The first thing you can do is offer her flexible hours or work from home option if possible. Since it still needs detailed thought whether to join the office or not, you can make an exception for her.

If she needs to be on the office premises, you can fix an appointment with a medical professional to clear her doubts. The idea is to understand her pain points and do something about them. Focus on the person so you can outgrow traditional practices of managing the workforce. Give your employee a valid reason to return to the workplace. Engage them.

During this phase, you can focus on using the HR and payroll management software to your advantage. While monitoring the attendance record, you can find why some employees are taking leaves more than expected. Instead of reminding them, you can sit with them and discuss what’s holding them back.

You never know; you may realize certain things that need discussion with the management. It’s the COVID phase we are dealing with, so feedback and suggestions are crucial.
Reskilling and upskilling the workforce
As an emerging business entity, you had plans to boost sales and capture market share. However, the unexpected COVID crisis forced you to step back. It may have been the right decision at that point, but the sun rises every day.

Several organizations had to downsize due to low sales; you may also have gone through this phase. But you need people to accomplish goals. That’s why reskilling and upskilling your workforce is the best decision you can make at this time.

If you don’t have the budget to hire new resources, you can train your existing workforce to contribute more. Prepare them for new roles and challenges. It could be assigning them a new product or helping them understand new technology. This way, you are bringing the personalization factor here. Maybe an employee wishes to transition to a different team.

It’s the right time to listen to their career aspirations and help them achieve their personal and professional goals.
Introducing personalized rewards
Employees need to stay motivated: they should feel driven towards achieving higher goals. How do you do so? You can introduce personalized rewards. Maybe a trophy in their name, a certificate of training, or a bag of goodies. Anything can work.

The lockdown phase was exhausting for many employees, and they may have felt the need to boost their work confidence. What better than rewarding them for their effort, one at a time? Initially, your workforce may feel dull returning to the old routine. However, you can help them develop competitive skills by rewarding them. Healthy competition doesn’t hurt any business.
Making data-driven decisions
During the lockdown period, organizations heavily depended on HR software. It was required then more than ever. You could manage attendance records, payroll calculations, etc. Now, you can count on the data reports to offer a better experience to your employees concerning engagement and satisfaction.

It’s better if you can conduct surveys to find out what’s in the minds of your employees. This way, you can develop thoughtful policies that work in favor of your workforce and the organization. Therefore, it’s the best time to make use of HR management software to make big decisions.
Building a people-friendly work culture
The COVID-19 crisis is a reminder to take care of your biggest assets. Several giants like Google, Accenture, and Facebook have often inspired others with their fair human resources policies. The idea is to put people first, and HR has a key role in accomplishing that.

If the pandemic has taught us one good lesson, it is to take care of each other. Whether it’s a home setup or a workplace, you can’t take people for granted. Besides, you have to come up with fair policies that make your work environment safe and productive.

Developing listening skills to address employees’ grievances, crediting them for their share, and acknowledging future challenges are part and parcel of the game. As a growing organization, your first step should be to ensure safety at the workplace.

When your people are able to wipe out the fear of the pandemic, they can contribute well enough to help the organization march towards success. As said earlier, personalization is the key to defining business success in the age of COVID-19.