Human Capital, India's leading HR magazine, organised an informative webinar themed "Beyond COVID-19: The New Normal for Businesses" on Saturday, 12th September at 10.30 a.m.

The virtual discussion witnessed perspectives by prominent HR thoughts leaders including Dr. Moorthy K. Uppaluri, Versatile CEO, Global Business leader; Rohit Thakur, CHRO, Paytm; Dakshdeep Singh, HR Tech Evangelist & Associate Vice President, PeopleStrong and Dr. Ankita Singh, Senior Vice President & Global Head of HR, IT, Travel & Admin, CIGNEX Datamatics.

Neha Jain, Managing Partner, Human Capital hosted the session and Aparajita Amar, Advocate and Founder of SHLC-Sexual Harassment Law Compliance Advisory moderated the discussion.

The webinar began with Dr Moorthy’s insights on pandemic-induced transformations in business houses – remote work and virtual workplaces. He said that it is very important for leaders to actively participate and lead the transformation instead of noticing when they have already occurred.

He also shared several realisations such as leveraging technology in the work-from-home scenario, roles of migrant workers and how COVID-19 has impacted everyone irrespective of age, religion, gender, caste, and creed. He spoke about how plans like Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery could not swing into action seamlessly and how business houses had to question the pragmatic nature of these plans.

Meanwhile, talking about the challenges for startups in the contemporary scenario, Rohit Thakur spoke of how startups have an agile mindset to manage such unforeseen circumstances and they have reacted and acted very well. He also shared insights on psychological safety and job security. He shared how he participates in weekend meetings and collaborates with experts and therapists and counsellors help to employees handle stress. He stressed that if there is authenticity and trust, being more open can help create a safe environment. 

Dr. Singh shed a light on COVID-19’s impact on IT industry. She spoke on the culture of the organisation, taking care of the people and being empathetic. She spoke about the changing workplaces and boundary-less organisations and using resources we have to help employees tide over the times.

Dakshdeep Singh spoke of wellness incentives, mental health and taking corrective measures. He said that managers need to ensure job and financial security and keep in touch with team members by connecting virtually for a continuous and open conversation. He believes that the three top tech that will change HR forever will be the use of artificial intelligence in every aspect, agile and flexible performance management and work management application.

Dr Moorthy reiterated the importance of ethical behaviour of the company in such difficult times and putting people at the centre, being compassionate, experimentative. He said that we must remember that innovation can come from all walks of life and that better collaboration can be achieved by offering an equal opportunity environment. He said that the established business will have to think about Reimagining, Reinventing business and stressed on the ‘Five -ences’ - Prudence, Diligence, Conscience, Performance, Intelligence.

Neha Jain concluded the event by sharing key takeaways and stated that we must adopt agile methodology, upgrade IT infrastructure and work on people-centric approach in the current scenario and beyond. She highlighted how everything is interconnected and communicating openly with employees is a must in this new work culture.

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