Becoming CPO reveals an increasing responsibility to address challenges we believe will be on the HR agenda:

1. The rise of purpose 

Purpose is increasing its importance. In our second article – purpose as an imperative-, we mentioned that “An integrative way to move forward would be to create an approach focusing on how individual and organizational purposes can align, fostering greater meaning. Seeing such a bigger purpose would allow individuals to find meaning in their work and organizations to establish the conditions that allow such workplaces to flourish. 

The HR role needs to be part of this movement, and for this, needs to go beyond its transactional role and act as a leader of this transformation, guaranteeing a seat at the table. 

2. Mens sana in corpore sano: Mental health perceived as essential and as important as physical health

As a side effect of the pandemic, we are living with more anxiety and being challenged to deal with ambiguity beyond what we used to consider “normal”. A research from LinkedIn and the Mental Health Foundation showed that, in the current context, 56% of people are feeling more anxious or stressed, 24% are struggling with their mental health and nearly a third (31%) are having difficulty sleeping. 

In the beginning of the lockdown, companies demonstrated a concern to approach health in a holistic manner, providing resources and tools to help people better cope with the uncertainty we were living. From preparing and distributing guides on how to “Effectively working through COVID-19” - check page 13 of the AstraZeneca's manual below -, to online physical training, mindfulness sessions and psychological support, organizations ensured emotional and mental health support to their workforce, realizing that, to keep business going people needed to feel safe at all levels. As we return to the office and our regular lives, we see this trend is here to stay.

As a top priority, and besides the need to guarantee a safe return, HR needs to create conditions and equip people to deal with all the collateral damages of the pandemic. This goes from the identification of flaws in the system, like which benefits are we providing, to creating environments where people can openly address and share problems openly, despite its nature. Creating working environments where people are aware of what’s happening with others, are empathetic and have the tools to act is more crucial than ever. 

3. Communicate more, better or closer

Keeping employees engaged has been a concern for companies in the last decades, with huge investments in initiatives to maintain people informed and, in the end, happy. In the current context, where uncertainty is here to stay at all levels, engaging employees is critical as the working framework is shifting at a fast pace. 

As HR broadens its spectrum, the importance of aligning messages and communicating clearly rises. This means that internal communication must go beyond the business as usual and the fun part and give answers to peoples’ real concerns.  Microsoft has made this shift during the COVID-19 crisis: “We wanted to be able to bring everyone together virtually in a way that would allow our leaders to share their thoughts with employees, but also to address many of the hard questions that we knew employees were asking (…)We wanted to share a moment where we could talk about how we were mobilizing our response to COVID-19 across our employees, customers, and our communities (…) We use these meetings to have a reoccurring dialogue with our employees that centers around the company’s mission, its aspire-to culture, and its strategy.” This is a statement made on April 22nd, days after a town hall that gathered all 151.000 Microsoft employees around the world.[3]

This means that organizations need to create new, better and closer ways to connect with people, keeping channels open to engage and align employees on purpose and business transformation.

4. Organizational agility is critical

The capability to rapidly shift priorities, to be fast, experience new ways of working and achieve transformation goals is a key lever for business success, particularly in a crisis. The context corporations are experiencing has made this statement very clear and accelerated the need to incorporate Agility as a core competency.

It is interesting that in a survey by the Agile Business Consortium, COVID-19 appeared as the top driver for the Agile transformation in organizations. It was not the CEO or the COO. It was the challenging context that was being led, in most cases, by HR.

It is also interesting that the major concern for the future regarding Agility was if these learnings would be sustained after the world “returns to some level of normality”. And leaders are expecting the HR role to continue the legacy of Agility they were able to achieve during the pandemic.[4] 

5. Redefining “critical”: from roles to skills 

On January 22nd, 2020, in Davos, the World Economic Forum launched Reskilling Revolution[5] , “a multistakeholder initiative aiming to provide better education, new skills and better work to a billion people around the world by 2030.” Even before the pandemic, there was a consciousness that “almost half of the core skills required across all roles will change and a positive outcome will require skills that are neither currently common in the workforce, nor likely to be available in the near future through current educational systems and workplace practices.”

When the world stopped, our concepts of core and important changed. As a significant part of the workforce started to work remotely, “essential” became the word. Workers across all sectors, from health to supply chain, kept the world moving. But, after more than six months, “essential” became the “new normal” and organizations need, more than ever, to focus on the “skills” rather than the “roles”.