Mastering life after lockdown – is your team ready?

Stephanie Kelly

Chief People Officer, IRIS Software Group

At a time where we’ve learnt that the impossible is truly possible, Chief People Officer at IRIS Software Group, Stephanie Kelly, discusses how businesses are reimagining what life after lockdown has in store.

If the last few months have taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected.

Now, as we start to venture out of crisis-mode and look forward towards a new normal, businesses are starting to reimagine what life after lockdown will mean for them.

Indeed, one of the key learnings from the first half of the year is that the impossible is possible – in terms of what we could be faced with, but also what we can achieve. Inspired by success stories of people coming together, businesses diversifying, and organisations quickly finding different ways of working, we have new ideas about what we want ‘normal’ to be. 

HR technology sits firmly at the heart of this brave new world – however your business chooses to define it.

Trusted to be compliant, helping to raise productivity, and improving engagement with employees, HR technology can enable you to transform the way your business works post-COVID.

Here are just a few of the ways it can help:

Helping you prepare for anything

HR technology helps you to maximise productivity and remain compliant with the latest regulations, no matter how often things change. I’ve always been an advocate of using HR technology to automate routine tasks, such as absence tracking, contract changes, desk assessment, and return to work processes, to help you simplify the work you know you need to do. By freeing up this valuable time and resource, you can react to issues and focus on more strategic matters.

Boosting employee engagement

HR technology helps you communicate key messages and understand employee feeling by providing a host of communication tools, such as surveys, microsites, and social tools. Tools like these have been invaluable for my team during the COVID-19 crisis. We’ve been able to understand how our diverse and newly-remote workforce have been coping throughout the pandemic, provide timely updates, and encourage employees to stay connected with each other.

Making evidence-based decisions

Dashboards and reporting tools provide you with the up-to-date people data you need each day. In addition, easy to use analytical tools give you a deep insight into your workforce to support the decision-making process about the future direction of your business.