The COVID-19 pandemic has had an extremely significant impact on businesses around the world. The past year’s challenges have severely altered the business landscape and presented multinational corporations with a unique challenge. Even post-pandemic, the IHRM challenges are a burden to manage, and the role of headquarters human resource managers has been particularly vital. They are charged with designing and implementing IHRM strategies that are aware of the ever-evolving external environment changes while remaining true to the company’s overall business strategy. The pandemic has accelerated the expansion of remote work and digitalization, two trends that have drastically changed traditional IHRM practices.
The post-pandemic environment has resulted in significant changes in the external environment that directly affect IHRM. Multinational corporations have been compelled to alter their business strategies by economic forces such as global recession, supply chain disruptions, and changing consumer behavior (Caligiuri et al., 2020). Political factors such as tourism bans, dynamic immigration policies, and government stimulus packages have also altered how MNCs function (Rizvi, 2021). The social factors, like the transition to remote work, mental health concerns, and work-life balance expectations, have led to an HR policy review and practice re-evaluation (Kniffin et al., 2021). Thus, technological developments like sped-up digitalization and new collaborative tools have helped MNCs to ensure business continuity and support remote work setups (Sheppard, 2020). Legal factors in terms of new rules on health and safety, as well as privacy of employees and data protection laws, make MNCs alter their HR practices (Kedzior, 2021). On the other hand, environmental effects that inclined the importance of determinates concerning sustainability and “building back better” schemes have moved corporations and MNCs to notice their corporate social responsibility and environmental effects (Bapuji et al., 2020).
The external factors substantially affect the MNE’s strategic approach to IHRM. HR managers at the headquarters must maintain the balance in standardization and localization of HR policies in subsidiaries, considering the local market conditions and cultural factors (Dowling et al., 2017). Communication and operationalization of HQ decisions across regions are vital in ensuring alignment and uniformity in HR practices. Besides, developing agility and resilience in the global HR strategy and operations is critical to navigating the uncertainties and disruptions the pandemic has brought (Carnevale & Hatak, 2020).
Staffing issues and concerns in the overseas subsidiaries are significant challenges for HR managers in the new post-pandemic period. The pandemic has resulted in travel and visa constraints, making repatriation or relocation of expatriate employees challenging for MNCs (Caligiuri et al., 2020). HR managers also face the difficulties of remote hiring and onboarding new employees across borders and retraining internal employees to meet the changing business requirements (Sheppard, 2020). In some instances, MNCs may require global restructurings, furloughs, or layoffs, and these should be conducted fairly and tactfully to keep the employees’ morale and engagement (Kniffin et al., 2021).
To solve these challenges, HR managers must use people-oriented tactics focusing on employee welfare and care. Overseas staff training, mental health, and well-being support are critical elements of retaining a healthy and productive workforce (Kniffin et al., 2021). The involvement of and sustaining corporate culture with remote, distributed teams is also necessary to create a feeling of belonging and loyalty among employees (Sheppard, 2020).
A typical multinational corporation that has coped well with the challenges of the post-pandemic era is Unilever, which is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company. Unilever, operating in more than 190 countries and having a diverse staff of over 150,000 employees, had a big problem managing its global workforce during the pandemic (Unilever, 2021). However, the company’s HR policies and practices were quickly modified to help its employees and ensure business continuity.
Unilever took various actions to assist the employees amid the pandemic, such as providing access to mental health resources, introducing flexible work schedules, and keeping the health and safety of its frontline workers (Unilever, 2021). It employs technology to maintain communication and collaboration among its global employees, using virtual meeting platforms and collaboration tools that facilitate remote work (Unilever, 2021).
Staffing-wise, Unilever opted for a localized approach, enabling its local human resource teams to decide according to the unique demand and market challenges (Unilever, 2021). The company also allocated resources to reskill and redeploy the staff within the organization, investing in training and development programs that would enable employees to move to new roles and duties (Unilever, 2021).
Agility and resilience in IHRM were among the crucial lessons that Unilever learned during the pandemic. The company understood that HR policies and practices should be flexible and responsive to the changes and employee welfare (Unilever, 2021). Unilever also focused on communication and clarity, ensuring employees were updated and involved in the ongoing discussions during the pandemic. (Unilever, 2021).
To sum up, the COVID-19 post-pandemic ara encompasses complex challenges for HR managers in MNCs, thus requiring a dynamic and flexible approach to IHRM. The changes in the external environment have called for reviewing the HR policies and practices, paying attention to the employees’ wellness, resilience, and adaptability. Staffing issues and concerns among the employees in the overseas subsidiaries can be managed through a local process at the management level and should be understood as people-related issues. Localizing the operations in those countries is part of the processes, and massive communication, transparency, support, and respect are needed. The case of Unilever shows that MNCs that highly regard employee well-being and demonstrate flexibility and strength in IHRM will cope well with the new challenges of the post-pandemic era and will be even stronger. MNCs can survive global disruptions and uncertainties by creating a more resilient organization and supporting their employees globally to not only survive but thrive.
References:
Bapuji, H., Patel, C., Ertug, G., & Allen, D. G. (2020). Corona crisis and inequality: Why management research needs a societal turn. Journal of Management, 46(7), 1205-1222.
Caligiuri, P., De Cieri, H., Minbaeva, D., Verbeke, A., & Zimmermann, A. (2020). International HRM insights for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for future research and practice. Journal of International Business Studies, 51(5), 697-713.
Carnevale, J. B., & Hatak, I. (2020). Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of COVID-19: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Business Research, 116, 183-187.
Dowling, P. J., Festing, M., & Engle, A. D. (2017). International human resource management (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Kędzior, M. (2021, January). The right to data protection and the COVID-19 pandemic: the European approach. In ERA forum (Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 533-543). Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Kniffin, K. M., Narayanan, J., Ansell, F., Antonakis, J., Ashford, S. P., Bakker, A. B., … & Vugt, M. (2021). COVID-19 and the workplace: Implications, issues, and insights for future research and action. American Psychologist, 76(1), 63-77.
Rizvi, M. (2021). Challenges for MNCs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategic Direction, 37(6), 13-16.
Sheppard, B. (2020). A 4-step to thriving in the post-COVID-19 workplace. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/workers-thrive-covid-19-skills/
Unilever. (2021). Unilever annual report and accounts 2020. https://www.unilever.com/Images/annual-report-and-accounts-2020_tcm244-559824_en.pdf
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