Protecting your people, today and in the future

In most previous financial crises, businesses have looked to their Chief Financial Officers to take the lead; but now, as we face the many challenges impacting across all areas of society as the result of Covid-19, it is our HR managers who are driving necessary change to keep both people and businesses safe.

In the face of Covid-19, balancing the state of people’s health and wellbeing with the harsh realities of meeting businesses bottom-lines is becoming a huge challenge. Of course, there is a financial component to the wellbeing of your staff (they will be wanting you to stay in business as much as you do), but first and foremost, we need to ask: are we doing everything we can to protect our people, today and in the future?

Leaping forward from the ‘hiring and firing’ and ‘compliance’ roles of the past, in the midst of Covid-19, HR is now pivotal to the success of your business. For many small and medium businesses in New Zealand that do not have HR capacity, managing personnel becomes an ‘add on’ to one of the senior management team, or the business owner.  

For businesses, managing personnel remotely in this new Covid-19 environment is made even more challenging – providing staff with access to equipment and services, offering flexible options for those juggling work and at-home parenting and ensuring the mental health and wellbeing of staff as they face an uncertain future.

In addition, businesses are needing to focus on trying to keep their supply chains open and meeting all their wages and fixed overheads. Many companies are facing tough decisions, striking a balance between meeting a company’s strategic objectives and looking after its people. The instinct from many companies may previously have been to plan for redundancies, but in this brave new world where ethics, sustainability and staff wellbeing are key selling points, there are new priorities emerging and with them, new definitions of success.

Beyond Covid-19’s flattened curve, a unique opportunity presents itself to review your businesses’ direction and focus, to reconfigure workflow and to redeploy or reskill your people.

If you are a small or medium business looking for support to work through the many and complex HR challenges currently being faced, New Focus NZ can help business leaders rethink their, and their people’s futures.

Talk to us today about how you can get the best from your people to fully realise their potential. We’re focused on supporting both your people and your business to prosper. New Focus NZ will help your people move your business into the future.