“Stress is a threat that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. For this reason, addressing employees’ emotional health and well-being has become a priority for organizations. However, ‘a mar never made a skilled sailor,’” notes Ximena Fernández, academic coordinator of the Master’s in Human Resources Management at the Graduate School of Business at Universidad ORT Uruguay.
In this context, organizations have optimized cost management, accelerated digital transformation, and significantly enhanced the skills and competencies of their leaders and employees. Organizations have been facing these and other challenges for over a year now as a result of the pandemic.
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Changes for the Future
“The pandemic was definitely a shock to organizations, which had to adapt quickly to continue operating virtually,” explains Adolfo Sommer, a professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at ORT.
Jimena Louzao, who holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management from ORT and has worked in the healthcare sector for 17 years, notes that collaborative work has been strengthened and processes have been streamlined in these types of organizations. “This context requires the participation of all stakeholders to unify criteria and generate synergy among various sectors,” she says.
Regardless of the type of company or the industry each one belongs to, both professionals agree that all of them are going through a learning process that will lead to structural changes for the future.
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Key Points in Times of Crisis
Achieving balance within work teams in uncertain environments is one of the major challenges facing organizations. To achieve this, certain factors are critical.For Sommer, an organization’s leadership and its impact on the rest of its members are crucial in this regard.“The leader’s role in a time of change is closely linked to providing support, instilling a sense of calm, and managing people’s anxieties,” she says.
Along the same lines, the ORT professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior explains that in organizations with has leadership team, has vital that all members are on the same page. “The fact that the management team is united behind common goals is essential to moving an organization forward,” he notes.
Now, what is happening in the healthcare sector? Louzao explains that in these organizations, it is advisable for department heads to collaborate with middle management in implementing strategies to promote employee well-being. To this end, it is vital to develop sustainable tools that are aligned with the needs of patient care departments.
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Communication as an ally
While every organization has characteristics that make it unique, communication is a common thread across all of them. In this regard, ORT graduate Louzao believes it is necessary to create opportunities for dialogue in complex situations in order to achieve positive results and weather times of crisis. She also believes it is important to prioritize consensus and active listening.
Along the same lines, Sommer says that companies that have adapted to the virtual environment face a major challenge when it comes to communication:“In-person interaction and face-to-face dialogue cannot be replaced by an email or a text message. That is why it is essential to focus on effective communication and use all available tools to minimize any misinterpretations that may arise from a message.”
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Learning from what happened
“There will be no return to the past, but rather a transition toward a pandemic-free global state that will take place in stages. Therefore, the sooner we emerge from the state of emergency, the sooner we can focus on turning limitations into opportunities,” explains the academic coordinator of ORT’s Master’s Program in Human Resources Management. “To truly reflect on what has happened, we need some distance and space for analysis,” Fernández notes. To that end, he recommends approaching the situation through an appreciative inquiry lens. In other words, we should ask ourselves what strengths have emerged at the individual, team, and organizational levels, and in which critical areas progress has been made that should be sustained moving forward.