Issues in HR for companies in SEA in the post COVID-19 era

Preface

Looking through the lens of company responses to COVID-19, the issues Japanese companies have in their organizational and human resource management methods can be divided into three categories: accuracy, flexibility, and agility.A detail of those three issues are described in this chapter.

Issue one: resilient human resource management (Accuracy)

Here we will touch upon increasing resiliency in the workforce, labor cost, and further beyond those two: workforce quality.

Issue Two: Training local staff and talent generalization (Flexibility)

Next, we will discuss the issue of training the local workforce and turning one's workforce into generalists from the perspective of flexibly maintaining the workforce in terms of quantity and quality.

Issue Three: Speedy decision-making, task execution, and work style reform (Agility)

As a result of COVID-19, local subsidiaries have responded by implementing remote work regardless of whether they want to or not. While employees were left with an exceedingly positive taste in their mouth, for the company, it serves as a painful learning opportunity on the difficulties of managing work from a distance. Implementing remote work also fosters speedy decision-making and task execution through the proactive implementation of IT solutions. In this section, we attempt to unravel this topic from issues perceptions to actions taken in response so that local subsidiaries may achieve speedy decision-making and task execution.

Closing - Developing local HR leaders is vital

So far, we've discusses three major issues in organization and HR that have surfaced out of the COVID-19 outbreak at local subsidiaries as wella as the direction to take towards resolving them. However, it's a given that the concrete issues that arise and their relative seriousness will be different for each company. THus, having local HR functions that can solve the problems unique to their company will be crucial.
Finally, we will touch on what's expected from HR functions at local subsidiaries in the world after COVID-19 and how to meet those expectations.

Author
Tomohiro Minami
Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC
Senior Manager