Workforce strategies for post-COVID-19 recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled governments and business leaders around the world into unprecedented lockdowns and stay-at-home measures, in an effort to curb the spread and enormous health impacts arising from this virus.

As these efforts show signs of working, countries and businesses alike are turning their focus to scenario planning with a view towards recovery. Deloitte’s latest global publication, Workforce strategies for post-COVID-19 recovery, outlines five critical actions organisations and HR leaders need to prioritise to advance to this next phase:

Reflect. Create the time to reflect on what’s next and think about what has worked, what you learned, and what has been missed in the response.

Recommit. Reinforce commitment to well-being and purpose through a focus on physical, physiological, and financial concerns.

Re-engage. Redeploy workforce and maximize the workforce’s contribution and potential while preparing the workforce with the skills and capabilities for the return.

Rethink. Utilise new business priorities to rethink and reconfigure the work, workforce, and workplace and balance ongoing and evolving business needs.

Reboot. Realign HR and People Operations priorities with the most pressing business and workforce priorities.

Workforce strategies for post-COVID-19 recovery: Workbook is a companion piece to our global report. It provides a framework for HR leaders to think through what is still needed now to manage business continuity, and what will be needed very soon, as their organisations look for opportunities to reflect, recommit, re-engage, rethink, and reboot.

The workbook is intended to be an activation framework for HR leadership teams and a starting point that should be adapted to each unique environment—not all of the questions within the workbook will apply to every organisation. While comprehensive, the workbook is not intended to be fully exhaustive, nor is it intended as advice; it too will evolve as circumstances change.