Thai HR Challenges during COVID-19 Survey
Its no secret that working conditions have changed due to the COVID-10. As a result, HRs are tasked with getting the workplace and management system ready for the changes. Be it to prevent risk of infection, manage remote teams or maintain employees motivation.
Now that it’s been a year since the pandemic started, Asian Identity did a quick survey with 14 Thai HR personnel and Thai Managers working in various industries to explore how HR-related challenges are perceived during COVID-19.
Specifically, respondents were shown a list of HR issues (see above picture) where they had to choose and comment on issues they believe are Important/Urgent and Difficult/Complex.
The most important/urgent Issue?
Among a range of common HR challenges, result shows that the top voted as the most important/urgent issue is ‘performance evaluation of staff working remotely’, mainly because it is difficult to find clear indicator for evaluation. On the other hand, ‘online training’ was the issue with the lowest votes here.
Although not much voted as an urgent issue, many comments from the respondents were related to the issue of ‘Communicating and sharing company’s vision & direction’. Below are some of the voices from the respondents:
The most difficult/complex Issue?
‘Performance evaluation of staff working remotely’ is the most voted as a difficult/complex issue to tackle during Covid-19. One of the reasons given was the difficulty in evaluating employees who can’t work from home, for instance production line workers. On the other hand, the least voted issue is ‘flexible working hours’, possibly due to the fact that flexible working hour policy has already been widely used even before the pandemic.
Below are some of the voices from the respondents about other issues also perceived to be difficult/complex:
Things to be aware of
Paying attention to challenges voted for the most as important/urgent and difficult/complex is important but it is also crucial to be aware of other pressing issues that are less obvious; for instance, employees motivation and online training.
From the diagram above, although less extreme than ‘performance evaluation’, ‘employees motivation’ is also categorized as an urgent and difficult matter. Nevertheless, despite it being one of the key factor that maintain employees health and performance, motivation cannot be easily perceived or measured, and hence can easily get overlooked.
In another area, the diagram shows ‘online training’ as an issue perceived to be low in importance/urgency and difficulty/complexity. This suggests that it could be low in priority for many companies considering that there are many more urgent matters to address for the business survival. However, in a different perspective, business leaders could consider using this opportunity, where it’s difficult to do business, to invest in developing their subordinates instead.
It can be considered as a long-term investment to prepare employees for the unpredictable and challenging future which will also help to answer employees’ need for growth and motivation.
For your company to emerge even strong in this COVID-19 era, it is therefore advised that HRs, managers, and business leaders should look at the big picture when identifying necessary areas needed to be addressed.
