Influence of Covid-19 Crisis on Human Resource Management and Companies’ Response: The Expert Study

Abstract

Dramatic changes caused by the new coronavirus COVID-19 have unprecedented implications on companies around the globe and influenced human resource management profoundly. HRM took leadership to navigate in the vague present and unforeseeable future by managing people to cope with stress and to continue working remotely so that business goes on with its operations. However, HRM had to deal with the dismissals and reduction of the staff caused by the pandemic lockdown. The presented paper is based on the qualitative expert interview research method. It discusses the challenges HRM has been facing in Georgia, ascertains the implications the crisis has on human resources, finds out the solutions companies applied, and makes suggestions for tackling the crisis from the point of view of HRM. The expert interview findings indicate that companies, together with the HR managers, should develop crisis management plans, elaborate new policies for remote as well as hybrid working systems as a response to the current and future crises.