Abstract
The objective of this chapter is to discuss the changes incorporated in the human resource management strategies post-pandemic situation owing to the COVID-19 pandemic which has instigated disaster across the Indian information technology sector. However, the information technology (IT) industry has been cruising through the situations steadily compared to the other sectors as it has adopted certain innovative human resource (HR) management strategy coupled with technological innovation. The theoretical investigation using the secondary data sources and views of HR professionals clearly reveals that the information technology sector has incorporated strategic changes to restore the balance and control the distortion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the industry. More specifically, the diverse HR strategies incorporated by the IT firms in their efforts were focused to combat the economic repercussions caused by the pandemic, keeping in mind the financial strength of the company, employee morale, future business outlook, and employer branding.
TopIntroduction
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an ongoing pandemic of a highly infectious disease which was first identified during late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in China's Hubei province and has since spread rapidly across the world leading to mass economic and healthcare disruption. The World Health Organization initially declared the outbreak as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on 30 January 2020 and subsequently as a pandemic on 11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020).
India is one of the most severely affected countries in the world with 3.77 Millions of confirmed cases as of September 2020 according to the Governments Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India. The country is placed in the second position next to USA in the list of first five most badly effected countries by COVID-19 pandemic across the world. The Coronavirus outbreak has caused significant disruption in the economic activity of the country fuelled by consecutive nationwide lockdowns in varying scales marking it the first dreadful life crippling experience of its kind for a population close to 1.35 billion people. (Singh, Goel, Kumar & Gettleman, 2020). Restrictions in different forms and versions like country wide to state-wide, 21 days to weeklong lockdown formats have halted the mobility of common public. This has brought adverse impact across all the sectors from Primary to Tertiary in multiple ways and forms, leaving behind millions of white collared professional and blue collared worker’s jobs in doldrums.
The consumer demands of the products and services are also steeply declining beyond imaginations because of untimely and sudden lockdowns enforced by the Government to curb Covid-19 pandemic. The Economists have shared their predictions on the contraction of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country which is the fifth largest Economy of the world. Other major implications for the economic downfall due to the COVID-19 situations are supply disruptions and manufacturing disruptions due to the dependency of India majorly on China towards import of intermediary goods and raw materials for the business operations. The next vector is the spending of the consumer has been experiencing a very bad hit which has resulted in the steep decline of the service sector, specifically the Aviation and Hospitality industries have been hit very badly. The other important vector is the Banking and Financial sectors who are also experiencing a big blow because of the mounting defaults of loan repayments by the customers. The last but not the least disaster is the fluctuating crude oil prices during the pandemic situation has also fuelled the negative effect on the business growth. The recent report of the Government of India on the GDP (April-June) shows colossal contraction of the GDP by a 23.9 percentage year on year. This contraction has happened for the first time in the past four decades’ according to the National Statistical Office (NSO) of India. As per the April –June quarter Gross Value added (GVA) has declined to -22.8 percentages as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Service and manufacturing % change in Gross Value Added (GVA)
| Sector | % change in GVA |
| Gross capital fixed formation | -47 |
| Manufacturing | -39.3 |
| Services Including Construction | -26.8 |
| Private final consumption expenditure | -26.7 |
| Public administration and Defence | -10.3 |
| Agriculture, Mining | -1.2 |
| GVA | -22.8 |
Source: As per the National Statistical Office (NSO)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Work From Home: Under the work from home options the tasks and jobs related to the professional pursuits are performed not from office but from the employee’s place of residence.
Layoff: This refers to the process of terminating the employee from his current employment on a permanent or temporary basis.
Repo Rate: In order to control inflation, the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) offers monitory support to the commercial bank by way of lending money to overcome the funds shortfall.
Gross Value Added: The value of goods and services produced in a particular geographical location, from a particular industry, from a particular sector of business contributing to the GDP of the country.
Retrenchment: Is an act of removal of an employee by the employer from the present employment in view of business implications of increasing the profit or controlling the loss.
Corporate Social Responsibility: All the initiatives taken by the company which leads to the enhancement of society, stakeholders, and environment in a positive manner.
Hiring Freeze: The temporary suspension of hiring of employees is done as a part of cost cutting effort by the organisations during the period of economic recessions of any other unexpected crisis.