Assessment: Group Project Sustained Performance of Microsoft Corporation amidst the pandemic

Assessment: Group Project Sustained Performance of Microsoft Corporation amidst the pandemic.

Introduction. Microsoft Corporation adopted transformational business strategies towards creating greater shareholder values while developing a trustworthy corporate culture . how the pandemic impacted the human resources management (HRM) at Microsoft the change strategies adopted the approaches used for managing the change recommend two HR initiatives that would counteract the issue much better.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HRM. Work shifted to remote mode People are burdened with heavy meeting load and increased meeting time Microsoft China employees reported doubled call timings between 7 and 14 hours within a week after transition For Microsoft US employees, unscheduled calls in Teams increased than doubled ( Teevan et al., 2021 ) Causal effects on communication and collaboration witnessed by 61,000 Microsoft US employees (Whiting, 2021 ) Reduce workers’ output quality and knowledge transfer (Yang et al., 2021 ) Decline in team connectedness from 91% in January 2020 to 75% in November 2020 (Rosenbaum, 2021 ) Forgotten prioritisation Work-life imbalance.

. Hardly taking break for personal activities ( Talboy , 2020 ) Isolated working detrimental to employees’ mental health ( Hamouche , 2021 ) Microsoft has always prioritised employee health and safety ( Zeidner , 2020; DelBene , 2021 ) enunciated the flexibility policy (Segal, 2021 ) to work from where they feel the most productive ( DelBene , 2021 ) viewed as a problem causing others to work outside the normal working hours ( Teevan et al., 2021 ) average working time increased by 10 % develop inclusive workplaces ( Bartik et al., 2020 ) flexible work arrangements (CIPD, 2019 ) uneven productivity the persistent impact is expected to continue even after the pandemic ends.

Change strategies adopted by Microsoft to manage the COVID-19 Pandemic effects.

Microsoft change approaches reflecting Beer's change management model.

. Two HR initiatives that would complement Microsoft’s working model and handle the pandemic issues better are reskilling employees through large scale competency mapping strengthen the company for future disruption roles develops employees’ cognitive and emotional capabilities ( Agrawal et al., 2020 ) develop the strategy through educational or business partnerships, apprenticeships, knowledge sharing or agile learning opportunities, and focusing on employee skills ( Waddill , 2021 ) personalised reward schemes (PWC, 2020 ) employee performance increased by variable pays linked to productivity employees decide their own package based on their preferences and needs (PWC, 2020).

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(2021, July 20). 4 Strategies for Upskilling and Reskilling . SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/executive/resources/articles/pages/upskilling-four-strategies-waddill.aspx Whiting, K. (2021, October 6). Microsoft has found we’re working longer and collaborating less during COVID-19 . World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/microsoft-study-covid19-work-hours/ Yang, L., Holtz, D., Jaffe, S., Suri , S., Sinha , S., Weston, J., Joyce, C., Shah, N., Sherman, K., Hecht, B., & Teevan , J. (2021). The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers. Nature Human Behaviour . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01196-4 Zeidner , R. (2020, March 21). Coronavirus Makes Work from Home the New Normal . SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/Pages/remote-work-has-become-the-new-normal.aspx.