| | May- 2022MANAGEHRMAGAZINE.COM8In MyOpinionTRANSFORMING THE CHALLENGES PRESENTED BY COVID-19 INTO HR OPPORTUNITIES2020 presented all leaders and professionals operating across the people, culture and ways of working domains with a series of unique challenges associated with how to support and guide people, teams and businesses through a global pandemic.These challenges were often not like any we've faced before and they spanned such a range of issues "from issues to resolve and combat, to things only we could influence but not necessarily solve for. Suddenly we had new issues like having to introduce new Health and Safety protocols to manage transmission within our buildings, and get familiar with new terms like PPE, contact tracing and social distancing. Alongside this there was a need for difference in how we communicated and shared updates with our people, who were facing their own personal pandemic-related challenges and anxieties too. When we went into lockdown, our business continuity plans kicked in and for Spark, we needed to manage (and in many cases alter) our agile ways of working which had always been known for thriving on people collaborating and working in the same physical spaces with people working remotely while also trying to juggle kids, and other responsibilities at the same time!But for all its challenges, the pandemic also presented opportunities - like finding ways to accelerate innovation, and gave matters like authentic wellbeing a new and clear mandate to springboard from. We saw the real value and impacts of empathetic and inclusive internal communications that put our people's wellbeing at the forefront of our messaging.And while 2021 kicked off looking like it was going to be much easier than the tough year before, for Spark in particular, as a digital services company, we were dealing By Heather Polglase, Human Resources Director, Spark New ZealandHeather Polglase
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