Will Investments in Human Resources During the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis Pay Off After the Crisis?

Abstract

Rudolph et al. (2020), in their focal article, discussed two areas of strategic human resources (HR) policies/practices in which the COVID-19 pandemic crisis calls for action and attention from both HR managers and researchers. The first area is downsizing, which is unavoidable in many firms due to the immediate negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis on firm financial performance. The other area is online training, which deserves more attention due to the immediate need for educating employees for skills that are necessary to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. Whereas Rodolph et al. drew on evidence from research when they suggested that “HR managers should strive for a transparent and fair way of communication about downsizing measures” (p. XX), they did not provide evidence-based advice regarding the use of online training. Instead, given the lack of relevant research evidence, Rodolph et al. advanced an interesting research question – “empirical HR research will have to test if [investing in online training during the crisis] indeed pays off in increasing employee skills and productivity in the mid and long run” (p. XX). We believe that recent strategic HR research can provide some useful insights into this question, as discussed below.