Year Two of Unprecedented Times: Which pandemic-driven HR practices will likely stay in place?
Throughout the pandemic we have heard many examples of how districts quickly adapted various aspects of their human capital systems. We recently asked Ohio’s human capital leaders: What’s going to stick and become the new norm?
General themes that emerged was the continued need to:
Stay flexible and be able to adapt
Be patient and give grace
Prioritize both student and staff wellness
Maintain frequent, open lines of communication with staff
Specific highlights from responses about what’s going to stick included:
Virtual interviews/job screening –using video conferencing products for initial interviews; offering flexible interview options; using virtual interview approach for prospective teacher candidates if the person lives 2+ hours away.
Simplifying candidate applications
Paperless pre-employment process – moving to an online system for contract delivery, signoff, and other aspects of the onboarding process.
Paperless HR processes – enhancing online systems for FMLA, unpaid leave, staff attendance, certification oversight, work calendar sharing, etc.
Virtual onboarding – shifting aspects of onboarding to occur online (i.e. paperwork/compliance, self-paced learning); ensuring frequent opportunities to connect with the team/buddy, regardless if onboarding is face-to-face or virtual.
Online substitute teaching training class
Permanent substitutes in addition to daily-use substitutes – instituting permanent subs that show up every day, are paid higher than daily-use subs, and receive benefits after 60 days. For days where the building is fully staffed, the substitute fills in where needed and supports teachers in a variety of ways.
Flexibility for team meetings – allowing department teams to meet via video conference if agreed upon by the members (i.e. Zoom, Google Meet, Google Hangout)
Videoconferencing options for parents – offering parents flexibility to choose in-person or virtual options for Meet the Teacher, Fall and/or Spring Parent/Teacher Conference
For more reading on how Covid-19 has impacted PK-12 human capital systems, here’s a few sources that may be of interest:
Ohio School Boards Association Journal, Education After the Pandemic, June 2021
American Association of School Personal Administrators, AASPA Blog – various topics