HOW COMPANIES MANAGED TO HELP THEIR HUMAN RESOURCES AND VIRTUAL TEAMS GETTING THROUGH THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK

With this dissertation, it is intended to analyse how companies and employers strategically managed their human resources in order to overcome the Covid-19 Pandemic. It is truly useful, to better define the actual impact of Human Resources Management, by beginning this elaborate by understanding and defining what Human Resources Management is and how it positively impacts the organisation’s performance. In the first chapter we will analyse, with theory and models, why the management of people is fundamental for a modern company. The economic crisis resulted by the Coronavirus pandemic, which exploded all around the World in 2020, was the consequence of the real shock generated by the measures and interventions implemented to address the Covid-19 health emergency. The crisis began in 2020 is not linked to a series of causes like in 2008, but it is directly resulted by the global events of Covid-19. The global crisis started as a supply downturn and it rapidly led to a crisis of demand; once the outbreak spread, the consumption was in fact considerably affected by the containment measures. In this matter, in the subsequent chapter, we will study the interventions made by the Central Banks and State Governments to safeguard the economy. The severity of the epidemic has forced the majority of the states around the World, even the richest ones, to allocate additional capital to alleviate the fall in incomes and to prevent an unprecedented rise in the unemployment rate. The Covid-19 outbreak and its restrictions have forced numerous enterprises to adapt and work remotely with new corporate difficulties, such as productivity factors, coordination and leadership challenges, sense of isolation of its employees, and issues regarding mental health. Consequently, organisations all around the World have implemented new measures to keep the human resources productive, connected and healthy. To develop a more complete analysis, we will analyse the practices and human resources management strategies of both Western and Asian companies, including United States, China and the most important European countries. This new working scenario, will definitely not disappear with the end of the pandemic, but it will have a significant impact on the present and future “new normal” working environment. This is exactly what the last paragraph of this dissertation will deal with. Once having assessed the various disadvantages and challenges faced by the organisations in the previous sections, it is necessary to emphasise the opportunity that companies and human resources had to renovate themselves with the advent of the pandemic, becoming more resilient, digital and agile in the long run.