Just as the remote working model forced digital strategies to accelerate last year, so digitalisation in turn has forced job scopes and talent management strategies to accelerate. What does this mean for the HR function?

People Matters asked Maria Sitaramayya, Vice President Human Resources at Unisys Asia Pacific, for her thoughts on the convergence of HR’s responsibilities and digitalisation. As a technology company, Unisys was well ahead with the use of digital tools in the workplace even before the pandemic—but things have moved even further ahead now, she says. Here’s what she shared.

Can you share some thoughts on how HR’s role and the nature of the work have been accelerated in the last year and a half?

When the pandemic hit, we moved to work from home very quickly. Within 48 hours we moved about 98 percent of the workforce globally to WFH, and we had so many concerns in the process. Is the infrastructure going to hold up? How are we going to ensure that people are able to engage, participate, collaborate, and still continue to work? Are our tools able to facilitate the process of interacting online? How should we set up formal touchpoints so that the leadership can engage with the employees either one on one or in team meetings? We saw a great expansion of our original responsibilities.

And now that we are moving into a hybrid working model and people are coming back to the office, HR has to be at the forefront of that once more. We have to make sure that the right collaboration tools are in place, that we have a proper change management process, that the right communication is going out to people.