Flood crisis highlights importance of HR

A business contingency plan usually lays emphasis on core business functions such as finance, sales, marketing, and logistics. But when the recent floods cut off access to the work place for many of the staff for more than a month, human resource departments assumed a crucial role to ensure continuity of the business. 

The speakers at a recent seminar, organised by Orchid Slingshot, a training, coaching and consulting firm, and the National Institute of Development Administration’s School of Human Resource Development, unanimously agreed that the role of HR departments will never be the same in Thailand. 

The speakers included SCG’s head of human resource customers support Amnuay Apichainan, Asia Precision senior manager of the HR organisational development department Samrit Sawangkam, Thai Health Promotion Foundation director Chanwit Wasanthanarat and Orchid Slingshot executive director Apiwut Pimolsaengsuriya.

SCG’s Amnuay said the basic-materials giant was better prepared for this flood crisis because it had learnt some lessons from the upheaval on the streets of Bangkok about two years ago, which prompted it to set up a “business continuity management” (BCM) unit last year. Modelled on some leading global corporations such as Toyota, the BCM unit of SCG was established with the purpose of ensuring businesses can continue to perform in the event of a natural or man-made disasters.

Despite having these emergency procedures and systems in place, Amnuay said when the massive flood crisis actually arrived, many unexpected issues cropped up, especially those concerning workforce management.  

“In the case of a mob situation, staff might not be able to go to a site for a few days. During flooding, we thought it would affect [staff’s accessibility to operations] for a couple of weeks at the most,” he said.

But when it became clear that the flooding would not recede for at least a month, HR management became a critical issue because businesses would not be able to continue if staff could not reach their factories or offices for such a long period, said the SCG executive.

“Knowing the whereabouts of our staff had never been an issue. But businesses could not go on if employees could not travel to their workplaces,” said Amnuay.

After evaluating the risk that the flood could potentially hit its Bangkok headquarters within three hours if a barrier at Muang Eak was demolished, SCG moved 2,700 staff to Pattaya and booked 1,200 hotel rooms there for them and their families. 

SCG also set up a “war room” to analyse the flood situation, seeking and monitoring relevant information by itself as it found it could not adequately rely on news and information provided by the media, he said.

Thanks to its preparations, SCG, which has many factories at many locations, could relocate production from affected areas to other areas and thus continue its operations. 

“The lesson learnt is that we must prepare to cope with the flood, not fight it,” he said.

Amnuay said the crisis became a good opportunity for bosses to know more about the lifestyle of their staff. Companies should strive for a programme to re-enforce staff engagement. In the case of SCG, it has introduced an activity called “friends help friends”, which encourages staff to help clean up the houses of their colleagues and subordinates.

“It is a good chance for bosses to see the true lives of their staff. We have encouraged every manager, supervisor, and HR to go [visit homes of staff],” he said.

Samrit of auto-parts maker Asia Precision took the chance to build unity and rally the staff to become aware of the importance of assisting other people.

“When there were hundreds of staff sitting together to pack up the [assistance] bags, it was a good opportunity to cultivate their minds to feel sympathy and a spirit of giving to others, although our factory had not been inundated, ” he said.

Asia Precision also took the chance to train its staff, which helped it to retain employees during the low period. This has prepared them to tap opportunities created after the flood as auto-makers are looking for alternative suppliers to replace parts-makers from the affected areas.

Orchid Slingshot’s Apiwut said many workers had not returned to their factories after the floods because the staff felt insecure about their jobs and, more importantly, they had lost their sense of purpose, even though their employers were paying them 75 per cent of their salaries as stipulated by the law.

He said in his experience of coaching executives he had noted a similar situation when the wives of many executives were asked by their husbands to stop working because they could afford it. But what the executives’ wives found was they felt a loss of value because they had to ask for money from their husbands without earning it.

Apiwut suggested that during a crisis, companies should regularly communicate with their staff even though there might be nothing new to inform them at that moment, and also find something for the staff to do because “some people think too much when they have nothing to do”.

HR professionals should reposition themselves to become “proactive” rather than pursuing “corrective” actions or waiting for orders from their top management, he said.

Chanwit of Thai Health Promotion Foundation said the crisis had transformed the role of the HR department as many organisations, “which usually only talk about business and their sales and marketing functions”, recognised the importance of the HR department during the flood.

“Since a worse crisis might occur in the future, HR have to change their mindset and play a more active role in managing the organisation,” he said.

 

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