While no one would argue that during the first wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the key driving priority for organizations was to sail through the rough seas (of existential crisis), it is high time now, that leaders review their quick-fixes (of the last one and half years) that were used to manage the situation. They need to ask themselves – If those need to continue or such ‘fixes’ have passed their utility and validity.

For many firms, the initial twelve months of the pandemic, with chronic employee shortages, meant approving certain process short-cuts to ensure business continuity. The executive leadership needs to now do the following two things as their key priority:

a) retain the process improvements made during these testing times (i.e., not slip back to the old non-value-add steps or any kind of organizational bureaucracies);

b) Do not allow continuing any short-cuts that were approved as interim arrangements even if they appear risk-free. If needed, re-visit the entire process to make it leaner or more effective but do not simply agree to continue with short-cuts that were allowed to sail through the pandemic-related supply chain or employee shortage challenges.

We believe the above two actions are the very first steps to get back to where firms were before the pandemic, with hopefully somewhat improved and more agile processes.

The true differentiator for companies however would be to now re-design their organizations so as to gear themselves for the future. The world has a very different playing field now. The talent market has evolved, the employee expectations have changed and so are the opportunities. The firms, therefore, need to re-adjust, re-design, and become future-ready.

One example is the very prominent silver-lining that resulted from the pandemic which most professionals appreciated – an improved work-life balance associated with higher acceptability of flexible-working. Therefore, it is important that the firms’ human resources leadership balance their revert back to ‘old’ ways very cautiously so that these socially vital and high-value employee engagement aspects do not get completely compromised.

This organization and process re-design needs to be carefully crafted and managed. A simple going back to pre-pandemic organization design and processes is not an option. Such a revert back may in fact only set the organization for a quicker failure. It will not be an exaggeration to say that firms where the executive leadership charter or HR Charter for 2022 does not have Organization Design as a key agenda item risk losing traction and their competitiveness.