The year 2019 brought a new normal in the world. The novel coronavirus emerged from

Wuhan in China. On the 27 th of February, 2020, the virus was imported to Nigeria by an

Italian man. The ugly incident of the importation escalated to community transmission. To

curb the community transmission of the coronavirus which was nicknamed COVID-19, the

Nigerian President ordered for National lockdown on March 2020. However, the lockdown

has been partially eased; yet, some businesses are still under lock and key.

Your organization is considering how to move on amid the COVID-19 period. As the

Human Resource Manager advice the organization on the following issues enumerated

below:

1. The type of job evaluation the organization could use during and after the COVID-19

pandemic.

2. Job Analysis is important in an organization, taking cognizance of physical distancing is

one of the measures of curbing the spread of the virus, how could you handle the emotional

characteristics in job specification?

3. Your organization is among those that are still under lockdown, what are the measures

you could use to be generating income to pay your employees?

4. In your annual salary increment, how could you use the internal and external

environment to determine the staff pay?

Q.1 Point Factor Method

Q.2 Some of the ways are;

• Counseling services.
• Creating a free environment to talk about issues of concern.
• Creating an assurance of their safety.

Q.3 Measures to put in place are such as ;

• Moving most of the services done to a digital platform to allow them to work from home and still generate enough income to pay for the salaries.
• Applying for aids to fund the salaries.

Q.4 The internal factors are the ability to pay and the compensation policies while the external factors are the labor unions and cost of living.

Step-by-step explanation

Q.1 The pandemic has hit on the planet so hard that the market has been affected tremendously. Negatively. The employees as well have been affected while some infected leading to mental health issues resulting eventually to low output in the firms (Khan et al, 2020). During this time, job evaluation using the point factor method. This method focuses on the employee's abilities for instance the responsibility, efforts, and skills (Pandey, Jatin & Leelashree, 2012). It doesn't include external factors such as market positions and the economy. It is the best method as it ensures that the employee's abilities to take up the tasks and complete them efficiently is not affected during and even after the pandemic. The employee is able to perform at the same level or even better after the pandemic depending on the potential and development.

Q.2 Human beings are social beings that need to share their feelings and emotions and feel the warmth of the company. In the instance that this is snatched from them, their mental health is affected having been deprived of the emotional need (Khan et al, 2020). In the bid to meet these needs, some of the measures that could be put in place include counseling and therapy, creating a free environment to freely share while still keeping the distance and creating an assurance of safety.

The counseling services are really helpful in allowing the employees to have a safe place to lay off their frustrations and fears without judgment (Khan et al, 2020). This will ensure that the employees are not burdened by things they cannot deal with on their own. When they are mentally healthy, they are likely to feel safe and more productive. The services are therefore very essential in ensuring a healthy staff.

Freely talking about the experiences and the ideas that the staff have on the pandemic is also important in relieving the pressure. This can either be done in an employee's online sharing platform or verbal interaction. The employees do not need to be physically close to one another to share. Moreover, the assurance of safety is also important. Providing them with masks, sanitizers, and keeping the equipment sterilized removes the tension and fear of contracting the virus. All the above are important in the satisfaction of the emotional aspect of the job description.

Q.3 Income is important as it ensures our needs are met. Devastation and anger creep in when one is not able to meet the needs and this may lead to hopelessness and depression. In the event of a lockdown of the business, the activities that ensure that the firm receives income are paralyzed. To ensure that the salaries are paid, I would recommend working online. This moves the operations to a digital platform to ensure continuity of the income generation and hence finances to pay salaries. Although not all the operations will be conducted, it would allow for the generation of substantial amounts to pay salaries.

Also, there are aids that the government has received to cushion the economy. Applying for those incentives allows the firm to receive some money to pay for the salaries. It is however unfortunate that the employees may not receive the full salaries but it would ensure their ability to sustain their lifestyle and comfort through the pandemic.

Q.4 As a firm grows so does its' ability to pay more money to its employees. The revenue increases as it also enjoys economies of scale. A firm with an ability to pay more money to its employee will definitely increase the salary to the amount it is able to pay. This, therefore, is the first internal factor considered in determining an increase in pay.

Secondly, the compensation policies differ from one firm to another and therefore a company will determine whether to pay more depending on the policies (Margolis, David., 2005). Take for example a company whose policy is pay depending on the number of tasks. When an employee rises to a bigger position or is assigned more tasks, the increase in pay will be directly proportionate to the difficulty and number of tasks added.

Moving on to the external factors, we have the bargaining power of the labor unions. Labor unions are meant to protect the employees from exploitation. They ensure compensation is fair. When the labor union has greater bargaining power, meaning it has many members, they can demand a pay rise and the firm will not have any option but to grant the raise. It is therefore an essential element to consider.

Lastly, the cost of living in the country. Take for instance during the pandemic and after the economy would have gone to a depression. This will mean a hike in prices caused by depression. The salary would not be able to give the employees the life they desired. This will mean that an increase in salary to cover for the inflation will be made by the firm (Margolis, David., 2005). It, therefore, means that when the cost of living increases, the salaries have to be raised to ensure the employees live a comfortable life.

References

Khan, Suliman & Siddique, Rabeea & Li, Hongmin & Ali, Ashaq & Shereen, Muhammad & Bashir, Nadia & Xue, Mengzhou. (2020). Impact of coronavirus outbreak on psychological health. Journal of Global Health. 10. 10.7189/jogh.10.010331. 

Pandey, Jatin & Leelashree, (2012). A study on job evaluation - Point factor analysis in SMEs. Asian Journal of Research In Business Economics and Management. 2. 2249-7307. 

Margolis, David. (2005). Compensation Policy, Human Resource Management Practices, and Takeovers.