The webinar seminars of the Institute of Social Sciences continue without slowing down. In the third of the seminars, Human Resources Management Program Head Assoc. Dr. Moderated by Osman Bayraktar, “The Effects of the Covid-19 Outbreak Process on Human Resources Practices” was examined. Şennur Kuru, Head of the Human Resources Department of Kibar Holding, and Bahattin Aydın, Deputy General Manager of Yıldız Holding, attended the program as speakers.

At the opening of the program, Assoc. Dr. Osman Bayraktar, reminding that the human resources unit depends on the structure of the enterprises, stated that the human resources units were naturally affected by the effect of the enterprises in the epidemic. Emphasizing that businesses should have crisis plans, Bayraktar said that it is important for businesses to adapt to digital processes within the framework of these plans. Bayraktar left the floor to the speakers by asking how businesses will adapt to this digitalization process.

Yıldız Holding Deputy General Manager Bahattin Aydın stated that these days will be referred to as pre-covid and post-covid in the future and said, “As a company, we were caught ready for digital processes. For the last 3-4 years, we have prepared digitalization plans and started to implement them. Similarly, all of our human resources processes continue with mobile infrastructure.” Aydın stated that all factories were working thanks to the measures taken during this period and the number of services increased, adding that flexible working hours were implemented and digital management processes were actively used.

Emphasizing that the activities carried out during the epidemic period are a crisis management process, Bahattin Aydın added that in digital leadership, leaders manage people they have never seen remotely, and that this is a loss due to the lack of physical contact. Aydın continued his words as follows: “Some jobs in human resources units will become part-time, some jobs will be done robotically”

Şennur Kuru, Head of the Human Resources Department of Kibar Holding, emphasized that a crisis committee was established within the holding after the epidemic was seen in China, and within this framework, possible scenarios were prepared and all measures were taken within the enterprise. Kuru stated that their approach to the crisis is to protect human health and ensure business continuity, and noted that they provide psychological support in the online environment to protect the psychology of the personnel. Stating that the epidemic accelerated the digitalization processes, Kuru said, “Thanks to this epidemic, it has been seen that some works can be done remotely. It can be said that the meetings are more efficient and faster. We review business decisions on a daily basis so we can make changes faster. The importance of traceable data in human resources management has become more evident.

Şennur stated that today’s business culture and norms have been rewritten, emphasizing that the main challenge in digital leadership is to maintain the balance between the office staff working at home and the staff working in the field, adding that they have created a communication plan in this regard and that their managers have adopted these plans and put them into practice.