From customer-facing staff, middle managers to executives, most respondents both globally and in India believe that adjustments to rewards and benefits as a result of COVID-19 will likely affect employees.
The COVID-19 outbreak has forced many companies to suspend promotions offered to employees, according to a survey by global organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry.
This was followed by a delay/deferment and or freeze of annual salary hikes. Typically in India, salary hikes are implemented from April 1 onwards. The survey showed that 18 percent organisations in India are deferring and/or delaying salary increases.
To understand the impact of COVID-19 on business and human capital management practices, Korn Ferry conducted a pulse survey from April 15 to 24 on almost 4,000 respondents from 99 countries.
From customer-facing staff, middle managers to executives, most respondents both globally and in India believe that adjustments to rewards and benefits as a result of COVID-19 will likely affect employees throughout the organisation, the survey revealed.
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In India, 36 percent of organisations have implemented or are considering implementing a salary freeze to manage costs. Given the government's extensive requests on avoiding laying-off employees, The survey said that the majority of companies have not implemented or are not currently considering permanent staff layoff/redundancies (84 percent).
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Roopank Chaudhary, Client Partner, Korn Ferry India said, “Given the current circumstances and uncertainties on the recovery for market conditions, business leaders are trying everything to survive this storm and manage their costs. Among the dozens of ways organisations are taking out labour costs are layoffs, hiring freezes, reduced hours, less reliance on contractors, reducing overtime, delaying bonuses or merit increases, suspending certain benefits like retirement savings/capital accumulation programs, and many others.”
The survey also showed that beyond the pandemic, 55 percent of respondents in India indicated that they will continue to operate more virtually.
Korn Ferry has recommended that organisations should avoid drastic near-term actions that could weaken prospects for bouncing back. It added that companies should also take a balanced approach especially when considering labour cost reductions.
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