HR Insight: The Role of HR During Times of Rapid Revolution
Vindya Jayasinghe , Senior Manager – Human Resources at Finlays Colombo Limited
In times of rapid revolution-whether driven by technology, societal change, or global crises-HR is no longer just a support function. Instead, it becomes the core engine of organizational resilience and an architect of adaptability and transformation. Drawing from my experience, I’d like to delve into how HR can truly lead during these pivotal moments.
Understanding Business and Becoming a Strategic Partner
It’s essential for HR to deeply understand the core of the business and position ourselves as both subject matter experts and business partners. In periods of flux, businesses may pivot rapidly but people rarely do. Our role is to ensure that business strategy translates into a human strategy- ensuring that no one gets left behind in the process. This means focusing on retention, employee relations, and acting as both a business stabilizer and a change translator.
As HR professionals, we are uniquely positioned to bridge the disconnect between strategic intent and human experience with a deep sensitivity to the human dimensions of organizational change. Risk often manifests not in systems, but in people through outdated capabilities, displaced roles, and waning morale. HR must operate at the crossroads of strategic execution and emotional well-being, actively managing workforce concerns, supporting restructuring efforts with clarity and care, and ensuring that employees feel aligned with, connected to and are able to relate to the organization’s evolving purpose.
Rewriting the HR Playbook
Traditionally, HR has been associated with payroll, recruitment, and exits. But in times of revolution, the old playbook simply doesn’t work. We must experiment, adapt, and co-create new ways of working. This includes:
Embedding and embracing digital fluency across the organization
Modernizing performance frameworks
Using real-time pulse surveys to steer culture
Futureproofing through skills-based strategies, not static roles.
Building a skill-based organization is a strategic priority. We need to make career paths fluid, conduct skill audits, benchmark salaries, and ensure commitment to continuous learning and development. Learning and performance monitoring must move from static cycles to living processes, not just periodic.
Championing Ethics, Transparency, and Fairness
Speed should never justify side-lining ethics. HR must be the conscience of the company, protecting dignity, equity, and fairness-especially during uncertainty. Employees often worry: Is my job safe? Are we doing the right thing? Will the company survive? HR must be the voice of transparency, justice, and fairness. HR must not only be present in decision-making forums but play an active role in shaping direction and influencing outcomes. Our focus must remain anchored in building strong relationships, fostering organizational resilience, and ensuring continued relevance, with every action deliberately aligned to the company’s core values and overarching purpose.
Transparency must go beyond leadership decisions- it should be embedded in how performance is evaluated, how mistakes are handled, and how policies are applied. The more ambiguous an HR policy, the more transparency is lost, leading to dissatisfaction and a drop in morale and loyalty. Transparency must be engineered into the culture to ensure continuity and predictability.
Balancing Growth, Retention, and the Talent Pipeline
As companies grow rapidly, it’s it’s vital to balance the influx of new talent while retaining valuable long-term employees. When an organization sets ambitious growth targets; whether it's doubling revenue, expanding into new markets, or transforming its operating model HR plays a pivotal role in enabling that journey. To support such scale and momentum, we must:
Define roles with precision and build a structured, future-ready talent pipeline
Infuse the organization with fresh thinking by bringing in new talent, while ensuring cultural alignment and long-term fit
Strengthen internal capability by investing in current employees through candid, growth-focused conversations and coaching.
lend new and existing talent to foster a dynamic, inclusive culture that embraces innovation, generational diversity and evolving thought processes
While workforce decisions can at times be difficult, I firmly believe in prioritizing the development and support of existing employees through constructive challenge and growth opportunities before exploring external options. When new talent is brought in, it’s equally important to ensure a thoughtful onboarding experience and a supportive environment, often enhanced through mentorship that aligns skills, mindset, and cultural integration.
Fostering a Growth Mindset and Transformative Culture
A growth mindset is essential at every level-whether you’re a CEO or a management trainee. HR must play a crucial role in redesigning recognition and grading systems, make feedback normal and developmental, and integrate learning into daily work. This includes:
Offering job rotations and shadowing opportunities
Standardizing and demystifying performance reviews
Integrating growth language into daily culture (“I’m not good at this yet”)
Empowering teams to stretch their goals and experiment with innovation
Growth and transformation come with accountability and shared responsibility. We must keep an open mind, encourage curiosity, and recognize that every person is a masterpiece in progress.
Blending Analytics with Empathy
I strongly believe in being data-driven. With accurate and reliable data, we can spot trends, predict outcomes, and make informed decisions. But behind every metric is a human story. Analytics must be blended with empathy to ensure our recommendations and organizational strategies remain humane and effective.
Strategic Workforce Planning and Leadership Reinvention
Legacy workforce models are too rigid for today’s realities. We need to think in ecosystems, integrating full-time employees, freelancers, gig workers, automation, and AI to foster agility and resilience. Leadership itself must evolve. The leaders of tomorrow must thrive in ambiguity, embrace co-creation, and lead with courageous vulnerability. HR must identify, coach, and empower leaders who thrive in ambiguity, ensuring psychological safety, well-being, and inclusion are integral to business strategy.
No Compromise on Ethics and Transparency
In the race to grow and compete, the temptation to compromise on ethics and transparency is high. For me, there is no compromise - Ethics and transparency must be embedded into the culture. When decisions are made behind closed doors, trust erodes. When employees feel excluded, morale drops. Transparency ensures continuity, uniformity, and predictability-key ingredients for a resilient organization.
In conclusion: HR’s role extends far beyond simply having a seat at the table; we are increasingly at the forefront of shaping the dialogue. By upholding ethics, fostering growth, and leveraging data-informed empathy, we help build organizations that are not only resilient and relevant, but also deeply human-centered. It is our ability to integrate strategic foresight with empathy and innovation that truly enables sustainable success in a constantly evolving landscape.