COVID-19 Pandemic – Its Impact and Implications on HR Activities in a Transitional Economy

Abstract

The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus fundamentally shook the global and EU economy, which had very serious socio-economic consequences. The coronavirus pandemic affects everyone all over the world. After the first European diseases caused by COVID-19, the KoronaHR research group was established with the collaboration of its researchers with the cooperation of several universities, the main goals of which is to monitor the changes in the human resources (HR) management practices of the domestic corporate/institutional sphere caused by the coronavirus. The first phase of our online survey was conducted between June 12 and July 31, 2020, followed by the second phase between August 1 and November 15, 2020, while the third survey round was conducted between March 1 and April 20, 2021. In this study, we sought answers to, among other things, what challenges human resource management faced, and how traditional HR functions were transformed during the pandemic.