8 March, 2021OPINIONWhat a year 2020 has turned out to be!The Global pandemic, decline in global demand, disruption in the global supply chains, the racial justice movement, the gradual shift toward increased workforce representation transparency, and the election have all combined to create uncertainty. These unprecedented times have made it necessary for every firm's HR function to step up and lead their organization's response and position their firm for long-term sustainable growth. At Greif, the mission of our HR organization is "To enable a world-class, diverse and engaged workforce to deliver on Greif's strategic priorities." This mission is also supported by the following guiding principles that showcase what we believe in: Being a Servant Leader Ambassador, technology-enabled change agent that thinks globally as One HR and delivers locally across multiple countries.Our mission and guiding principles are grounded in the Greif Way and ultimately enable us to drive Greif's overall vision: In industrial packaging, be the best performing customer service Company in the world. The challenges test our commitment as an HR organization. We have had to live these values to drive effective change during this crisis; it also provided valuable lessons as we continue to learn and shape what the future could look like.The world has been navigating through the COVID-19 crisis since February. As an essential business, Greif has made tremendous progress in moving from responding and recovering to sustaining and thriving as an organization during this pandemic. From the very onset of this crisis, our HR organization has played a pivotal role in championing key actions and initiatives across the globe to address the human and societal needs with empathy and make hard decisions on mission-critical situations.A few examples below may help every business leader with a framework to lead during these challenging times:HR collaborated with key influencers and stakeholders in building out the Guiding Principles and Crisis Management Framework in response to the pandemic. The Crisis Management Framework, for example, has four components: People, Demand, Supply, and Financials. While responding to business needs ensuring continuity was critical. HR played a key role in ensuring that people's safety and well-being were front and center in everything that we do/did. We established very robust response protocols, including situation assessment, quarantine SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN A TIME OF GLOBAL CRISES: BUILDING RESILIENCEBy, Bala Sathyanarayanan, Senior Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer, Greif [NYSE:GEF]Bala Sathyanarayanan
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