Responding to COVID-19 crisis: effectiveness of HR implementation, a contrast between essential and non-essential sector in Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis that has greatly impacted the business environment. To contain the disease from spreading further, Malaysia had declared a Movement Control Order (MCO) where every citizen has to stay at home unless there is a valid reason. This cause many businesses to struggle to stay afloat during the pandemic. This paper will simultaneously evaluate the efforts of Human Resource departments across different industries and focus a lens on individual employees’ experience of working during a global pandemic. It will also address whether the presence of a crisis management plan in different stages of crisis and what role should HR play in it. Methodology: An online survey was distributed, and data from N = 261 qualified participants was collected. Employees came from a wide range of industries (N=38 industries), and this represented both the Essential sector and Non-essential industry sectors as defined in the MCO. Analysis: In order to address the Research Objectives, correlation and ANOVA test were conducted, using the IBM SPSS Version 25 statistical software. Results showed that there are communications from HR but there are no significant differences between essential and non-essential sector in the aspect of frequency and method. However, each sector shows different level of optimism, well-being, stress and negativity towards career outlook. Hence, HR should have different actions for each sector. During crisis, employees agree that HR plays a significant role in each stages of crisis. Therefore, HR should be included in crisis management implementation as they prove to be for the organization’s operation during difficult time. They are the communicator, talent developer and support in the event of crisis