Human contact composes a big portion of the human experience. It is an important element of socialisation. Moreover, it is largely responsible for the coordination, communication and human language. Its fundamental importance lies in that it can be used to reduce pain and anxiety.
Even the simple handshake has value. In these times of physical spacing and social distancing measures, human contact has become much less frequent. As we citizens are now being released from the lockdown, the question also arises: How will we handle these experiences in the future? How uncertain are we right now? Even global companies are being confronted with new changes. How will they and we deal with this uncertainty?
Will We Develop a New Company Culture?
What Will Change for the Personnel Managers?
At all companies, Personnel Managers obtain an overall impression of their applicants by evaluating their skills and social competences and particularly integrating facial expressions and gestures into their selection process. During these times of covering one’s mouth and Corona, one must formulate new criteria. What must one now still pay attention to? Do Personnel Managers at companies now pose their questions in a much more specific manner? And how will companies handle these changes in the future. Will one, for example, introduce separate rooms and partitioning glass? And how will this crisis affect the company culture? The personal interview will still be of critical importance. Companies must now confront these challenges and formulate new and targeted concepts.
The World of the New Greeting
Convincing interviews in the past usually began and ended with a handshake. In the future, will one still be able to be persuasive with it?
Or will we now embrace a part of the Asian greeting culture and bow politely with hands folded before our counterpart? Will we now have to rethink and reinvent concepts for new greeting forms and rituals for social interactions? In the past, a handshake was used in order to successfully complete negotiations. This ritual, one could opine, will now be abandoned. And how will it be assessed if a culture is lost forever that is so old and has evolved over generations?
How do you see this? And, as Personnel Consultants, how will we approach this issue?