Posted at 10:00 a.m.
When the pandemic hit, Vincent Rousseau, professor at the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal, was afraid to see the number of internships offered to undergraduate students in industrial relations drop drastically when organizations were completely upset.
“Finally, there was a significant upsurge in the number of internships offered, which ended up far exceeding the number of students,” he says. And I’m talking about quality internships!
It is as if transformations, such as the generalization of telecommuting and the amplification of the labor shortage, have made the role of human resources managers in organizations even more relevant.
Vincent Rousseau, professor at the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal
As a researcher in psychological health at work and a teacher to practicing executives at the University of Sherbrooke, France St-Hilaire, for her part, literally felt “snatched up” by the pandemic.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF SHERBROOKE
France St-Hilaire, researcher in psychological health at work and teacher to practicing executives at the University of Sherbrooke
“Human resources professionals, managers and employees were at a loss, they were in distress because we were in an unprecedented situation, so they put themselves in listening mode with professors and researchers in human resources management to try to find tools to help them get out of the crisis,” she says.
Concrete changes in the courses
While issues like organizational justice and burnout were important before the pandemic, France St-Hilaire notes that they now affect people more directly.
“They or their loved ones have issues related to these issues, so it completely changes the class dynamic and the leaders even talk about their experience in terms of mental health, whereas before it was taboo, she explains. . All of a sudden, these issues became priorities. »
Adaptation
France St-Hilaire also points out that the content of the graduate micro-program in organizational health, for which she is responsible, had to be completely reviewed during the pandemic. “It was necessary to take into account the explosion of knowledge in the field and the reality which had nothing to do with that of 2019”, she specifies.
Vincent Rousseau adds that even at the baccalaureate, the nature of the case studies and of all the discussions in class has also changed.
“Everything is now tinged with the new reality,” he says. We are moving more and more towards an obligation of result rather than presence. It is even more important than before to have frequent training with people who are teleworking. Selection interviews are also now almost always done by videoconference. These are big changes, and we have to take them into account in our teaching. »