An Empirical Study of Digital HR Before and After the Pandemic in the Retail Sector in West Bengal

Avradeep Ganguly () and Gouranga Patra ()
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Avradeep Ganguly: Adamas University
Gouranga Patra: Adamas University

Chapter Chapter 8 in Pandemic Diaries, 2025, pp 125-141 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In the present study, an effort is made to look at the advancement of digital HR practices in the retail sector of West Bengal focusing on the transformational changes that took place before and after the virus COVID-19. Digital HR refers to the use of IT tools for various HR practices like selection, training, performance management, and employee engagement. Through the ages, transformation from manual to digital HR practices has been a slow process that has been driven by technologies such as cloud computing, mobile technology, and so on. However, less adoption of digital HR, mainly in small and medium enterprises is due to financial constraints, resistance to change, and lack of technological know-how. Especially in a COVID-19-affected period, firms needed to meet the crisis by upgrading the prior technologies being used. The correlational analysis showed that there is a strong positive relationship among digital HR practices both after and before COVID-19. This demonstrates that companies which already made investments in digital applications before the pandemic had the capabilities to overcome the crisis a little bit more. Attractiveness to using digital technologies for recruitment, training, performance management, employee engagement, and remote work support is indicated arising from both high correlation coefficients and consistency in the usage of those tools during the crisis. The research team found that the pandemic has been a shot in the arm for digital HR practices. This research is infallible, irrefutable proof that full adoption of digital HR practices is an irreplaceable, non-negotiable competency on executive teams.

Keywords: COVID-19; Digital HR practice; HR tools; Selection; Training; Performance management; Employee engagement; Remote work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-96-5415-4_8

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-96-5415-4_8

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