Human Resources Management Competences for Women Entrepreneurs Post Covid-19 Pandemic

Today’s women entrepreneur businesses have to be constantly alert and adaptive to unforeseeable occurrences, like external crises, which produce increased uncertainty among their employees and cause instant threats to the business’ performance, survival and sustainability. With the recent Covid-19 pandemic, organisations in Zimbabwe unexpectedly had to navigate the unique operating environment and thereby discover innovative solutions to human resource management challenges emanating across many facets of their business processes. This study aims to investigate the Human Resources Management (HRM) competences that can be adopted by Zimbabwean women entrepreneurs post-Covid-19 pandemic to remain resilient and competitive. The study employed a qualitative research approach and conducted in-depth interviews with saturation reached on the 15th interviewee from the retail and service sectors. The study used the subsequent criteria to select the women entrepreneurs who operated registered Harare CBD businesses with a minimum staff complement of 20. Findings indicate that the pandemic made the existing HRM skills obsolete hence the need to upskill to remain relevant in managing their employees. Women entrepreneurs need to upskill their communication, digital and leadership skills so that their businesses remain competitive after the Covid-19 pandemic. The study, therefore, recommends that women entrepreneurs also adopt strategies like numerical and functional flexibility, outsourcing and flexible working hours to mitigate HRM skills inadequacies so that their businesses remain sustained.