Human resource management (HRM), as a crucial constituent of crisis management, has paramount importance in managing the employees and ensuring business continuity, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the constellation of such circumstances, this paper aims to identify the impact of COVID-19 on the HRM in organizations and provide recommendations for the development of long-term strategies, effective management practices and activities that are expected to result in increased employee satisfaction and retention as an organizational response to the crisis. Considering the dynamics and ever-changing environment dominantly, this paper attempts to contribute and expand the HRM literature by providing a comprehensive overview of the level of resilience of HR managers in North Macedonia to deal with a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic and valuable insight into the adequacy of the measures taken. As for the purpose of determining the impact of the crisis on the HRM practices, a structured questionnaire was developed and distributed to the top and middle management, HR professionals and employees in selected companies in the Republic of North Macedonia. The results revealed that adequate managerial responses to the crisis positively influence the organizational performance of the observed companies.

As the COVID-19 pandemic expands the proportions of its influence throughout the world, businesses are incessantly inspecting adapted techniques for developing a governance model that as core principles amalgamate the organizational change and digital transformation, inducing response to the triggered strong need of restructuring the management processes, marketing and communication strategies, organizational policies and procedures. By promoting a discourse that examines the impact of digitalization on the marketing communication channels in businesses, we aim to stress the importance of discovering a proper approach of developing business practices focussed on fostering a technological change in organizations and the development of adapted communication strategies. The dynamic nature of current marketing trends, increase the need of implementing innovative technologies and communication tools resulting in greater customer reach and customer retention. To improve the efficiency of marketing strategies, organizations should behold of the intraorganizational challenges and the potential strategic management approaches taken in consideration the regulatory and legal environments in which businesses operate. Hence, we attempt to identify the marketing and managerial implications of the current COVID-19 crisis and provide suggestions for proper resource allocation in terms of digitalization, resulting in enhanced operational excellence, effectiveness and efficiency. Notwithstanding the fact that environmental complexity led to organizational complexity as proposed by the contingency theory, it is out of major importance for businesses to find ways to enhance processes and utter digitalization in the marketing-communication strategies as part of organization’s internal environment, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.