This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic, as a disruptive external shock, has reshaped organizational practices, with particular emphasis on changes in work design and compensation strategies. Drawing on a unique dataset of over 1.8 million online job postings from Chinese publicly listed firms, we employed a large language model to systematically quantify work design characteristics. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we found that the pandemic significantly enhanced skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback, and work-from-home feasibility. Notably, these effects varied by occupational nonroutineness: occupations with high nonroutineness exhibited larger increases in task significance but smaller increases in other work design characteristics. Moreover, work design characteristics mediated the relationship between the pandemic and salaries, though these indirect effects were attenuated for nonroutine occupations. Additionally, we observed post-pandemic adjustments in firms' compensation, including notable declines in performance-related pay and insurance benefits, accompanied by increases in subsidies. These findings provide new insights into how organizations redesign work and adjust compensation strategies in response to large-scale external shocks.

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11 February 2026

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Human Resource Management 65(4) , pp.975-994, 2026

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DOI: 10.1002/hrm.70057

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrm.70057

This Journal article is published under the centre's Trade programme.