Have you stopped to consider whether or not your company is doing enough to support its employees this year? Between Covid, a slow economy, lockdowns, and other issues – the current crisis is not something that you should underestimate.
If you don’t actively take steps to support your employees, it can affect your entire workplace and increase stress levels. However if you do take action and support them it will show that you care, increase trust, and boost morale.
Not sure what to do? Here are some of the best pieces of advice to help you support your employees:
- Let employees know they should put their needs first
Right now most employees are under heavy pressure due to the impact of the pandemic on their personal lives. The best thing you can do is let them know they should put their needs first, take care of themselves, and reach out for help if necessary.
- Get managers to check in with employees
Try to have your managers check in with the employees under them and ask about their wellbeing. The checks should be done consistently, until the crisis is over. Aside from personally checking in, managers can use WorkExaminer to monitor employees and spot early signs that they may be facing issues.
- Keep the your door open to feedback
During a crisis it is more important than ever that you leave your door open and let employees know that you welcome their feedback. Doing this will let you identify and deal with any issues that come up, and will also build trust and show that you really do care for your employees.
- Be clear and transparent that it isn’t ‘business as usual’
The current circumstances will make running ‘business as usual’ close to impossible. It is up to you to take into account the welfare of your employees, determine what can and cannot be done, and be clear and transparent in communicating that to your partners and customers.
- Come up with a priority-based coverage program
Once you identify your priorities and the situation of your employees, you should come up with a coverage program that takes both into account. Any non-urgent tasks can be pushed for a later date, while employees can be arranged in a shift-schedule to take care of more critical priorities.
- Give employees time off to care for others
Make it a point to be flexible with leave during this period. Employees may need to take time off to care for friends and family or to isolate themselves. If you’re flexible enough, they won’t feel they need to choose between their commitments.
- Encourage teamwork and covering employees
Be sure to recognize employees who step up to the plate during the current crisis. Give incentives and highlight those who take on additional work or cover for other employees who may be indisposed. Monitoring tools such as WorkExaminer will make it easy to identify such employees and reward them.
- Implement an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Starting an Employee Assistance Program can ensure your employees get the help they may need. The EAP can include stress management, mental health, or even health and wellness stipends.
- Give employees time to cool off and recover
During this period it is likely that your employees are going to be taking on a heavy load covering for others. On your part you need to make sure they are given time to cool off and recover so that they don’t burn out. Using WorkExaminer will let you identify employees who are working hard for long hours, and you should ensure they’re given a break to recover.
- Analyze and learn from the experience
Once the current crisis is over, be sure to take stock of everything that happened. Listen to feedback from your employees, and use it to improve how your company handles any future crisis. The reports from WorkExaminer can also prove useful on that front, and you can use it to analyze the productivity of employees and determine what steps you could have taken to support them better.
As you can see none of these steps are particularly complicated and yet each will help you to support your employees and help them to get through these trying times. Keep in mind that by helping them you will actually be helping your company, and ensure that it is as productive as possible and able to keep its doors open.
The role that monitoring tools play should not be underestimated either. If you have the time you should check out this employee monitoring tutorial to see how you can implement it in your company. Being armed with the data from WorkExaminer will help you to make better decisions and lead your employees more effectively throughout the current crisis.