COVID-19 Workplace Best Practices: Employee Well-Being
The origin of the word Company is derived from the Old French term compagnie, meaning a “society, friendship, intimacy; body of soldiers”, which came from the Late Latin word companion, meaning “one who eats bread with you”. Companies have many components including missions, values, products, services but are ultimately made up of one critical element – its PEOPLE. During challenging times like this it’s critical to help balance your employees’ varying and competing priorities.
Employee well-being has become a popular topic in recent years because of its direct connection to employee engagement and productivity. This realization has given more meaning to the concept that we should see our people as WHOLE people and not just a human capital asset. Some companies are making good progress installing employee well-being programs while others haven’t yet started. Regardless of where you fall on this continuum, now is the time to reflect on what you’re doing for your employees’ well-being and make adjustments that this situation demands.
Here are four things to consider for employee well-being in a reality shaped by COVID-19:
1. Remote work – those who have traditionally been office workers have been forced remote and this introduces new challenges, especially if there are kids at home. Many companies are offering increased flexibility in work hours and scheduling to accommodate conflicting responsibilities at home.
- Here is a helpful article for parents working remote: How Working Parents Can Prepare for Coronavirus Closures.
- For leading a remote team: COVID-19 Has My Teams Working Remotely: A guide for Leaders.
2. Physical health – many companies provide health benefits, but they often include deductibles and co-pays that can be costly at a time like this, which are made worse if you have to take unpaid time off. Most insurance carriers are now covering the costs for COVID-19 infections and many companies are offering additional sick leave. Be sure to communicate your health coverage and sick leave policy clearly and continuously with your employees, especially as they can change weekly as more legislation passes and new guidelines emerge like those in the FFCRA.
- Most states and health providers have a plan outlined for health coverage. Check your state website to find out more.
3. Mental health – one of our employees, Ryan, who is also a mental health counselor put it well in an email he sent company-wide last week when he said, “…the pandemic is having an effect on almost everyone’s mental health in some way and many of us are struggling in ways big and small…”. What mental health resources are available to your employees either through you or through the community? Are you communicating those? Some health insurance companies have also added additional resources for mental/behavioral health for its members so be sure you stay up to date with your major medical health carrier’s offerings.
4. Food and safety – getting the timing right to both avoid crowds and get basic necessities can be a challenge for all of us, especially for employees who live with or are themselves infection high-risk individuals. The challenge is discovering this need and arming your leaders with real ways to care for their employees’ well-being. Ask supervisors, and whoever owns individual outreach as outlined in my recent article about connection, to add this to their check-ins. Connect with your employees, show emotional support, and provide tangible resources that can help.
- Here are a couple places you can order groceries to be delivered to your door: https://www.instacart.com/ https://www.aldi.us/en/.
Resources
5 Ways Emotional Intelligence Can Help Us Through the Coronavirus Crisis – Fast Company, by Harvey Deutschendorf, Mar 19, 2020
COVID-19 Workplace Best Practices: Employee Connection
Things continue to change quickly as each day passes. Every day, more cities and states move to institute Stay-At-Home orders. Just 5 minutes ago, I received an alert on my phone notifying me of the order to stay at home starting tomorrow morning. All this change and uncertainty can create feelings of stress, anxiety, confusion and fear. More than ever, people need to feel a connection, and there are things we can do as leaders, managers, coworkers and friends to help create a connection.
Connection
Feeling connected can help us feel a sense of belonging, shared empathy, care, and feeling wanted and needed. At a time like this, that connection is necessary regardless of whether your workforce is normally remote, transitioning to remote, driving a truck, at the hospital, or on a construction site.
Here are 3 best practices for helping your employees feel connected:
- Frequent communication – In the first article of this series I outlined the importance of an effective communication plan. No news IS NOT good news in a situation like this. Information reduces uncertainty. Even when there is nothing big or seemingly noteworthy to share, outreach alone can create trust and comfort in the knowledge that there’s still someone there. Consider sending a brief daily or every other day communication.
- Individual outreach – Assign someone the responsibility to reach out to every employee at your organization. Ask your supervisors to take this on. Everyone at a company should already have a supervisor, even the CEO. Ask every supervisor to reach out personally to each of their direct reports to check-in with them, ask them how they’re doing, provide any updates, answer questions, and thank them for their continued efforts on behalf of the company.
- Get together often – Encourage frequent informal and formal meetings for departments, committees, or even with the entire organization. This may not work for every job role or company but try to think outside the box. At People Element we recently found that virtual video get togethers can be as engaging as our in-person meetings. It’s hard to hide in the crowd on a video conference. We’ve had quick, 15-minute company huddles, department meetings, company-wide meetings, and a happy hour, all via online meetings. Consider having virtual lunch meetings, potlucks, or birthday celebrations. There are several good free video conferencing tools if you don’t have one: Zoom, and Skype are just a few of the many.
Resources
What Is Your Company Emergency Remote Work Plan? – Harvard Business Review, by Cali Williams Yost, Feb 28, 2020
COVID-19 Workplace Best Practices: Start with Communication
The impact of COVID-19 has found its way into all our lives in one way or another. We, your team at People Element, want to do what we can to help you and your employees through this time of uncertainty. We can’t possibly know all the challenges you’re facing but based on the customer conversations we’ve had and our own experiences, we’ve narrowed our focus to three critical areas: Communication, Connection, and Well-Being. Below are some thoughts and resources for the first of these areas: Communication. We hope these materials can be helpful in your efforts to navigate through this difficult time.
Communication
It’s not an accident this is listed first. We believe this should be the first priority at a time like this. Information empowers your people to make the best decisions possible for themselves and their families. We recommend you develop a communication plan that can be delivered by the highest levels of leadership as well as immediate supervisors.
Here are the 4 keys to an effective communication plan:
- Communication should be appropriately transparent and empathic
- Use as many delivery mediums as possible as different people best absorb information in different ways (company/department meeting, video, recorded messages, email, etc.)
- Establish an appropriate frequency of communications as things change rapidly. Even if you have no changes or updates, it’s important you keep your communication coming regularly – something like “We have no new updates at this time, but we will keep you informed as we know more.”
- Under the current circumstances, we recommend the following topics be covered:
- Financial status/health of the company
- Short- and long-term plan
- What employees can expect in regard to their job status
- Resources available to employees in need
- Where they can go to get questions answered
- Provide appropriate encouragement, hope, and gratitude for their efforts
Resources
Communicating with Transparency and Integrity – UC Berkeley
COVID-19 WORKPLACE STUDY FINDINGS
People Element has surveyed thousands of people about their employment experiences during the COVID-19 crisis.
Our report outlines our findings and is available as a free download.
