Human resource teams across the world have been forced to deal with the immediate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their employees. This involves simultaneously having to go digital, setting up remote working structures, revising employee engagement strategies and putting the right measures in place to ensure the best possible outcome. While working from home is possible, I have to admit that it comes with its own set of challenges for both employees and employers. My role as a quarantined CHRO is to face these challenges with empathy and tweak our strategy in a way that keeps everyone safe and connected.
The Covid-19 outbreak has thrown our routines for a toss. With work from home once being a choice offered to employees, it is now the new mandate. From an HR angle, here’s my take on how to generate an apt ‘human’ response to this global crisis.
1. Communicate, communicate, communicate
I cannot stress enough on the importance of staying connected, especially during a crisis. At GHF, we kick off the day with a quick catch up over a video call that helps the team set goals and collaborate better. Working from home automatically cancels out the opportunity to hop over to a colleague’s desk for a chat, gather together for lunch or grab a cup of coffee. While I do miss the in-person team interaction, it doesn’t stop me from reaching out to a team member for a virtual break. Communicating with your team allows each member to contribute frequently and re-creates the familiar feeling of team-work in office. Through it all, it’s essential to keep in mind that this is phase is unlike any other work-from-home scenario. Our people have the added tasks of household work, looking after children & their school coursework, engaging young kids & extended family, while at the same ensuring health & hygiene. During work calls and VCs there are times when kids whizz by, pets walk across the laptop or cooker whistles in the background. These are all real parts of our lives and we must not stress out our employees about them. Allow your teams to share little slices of their lives on video call sometimes. In fact make a session of it where you invite each other’s kids or pets on call.
2. Prioritize employee engagement
Although it might seem bleak to carry out the usual employee engagement activities, I believe that there is no better time to focus on employee happiness. With families currently being cooped up at home for days on end, working amidst the chaos can definitely raise a few hairs. Engaging your employees digitally not only highlights the importance of employee well-being, but also boosts productivity levels across the organization. An empathetic HR response is as simple as reaching out to employees to understand their current state of mind. Use this time to work towards building a conversation around how to handle sensitive issues, discuss conflict resolution tactics and provide tips on managing overall well-being. Additionally, ensure that HR teams and team managers are reaching out to individual employees every now and then. Even if it’s a quick chat, a voice of genuine care and concern can do wonders.
And it’s not just your current employees who need support. People who are yet to join you, also need an occasional reassurance that they are very much a part of your community and that you as an organization are looking forward to on-board them soon.
3. Make time for self-care
You can never pour from an empty cup. There are two aspects to this, both equally important. Firstly, it’s a good time to invest in self-learning. Offer options where employees can access online learning tools. Courses from public domains like Udemy or LinkedIn Learning include valuable resources and are cost-effective for companies. Encourage learning, with a special emphasis on how the time saved in commute can be used in other ways now. Alongside this, have open discussions about every individual’s stress-busting technique or hobby. Someone might enjoy painting, someone might lift weights, others might just meditate to their favourite music – Motivate employees to pursue their interests and prioritise them just as much as work.
Secondly, apart from learning, the other key aspect to focus on is wellness. Make sure that your team knows that their well-being counts above everything else. We have recently announced an employee assistance program which provides counseling support to employees via the online medium. This is a time for us all to realise that mental health is a major priority and should be acknowledged and addressed. Here as well, a healthy conversation on the topic will encourage employees to reach out for help when they need it. Being socially isolated and locked down doesn’t just take a toll on mental health but also on physical fitness. It’s not a normal situation and so your encouragement will matter in pushing employees to make the effort to exercise and eat right. More than anything else, it’s important for each one of us now to keep our immunity up.
4. Digital inductions
On-boarding employees is pretty straight-forward for most organizations. The current situation demands a complete revision of the usual on-boarding process. Keeping the human element at the forefront, I recommend setting up a video conference call with your team to introduce them to the new hire and vice versa. This allows everyone to put a face to a name, making it much easier for the new employee to initiate communication with other team members in the next few weeks. Your ‘virtual on-boarding package’ can even consist of key information about the organization, quirky facts about team members and instructions for any software that they might need to use. Similar to an in-office scenario, don’t hesitate to assign a remote work buddy to support the newest team member. At the backend, work in collaboration with the IT team to set up any online training tools that can be shared with the employee, and make sure that all the small wins are celebrated with everyone including the newest joiners.
As someone who is constantly working with others, I place immense value on transparency and building a culture where employees feel comfortable not only in their roles, but also with each other. The pandemic has undoubtedly disrupted processes and future plans across all sections of society. Whether it is quarantined parents juggling work and their children or world governments locking down entire countries, humanity is aligning itself with one goal – getting through this, together. From an organizational standpoint, my responsibility as a leader and as a citizen is to continually ensure the well-being of my team and encourage everyone to support each other on all fronts.
Ruhie Pande 