With businesses bearing the brunt of the Covid’19 pandemic, most organisational heads find themselves looking for creative ways to initiate fruitful communication with their employees. If the organisations are to continue working remotely, the sincere engagement and contribution of the employees working from the safety of their homes, becomes crucial for organisational success.
In a situation like this, where uncertainty prevails, the role of business leaders and CEOs becomes extremely important. Not only are they tasked with ensuring the safety of their employees, but also keep them motivated to work and connected to their organisation’s aims and values. Discussed below are some tips that can help.
1. Invest in an employee handbook
When face to face communication is less likely to work, a certain set of guidelines in writing can help your employees considerably. The current epidemic can be utilised as an opportunity to check the efficiency of an employee handbook in keeping you connected with your employees.
Within the manual, you can publish the rules and regulations you wish to employ for the safety of your employees, and the repercussions that might follow upon an inability to follow them. Any change of policies that you have made, such as the attendance schedule, work timings, salary and bonuses, can also be listed to keep your employees abreast with the current scenario.
However, for your employee manual to work, it must convey clear cut guidelines, without any ambiguity so that your workers don’t find themselves reaching to conclusions you never meant to establish. If created sensibly, the manual can help in keeping your workforce connected and working as a single unit, utilising a company handbook builder like Air Mason can also help.
2. Accept the situation and show empathy
The worst thing that any CEO can do during these times is to pretend as if nothing has changed and keep on stressing on their employees for faster results. The pandemic is here to stay for a while; the earlier you realise that, the better it gets.
Concerns for their family’s safety, dwindling job security as well as a major disruption in their lifestyle will definitely take a toll on your employees. It is especially at times like these, that you need to show concern for your employee’s mental health as well as physical well being by empathising with them. Empathetic behaviour when followed by optimism and encouragement, registers better with your employees who find themselves motivated enough to continue working with enthusiasm.
Some critical messages such as the steps you are taking to protect them, do you offer job security and is the current situation going to affect their paychecks, can help to keep your employees abreast with the situation at hand and your efforts in dealing with it.
3. Communicate via video links and messages
The ongoing lock down and resulting work-from-home policies of various organisations has managed to disrupt effective communication amongst the workforce. Re-establishing communication might turn out to be the crucial step you needed to get your business running again.
When meeting your employees in person can’t become a possibility, communicating via one of the several video link tools can enable face-to-face communication to take place. Research has it, that a video conference can enable you to achieve higher levels of collaboration from your employees, whereby the sense of distance is effectively removed while keeping the dispersed teams aligned in their goals.
4. Celebrate and publish achievements through digital mediums
Working from home is challenging, and if your employees stay connected and engaged while producing quality work, they need to be rewarded. While rewards such as bonuses and a better pay can prove to be pretty motivating however most small organisations already suffering financially from the situation can find it difficult to compensate their employees economically.
What they can do instead is to publicly acknowledge the efforts of your star employees through snaps, messages or sharing their performance on social media platforms. Any kind of private recognition that comes from a person of authority, can help your employees feel respected and acknowledged for their efforts.
Being responsible for your business, dealing smartly with the situation caused by the pandemic is crucial to ensure that your business doesn’t fall prey to the global economic crisis. Your employees are the ones who ensure the success of your company, and if they feel the distance with their workplaces growing in, performing up to your mark might become difficult for them. Stay connected and hope for the best!
