How can Organisations Provide Support to Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The current global coronavirus pandemic has forced millions of employees around the world to work from home. Though this careful step is indeed saving lives by preventing the transmission of COVID-19, it does pose some significant challenges to employees’ well-being.

More and more employees are dealing with stress, anxiety, isolation and in the weeks or months ahead, this may take a toll.

Many organisations have created guidelines on how to set daily routines and check-ins and trying to balance work and childcare – all while maintaining good overall health and exercise habits. Yet this support is not enough for all employees.

So, how can organisations support the mental health of their employees, many of whom have never before worked from home for a significant amount of time?

Here are some options that organisations should consider when promoting employees’ well-being and health during this crisis.

Offer More Flexibility

Working from home impacts every employee differently depending on their responsibilities and current living situations.  With schools and childcare across the country closed, employees with young children need to maintain the balance between keeping the kids occupied while keeping up with their workload.

And that’s why it’s crucial for an employer to offer flexibility to match specific employee needs.

Managers need to have open conversations with their employees about when and how the assigned work can be accomplished and offer different, flexible options.

Show Empathy and Leadership

Employees may be feeling a sense of uncertainty, anxiety and heightened stress about their health, job and financial security. Managers should touch base and check in with their team on a daily basis and talk about things other than just work.

Remind employees to take mental and physical breaks, and most importantly to participate in other non-work-related activities like exercise and meditation to reduce anxiety.

Online Collaboration

It is easy to assume that employees will be effective working from home as long as they have the right technology but studies have revealed that working remotely is not as simple as it seems and conflict can emerge from different ways people communicate and use technology.

Some employees prefer to communicate via email; others may react quickly to chat programs. For some, reaching another person through a phone call is easier than other methods.

With the range of different platforms available, it is important for teams to work out which is the most effective way for them to work online as a team.

During this time of uncertainty and stress, the need to focus on your employees’ well-being and health is stronger than ever, and organisations can help by creating a caring work culture and implementing best practices for employee safety and wellbeing.

HBA Consulting specialises in the professional advice and assistance on Human Resource Management, Organisational Design and Industrial Relations matters.  Contact us today if you need assistance with coaching or mentoring for managers with teams working remotely.

How to Improve Employee Relations within Your Organisation

Starting a business is one great adventure to embark on; however, keeping it running at the same time is an arduous and painstaking job. While there are multiple factors that directly or indirectly affect the performance and growth of your organisation (business), whether your organisation fails or succeeds has a lot to do with the relationship shared among your employees.

Organisations where employees don’t find themselves comfortable with each other and struggle to maintain a cordial professional relationship with their co-workers, are in constant conflict almost always results in low productivity, poor performance and high turnover. So how can you go about managing or improving employee relations? By building a well-structured, fit for purpose human resource management strategy and framework.

Human resource management plays a vital role in promoting healthy employee relationships at work and helping to create an environment that brings the best out of each individual. With the help of human resource professionals, you can focus on the behaviour and interaction of individuals in the workplace and boost overall business performance, while minimising disputation and conflict in the workplace through the professional workplace dispute resolution.

In addition, here are a few tips that will help ensure the collective human resource management efforts positively influence the performance of your employees.

• Encourage effective communication among team members to prevent misunderstanding, confusions and conflicts.

• Encourage your people to understand the difference between personal and professional discussions at work.

• Organise relevant training sessions to provide opportunities to develop capability and capacity and keep people current and fresh in their chosen career path.

• Provide sincere and timely incentives in the form of meaningful recognition of work well done, which will encourage them to meet and exceed expectations into the future.

• Take some time out for some fun activities to help break the work monotony and boost communications.

• Ask for regular feedback and input from the people that you work with, to enable you to understand how the workplace is being experienced by the people that work with and for you.

With the involvement of HR professionals, all these simple strategies can help develop better understanding among employees of ‘what matters’ while encouraging them to use their skills in the best way possible to meet the organisational goals.

Positive Employee Relations Vital for Industrial Growth

‘Customers and clients never love a company until the employees love it first’, is an absolutely appropriate quote for how a business and its employees need to be able to enjoy work and understand what matters for clients in a way that means something positive to them. For long term businesses and financial growth, a working environment that promotes a good culture and respect between employees is a necessity for the success of any organisation. No business can afford to have unhappy employees as they are less productive and can spread this negativity to others in the workforce and also to the clients that they interact with.

In order to maintain good employee relations, a range of key factors need to be considered, including:

•  Building and sustaining trust
• Communicate positively and openly
• Expect the best from your people at all levels
• Creating a team spirit
• Giving genuine recognition and appreciation for good work
• Understanding and accepting responsibility
• Providing a positive environment

A positive employee relation begins with good communication, clear expectations and ongoing focus on keeping the alignment between work and objectives clear and consistent.

Where performance is problematic, try giving positive reinforcement to encourage and motivate your employees and to foster team building to boost employee performance in areas where it is needed. Always identify the areas of weakness to provide support and additional guidance when required to improve productivity.

Regular and consistent feedback to employees and genuine consultation about potential areas for improvement and change at workplace health and safety can improve overall performance and also encourage a cooperative workplace effort and minimise and potential industrial disputation.  To achieve great things in the market place, you must first build a great work place, and this starts with great employee relations.