In this blog, I am going to share some ways on how to support your employees during a crisis. Before that let me explain why you should support your employees during a crisis. Supporting your employees during a crisis greatly benefits your company as well as your employees. The COVID -19 pandemic has separated people from their workplaces, coworkers, and their daily routines have been upended. These can cause your employees excess stress and lead to them not being able to concentrate on the work, also the ability to work may decrease. We should support them for being open and honest, supporting them to maintain a strong connection within the company, and managing their mental health. These are three ways to support your employees.
1. Show Appreciation
Almost everyone loves to appreciate. During a crisis, mental health is also important, isn’t it? If your employees are working from home you can appreciate them with saying thank you, well done, good work or sending appreciation email or postcard to your employees. If your employees are working in the workplace together, you can present appreciation more visibly such as talking about an employee’s accomplishments during team meetings or mentioning their good work in conversation where their colleagues and/or superiors are present. This will help boost their confidence and can help their mental health.
2. Involve Employees in Decision Making
Asking your employees opinion is good for your business. They can see another angle that you may have missed, and their idea could greatly benefit your business. If you invite them to raise issues in the meeting, individually asking their opinion, included them in discussions in training session, and organize regular open forums for them to ask questions and share their thoughts they have a greater sense of belonging and ownership in the company’s success. Regardless of rank or tenure, everyone has the potential to add value to an organization, even if their ideas cannot be implemented, making sure you acknowledge their contribution and explaining the reasons behind your decision will encourage them to be more proactive in the future.
3. Being Open and Honest and Maintain a Strong Connection
Many of your employees may not be able to adapt to remote working and to the extraordinary circumstances brought on by the COVID – 19. We all have different workplace and employee relationship. I would like to suggest holding virtual team meetings to maintain links to their work colleagues. For individual support, I suggest reaching out to employees directly to offer emotional support or give them a time to talk through everything that they are experiencing or facing, and that the conversation will not have any impact on their performance appraisal. You can also invite people such as a psychologist to share useful resources and tips to help with situations they are experiencing.
These are the ways on how to support your employees during a crisis by showing appreciation, let the employees involve in idea sharing and maintain a strong connection with them can help the employees improve mentally and physically.
