Employee Engagement during Covid -19 Pandemic

Introduction

The changes brought forward due to Covid-19 in organizations across the globe has been historical. Businesses were disrupted from the normal way of work and changes in work practices and organizational culture were experienced by working staff unexpectedly.  As a result, leaders and HR professionals faced the challenge of managing and sustaining engagement during these turbulent times. Hence, this blog post will discuss some key challenges faced by organizations along with suggested practices and its practical application.

Challenges

As Covid-19 was a global health crisis, in order to curb the spread of the virus, governments locked down cities or at some point the country itself with no definite time of re-opening. Thus, work patterns changed from full time office work, to work from home (WFH) concept or essential workers concept. Virtual teams, virtual leadership and management practices too emerged (Whillans, 2020).  An employee, while working from home, can play many roles; a parent, a caregiver, a teacher, a spouse or sometimes work on your own if living alone. All this could lead to employees developing feelings of isolation and disconnect from their organizational culture, which could lead to disengagement (Laker, 2020). For essential workers who are present at work, changes were both physical and mental. Working with personal protective equipment through out the day, fear of contacting the virus and spreading it to family and friends, or even isolation from family due to work. These all resulted in extreme stress, physical strain, a state of demoralization or burnout that could ultimately lead to disengagement (IHF, 2020).

Suggested Practices to Sustain Engagement

The responsibility of ensuring staff are engaged and motivated to carry out their work falls in the hands of leaders and managers. Laker (2020) suggests 2 ways to keep employees engaged; Connection and Recognition. Connection meaning, to have constant communication with employees to check on their wellness, mental health, workload challenges, and issues around balance while working from home. Consistent recognition will also boost morale, if employees are told they are doing a great job even during these uncertain times (Laker,2020).

SHRM suggests the following 5 steps to sustain engagement during this period (SHRM, 2020).

1. Prioritize communications – because remote working might bring in the feeling of isolation, it’s vital for managers and leaders to have strong communication with their staff. Communication must not only limit to work related but also to give them a sense of safety and care.

2. Set Clear Expectations – of what is required from them while WFH with timelines and targets. However, it must be noted that all workers would not have ideal WFH setup, so managers must be mindful of when expectations are set and agree on a win- win situation for both employee and organization.

3.  Recognize the Good work – one of best ways to heighten engagement. Even a simple email of thank you would suffice.

4.  Encourage work life balance – as WFH is a new concept for many, drawing the line between work and personal life could be difficult and could eventually lead to burnout. Hence as a manager it is imperative to strongly communicate the importance of creating boundaries for work time and personal time.

5.  Demonstrate a collaborative culture – employees feel more engaged if they feel they are a part of a team. As such managers must ensure employees understand even though all team members may not be in office together, all are working together toward the same common goal. 

Health care sector is an industry greatly affected by Covid-19. To manage the staff momentum hospitals provided staff with an extra pay for the high risk they faced. Although this extra remuneration did serve as a motivational factor, the following 4 actors were identified as a way of sustaining the engagement of the staff (IHF, 2020).

1. Protection & Well-Being - how well did the hospital look after their staff, physical and psychological well-being along with social and financial elements.

2.  Education & Training - did the leaders find the right and important information, educate and train the staff on new advances and continuous changes.

3.  Communication – good, direct and clear communication – top-down and bottom-up

4.  Guidance & Personal Encouragement – are the leaders present during day to day operations to listen to and provide guidance

In Video 1.0 Dr. Jennifer Thompson from Chicago school of professional psychology, shares strategies for engaging employees during a quarantine period and managing productivity. In her video she is emphasizing the importance of autonomy and trust and states to focus on results and outcomes rather than micro managing, which will greatly impact engagement.  

Video 1 – Engaging Employees during Covid-19

(Source: Thompson, J 2020)

Practical Application

In Sri-Lanka, in about 2 days of identifying the first Covid-19 patient in mid-March curfew was imposed within the country.  As stated in my previous blog post, the company I work being a quad play connectivity provider, had to ensure service was provided to our customers without any interruption. There are 2 types of staff in our workforce. Back office staff who could WHF and essential workers who had to be on the field or office to serve customer problem or at office to monitor network on a continuous basis.  At the start of the curfew respective chief officers spoke to their direct reports and had a discussion on how each operation could function in the new norm. Our CEO had a portfolio wise town hall to give more insights, on how this situation had impacted our company and what as employees, we had to do to recover from it. This gave a moral boost to the employees.  Communication from HR was continuous on various subjects ranging from safety, best ways to improve efficiency in WFH setup, encouraging our front line staff who are on the field and recognition for employees and teams who work remotely by way of e-flyers to all staff. All front line staff were provided with Personal protective equipment and special transport was arranged for staff who had to be in office. All these factors encouraged our staff and gave a feeling of being cared for by the organization which undoubtedly increased engagement levels. One main downside on WFH setup at the initial stage was drawing the line between work and personal life, where meetings were scheduled early in the morning starting as early as 7 am and going till about 8 pm or past 8 pm. This created a burnout of employees with negative feedback and dissatisfaction. However, HR swiftly addressed this introducing a policy on WFH practices. The meeting scheduling times were restricted from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, giving employees the authority to reject any meeting after the said time if scheduled.  Hence at present both WHF and front line staff work harmoniously with a good mind set of being assured that the organization does care.

Conclusion

In conclusion it could be stated engagement of employees in a  pandemic situation is a challenging task for all organizations and leaders and managers are the key to sustaining engagement.

References

How to Engage Remote Employees during Coronavirus Pandemic, 2020, SHRM, viewed 3^rd November 2020,

<https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/how-to-guides/pages/how-to-engage-remote-employees-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic.aspx>

Laker, B 2020, How to Keep Workers Engaged During the Coronavirus Crisis, Forbes, viewed 5^th November 2020,

< https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/2020/06/22/how-to-keep-workers-engaged-during-the-coronavirus-crisis/?sh=7b512009590f> 

Leadership Challenges in maintaining staff engagement and motivation during Covid-19, 2020, The International Hospital Federation (IHF), Bernex-Switzerland, viewed 3^rd November 2020,

<https://www.ihf-fih.org/2020/09/03/maintaining-staff-engagement-and-motivation/> 

Thompson, J 2020, Engaging Employees During Covid-19, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, online video, viewed 6^th November 2020,

< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAZ7fHkBT6U> 

Whillans, A (Assistant Professor of Business Administration) 2020, COVID-19 and the Workplace: Implications, Issues, and Insights for Future Research and Action, Working Paper 20-127, Harvard Business School, viewed 4^th November 2020,

<https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/covid-19-and-the-workplace-implications-issues-and-insights-for-future-research-and-action>