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Coronavirus resistance recipe for your company
Most companies are still struggling with the effects of the COVID-19 situation, although everything started in March 2020, unfortunately, it is still going on.
The end of the year sounds like a perfect moment to rethink and create a holistic plan for current and future concerns. The sooner you get in front of this challenge, the better you can mitigate its impact.
Stay centered on your people
Think about how COVID-19 could affect your employees – including full- and part-time ones, interns and contractors. Keep in mind that people feel vulnerable and worried about themselves and their loved ones and their workplaces. You can help them by equipping them with the necessary tools supporting them in these hard times.
- Sick-leave policies,
- Support during remote work (laptops, monitors, office equipment, etc.),
- You need to think about how you can help employees with existing health problems, such as immune deficiencies.
By putting people first, we gain their trust, form a family team and create a feeling that we can count on each other. Everyone wants to be treated well and feel significant to the company.
Remote work
The impact of COVID-19 largely depended on one question: Can I work from home or am I tethered to my workplace? The virus has broken through cultural, social and technological barriers that prevented remote work in the past, setting in motion a shift in where work takes place, at least for some people.
Let’s focus on those who can do their work from home. Now it stopped being scary or unusual to work from home. Bosses aren’t any more afraid that their employees won’t be effective – pandemic has normalized it. So maybe there is a silver lining in this tragic COVID situation.
What advice do we have for you? Don’t be afraid to let your people work remotely. Using the right tools and implementing the techniques presented here, you can build an almost completely remote company formed with a great, united and motivated team, focused on the same goal.
Communicate openly
Consider a campaign to keep employees informed and engaged. Based on your company culture, do what you know will work to bring people together around a common goal. Open, ongoing communication can vanquish the fears and false rumors that arise when people are left feeling uninformed.
Start by introducing weekly meetings where people talk about their workweek and the problems they had to face. Later on, you can go deeper and organize remote events, which can bring people together, such as:
- St. Nicholas’ Day and secret Santa gifts
- birthdays,
- online meetings like Christmas Eve
Trust us- it will work 😉.
Launch clear, consistent office procedures
You may want to include plans and information on advanced cleaning, new sanitation procedures, changes in processes, meeting sizes and locations, visitors, guidance for work areas and common spaces, and additional personal protection. Look at how you regulate incoming goods to the workplace such as mail, chemicals, office supplies and food. Manufacturers will want to address matters of personal protection, health screening, cleanliness, work areas, deliveries and inventory.
The bottom line
It may be tough to see a silver lining, but when we weather this storm, you may discover that you have found an opportunity to unite people in new ways, and now we have grown stronger.
When your company rises to this challenge by putting your people first, you just might come through it more resilient than ever. In fact, we believe it will happen and we all make it through.
