How Can You Boost Employee Morale During COVID-19?
How do you boost employee morale during COVID-19?
- Focus On The Essentials
- Dealing With Onsite Employees
- Keep An Open Line Of Communication
- Try To Be Positive
Boosting employee morale during COVID-19 is very important. During these times employees are worried about their standing in the company and how the company is dealing with the pandemic. It’s no secret that staff morale affects the company’s success. It’s especially tough to monitor everyone when there is a new normal being implemented. The lack of staff morale will directly affect your company in more ways you can imagine. If your employees are overly stressed and anxious, this can result in poorer quality of work. Here are some ways you can help with the morale of your team.
Focus On The Essentials
During this time, it’s important to prioritize what really needs to be done. Extra activities that are not necessary only add to the stress and anxiety levels of your employees. As much as possible, you should try creating a normal routine that contains only the essentials and priorities. Make sure your leaders are focused, and they’re making efforts to communicate with everyone clearly. Miscommunication is very rampant during these times and maintaining a clear line will help the company figure out priorities. If possible, try dropping any non-essential activities. Focus efforts on priorities to prevent the team from slowing down.
Dealing With Onsite Employees
If you’re a company that has a lot of onsite, essential employees, it’s important to take care of them now more than ever. There are many different protocols to implement and practicing this new norm will help keep employees safe and healthy. Investing in on-site hygiene amenities goes a long way. Hygiene amenities should include face masks, alcohol, hand sanitizers, and hand soap. There are many articles that suggest these hygiene amenities are ineffective against COVID-19 but it’s better to have a line of defense against the virus than being empty-handed.
Once hygiene amenities are dealt with, proper social distancing guidelines should be worked on next. Prioritize minimizing physical interactions. Frequent physical interactions put your workplace at risk. Each department should also have a contactless thermometer available to monitor temperatures throughout the day. If an employee feels sick, allow them to go home as soon as possible. Employees need to feel safe during these challenging times.
Keep An Open Line Of Communication
To fix staff concerns, it’s important to listen with unbiased ears. The human resources team will have to work harder to listen and learn about staff concerns. Anxiety and other mental health issues are more rampant during this time because of fake news, social media, and social distancing. This can be fear-inducing as no one can truly predict what will happen next. Don’t brush away your employee’s concerns and listen to them. Employees might be feeling extra anxious, lonely, and even depressed. To alleviate these feelings requires small steps at a time. Communicating about the steps you’re taking to get through the crisis will help employees calm down and feel more secure. It’s also a good idea to keep everyone posted with news and data from official, reliable sources to keep everyone updated and informed about certain situations.
When employees feel like they’re being listened to, there are tons of benefits to reap from reinvigorated employees. Work turnover rates are much quicker as they are more focused and clarified. They are less distracted by anxieties and rumors going around. They are also more careful around peers and will be less likely to spread their negativity around.
Try To Be Positive
If you show your employees you’re struggling or that you’re constantly showing negative attitudes, this will clearly reflect on your employee morale. Perhaps a fellow employee is showing signs of disdain during these times and is sharing it publicly. As much as it’s good to have an outlet, some can be directly affected. This can lead to a change of point of view and can even lead to more anxiety and depression inducing situations. As mentioned in the previous section, communication will help these out. But if you’re management and you’re showing signs of your ship rocking and sinking, the crew may feel like they need to abandon ship. Try to be as firm as possible with your resolve and avoid toxic positivity. Be realistic with what’s happening without being too pessimistic.
Key Takeaway
Boosting employee morale during COVID-19 will help keep your business or company afloat. The following tips and tricks should help you foster a positive and growing new normal within your workplace. Be sure to prioritize tasks and avoid spreading negativity during these times. Make sure that both you and your employees’ physical and mental health are on point to keep productivity levels high. Lastly, remember that an open line of communication will help everyone work well together and keep everyone on the same page. Remember these tips and tricks to help everyone feel safe and secure this season.
