Dr Rajkumar Singh
THE prevailing COVID-19 pandemic has
bought the entire world to its knees. Not
even a single country which also includes some of the world’s most powerful nations are able to cope up to this crisis. The only option to safeguard human lives is now depended on maintaining proper hygiene and practising social distancing. Most of the nations have declared a state of emergency and imposed lockdown protocols affecting every aspect of our normal life to its core. Having no choice left even organizations worldwide are now forced to adopt the culture of work from home for keeping their operations up and going. With no sign of effective cure any time soon we can only believe that it is going to be a very long fight and employers should be ready to absorb it. Even if the employees are asked to operate from home, it isn’t going to be an easy task for them amidst all the chaos going around. However, all thanks to the advancement in technology especially cloud-computing through which employers can now create a collaborative work environment with all their employees and associates virtually. There are various online tools that are now available at our disposal but the only thing that’s missing is the associated human emotion which is much needed to keep employees engaged and motivated.
Management of good work culture: We all know how difficult these times are with everyone frightened for their own lives as well as their near and dear ones. Focusing one thing has become very tough for everyone including our employees with all kinds of news floating around. Moreover, even working from home has its own share of issues which combined with other extrinsic matters can demoralize the employees. While most of you must have obviously taken up employee engagement seriously at your workplace but now the scenario has changed and now it’s a challenge to motivate our employees and keep them engaged. In the context, maintaining good communication with your employees is the first and most important thing that we should look into. Having strong communication skills is the sign of a leader and it is what our employees need right now. As an employer or a manager, we need to lead them out of their concerns and help them focus on other important stuff. Another tip here for us is to begin our day with a quick meeting with all the teams. This will help we both to stay on track for driving better results. Acknowledging the efforts of our employees is the main mantra for driving employee engagement. However, unlike in the office result we cannot just get out of our chair and approach our employees to convey our appreciation under the current circumstances. In addition, a cloud-based employee rewards and recognition system that makes sure you never miss a moment and recognize your employees instantly no matter where they are. Such a system also allows your employees to appreciate and even nominate their colleagues for various awards ushering a culture of peer recognition which is much needed in the present situation. Allowing our employees some flexibility to focus on their personal works isn’t a bad idea and it will help them get back to work with a free mind.
Management of employees’ mental health: Working from home for a prolonged period of time especially under these circumstances is surely going to a toll over the mental health of our remote employees. This arises due to the void where our employees are no longer able to experience their usual office culture. At the office, our employees get the chance to meet their colleagues and get involved in casual conversations which creates a very lively atmosphere around. The only way to mitigate this is to build a virtual community is among our employees where everyone can stay connected 24×7. This virtual community totally informal which would allow our employees to speak up their mind in a profound manner and maintain their workplace camaraderie even if they are confined to their homes. Just like in the workplace we can also hold virtual team building activities for all our remote employees. Team building activities are a quintessential part of every employee engagement program. Such activities involve various task that bring our employees together to work as a team and display their unity. Though organizing such activities is much easier when our employees are present near but, we can still host such activities online and involve all our employees with modern collaborative tools at their disposal.
Role of media and works of an employer: As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread around the world, uncertainty is growing among people; not only does the virus seem to evolve, public opinion about the outbreak shifts rapidly amidst the spread of unverified news. While the mortality rate of COVID-19 remains fairly low we are seeing new confirmed cases added to the global count each day, with no abatement to the spread of the disease in sight. The increased transmission in 210 countries with governments and companies taking more precautionary measures to combat this — travel restrictions, remote working and the activation of Business Continuity Plans are accelerating. But the internet has, unfortunately, proved to be a worse breeding ground for harmful “viral” infections than any live food market; the amount of unsubstantiated news circulating about the COVID-19 is unprecedented. This is a time of responsibility from both employers and employees. Corporates must show more empathy towards their staff, being transparent with business conditions and helping set clear expectations will help ease out stress.
— The writer is Professor and Head, P G Department of Political Science, Bihar, India.
Current pandemic and employer-employee dilemma
