Effective Ways to Check-In On Your Team’s Health Amidst the Pandemic

What are the ways to check-in on your employees during the pandemic?

1. Surveying them
2. Share your own experiences
3. Offer support
4. Have a one-on-one conversation

 

In these times we live in, it’s important to be there for one another. Many of the comforts that we’ve been used to in the past have had to be altered. For many industries, they’ve had to forego options where their employees would have to be physically present in the workplace. Work from home arrangements have become the norm and will undoubtedly continue in the coming months. Knowing this, it’s important for companies to conduct an employee health check as a way of gauging the wellbeing of everyone in their team.

Working during this time seems to be, in many ways, absurd. It may even be more senseless to expect employees to produce the same level of productivity that they’ve exhibited in the past. Yet they need to get by because they have families to feed and other people they need to financially support. Those who belong to company management may not entirely be aware of or have a good grasp of their employees’ respective situations. As such, it’s important for management to be aware of their team’s welfare around this time. Continue reading to learn more.

 

Surveying them

Small and medium enterprises may not exactly know the most effective tools for managing their employees’ expectations around this time. The absence of physical presence may not be able to be fully replicated through ineffective online platforms. However, one of the best ways to mitigate this is through the use of employee engagement surveys. These are fairly easy to distribute to your team through more convenient means.

Surveys show employees that the management is looking out for them and is concerned about their welfare. This is a way for you to show that you understand the many stresses the COVID-19 virus has befallen your employees and informs them that you’re always listening to their needs during this difficult time.

When crafting survey questions, it’s important to be direct and specific. Questions like “What are your current concerns?” will better assist your employees in getting their message across. They may voice their frustrations with health and financial matters, or even the way the management is handling the pandemic. Knowing this information would allow the management to make the necessary changes in order to accommodate their valuable team.

 

Share your own experiences

People need to feel that they’re not alone during this time. Though there is a presence of a hierarchy between the management and the employees, it’s important to understand that the management is composed of humans too.

Sharing your own experiences makes your employees understand that they’re not alone in the struggle. The last thing they need is a group of people who seem to be above everything or who separate themselves from their team. By doing this, you’re giving your employees the opportunity to open up more about their experiences.

 

Offer support

Your employees may not necessarily want to reach out to you in fear of them being judged for doing so. This is why it’s important that the management takes the initiative of offering any kind of support your company is capable of doing.

For example, you may want to offer financial support. For those who may not be able to access the internet around this time, management may even have it in their heart to procure these devices and services for them.

In offering support, make sure that you’re coming across as a support system that is doing everything in its own volition. You wouldn’t want to force your employees to have a sense of gratefulness. The only way this is made possible is by doing everything from the kindness of your heart.

 

Have a one-on-one conversation

Meetings conducted online as well as video conferences have also become commonplace around this time. While there is nothing inherently wrong with conducting these, they may not necessarily target your employees’ most pressing concerns. This is because large-scale meetings lack authentic personalization which the employees might feel to be generic.

Luckily, holding one-on-one conversations with each member of the team supplants what is missing in a structured setup. In normal meeting arrangements, not all employees may find it welcome or safe to voice their opinions and issues. Through private conversations, they’re able to more freely express themselves without fear of being silently judged by their peers.

This is not only a way for the management to understand their employees’ individual situations, but also to get the employees in line with the concrete measures the company is taking to support the former’s mental health.

 

Key Takeaway

It’s important now more than ever to conduct an employee health check as a way of keeping yourself informed about the welfare of your company’s workforce. These people are an essential part of your business. The management is one of the groups of people to look to when it comes to providing them with adequate support during COVID-19.

By disseminating engagement surveys, having personal conversations, and sharing your own experiences, you are in some ways easing any stress your employees may feel around this time.