Engaging with Your Human Capital Is Critical during the pandemic
Covid-19 has caught the whole world sleeping. This is unprecedented and is on the rise. Remote work was an exception earlier, has become a necessity. Business Survival is on the edge.
Initial days of work from home has given people to catch up with their families and devote more time to work. Every one of us has cherished it.
But it also brings in unwanted situations like ever diminishing boundaries between personal and professional lives. The initial euphoria is gone, and life has become monotonous again. Despite the rise of social media, we all are so used to physical connection. You and your Employees will start feeling unfocused, disengaged.
“Burnout (from WFH) is real. As a leader or HR manager, your role in keeping them engaged, in line and happy has increased more than ever.”
It is your responsibility to help your team cope well with these new norms and maintain a healthy virtual ambience even during remote working during isolation.
Here are some pointers to keep them connected and happy;
1. Communicate
Keeping in touch with the team is crucial in a time when you don’t see them regularly. Don’t just email or text message, engage them in video calls, conferences to keep them active. Decide agendas for your meetings and give them tasks and discuss their progress as well.
Study shows that 7% of communication is the words used, 38% is the tone and inflexion and a staggering 55% was body language. If you just email, you lose 93% of the message. If you only call, you lose 45% of the message. But video conferences allow you to get nearly 100% of the message delivered and makes your presence felt.
2. Adapt
Working on the internet at home is different from working in the office amongst your team and has a driven ambience. The tactics of the office do not work the same when it is work from home. For a productive workforce, you need to adapt to remote working and analyse its pros and cons. This will help you build a strategy to motivate your team.
Managed Silos is going to be a new norm. Managed silos are the smaller teams being effectively managed by their managers. You need to train your managers well.
You would have to focus on every individual as well. For an effective team, every employee must be in sync with the others. You should become more familiar with their working pattern and adapt to their new one. Only then you can work on them and bring out the best in the team altogether.
3. Set their Goals daily and review them daily
Your employees must have a set of goals/tasks to achieve daily. Help your team develop their goals/tasks, as a manager fine-tune them. This way employees will become more productive. You must help your employees to achieve a work-life balance Assigning them daily tasks and setting a deadline motivates them to get the work done.
Consequent to goals, you must also praise and reward your team when they complete a goal. That is the best way to motivate your employees and promoting a positive workforce.
4. Set Boundaries
Let people know that you respect their boundaries. Do not push them to engage in work after normal working hours. Respect their boundaries and they will dedicate their hours without much effort to greater work.
5. Re-energize
This time might become mundane for most people locked in their houses and working on their devices all day. You should encourage your employees to participate in extra-curricular activities. A powerful HRIS makes everything possible. Give your employees something to bond over and break the monotony. Be it a book club, sports club or even a movie club.
The lockdown can be harder on people living alone. If any of your employees live alone and have no one to keep company, merely conversing for work purposes can cause burnout. You should engage in conversation outside of work as well to keep your employees engaged and positive at all times. Having fun activities to do promotes a healthier mindset. It refreshes the mind and helps them become energized and focused.
6. New skills
This time may be the best opportunity to sharpen their skill set. Utilise this time to focus on each employee and help them with online courses and training programs to hone their skills. You can allocate each individual an array of options to choose from and enhance their skill set.
An HRMS software with a broad Learning Management System will make your work easier and your options diverse. Give them a chance to broaden their horizon a gain better skills. Time is of the essence and managing time productively is the best way to use it.
7. Feedback
It is important to know how your employees are coping with this sudden change and how it is affecting their productivity. You should encourage your team to be open and frequent in their feedback. It will only improve your way of management and give you a better understanding of your employees.
A feature to communicate during this time is essential. When you communicate and encourage feedback it helps employees feel more comfortable and open up. It should become a habit to be open about their opinion about your techniques. Working from home is a new concept and there is no correct way to go about it. You must figure out at your own pace along with your team
The pandemic has disrupted the world altogether. Working during this time isn’t ideal but a necessity. The global pandemic is revolutionising the workplace. It is the need of the hour to adapt and change our ways to suit remote working. Make the best of this time and empower your team and motivate your employees.
Necessity is the mother of all invention
