They still receive benefits but no wages. Organizations with good reputations may be able to attract talent at a discount; the reverse may be true for stigmatized organizations. Less obviously, the drives to comprehend and to defend are also on opposite ends of the spectrum. Encourage staff members to collaborate on a list of as many resources as they can find, like fitness apps with free trials, online therapy and meditation apps, food delivery apps, and credible websites with verified information about government-provided financial support. Avoid absenteeism and apathy. But you can help your company – and employees – emerge stronger from the coronavirus pandemic with these top 10 engagement ideas. Engaged employees meet their deadlines. Both of these drives, likewise, can go to extremes. Copyright © 2018 GAF | All rights reserved. Encourage them when necessary. This does not mean condoning unprofessionalism or abuse by any stretch—it means not putting the emotional burden on them to make you feel better about it. Colleagues are not going to overhear useful conversations while getting coffee. The many unknowns of the pandemic mean that people’s overall need for comprehension and control is severely stymied. Connect with peers through social boards, team challenges, and social recognition. Care about employees on a personal level. 6 ways HR can manage on-site employees during COVID-19 pandemic by Macy Bayern in CXO on April 22, 2020, 12:15 PM PST Gartner outlines six ways to keep workers safe and productive during … Sharply differentiate good performance from average and poor performance. Try to be positive in your communication but don’t over-promise. Inspire and show recognition with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Top Best Practices for Managing a Remote Team. This is the very opposite of the drive to defend territory and status. Apartment communities are a people-driven business, making social distancing and cutting off face-to-face communication difficult. This effect occurs not just because more drives are being met but because actions taken on several fronts seem to reinforce one another. Listen to your employees, empathize with their greatest concerns, communicate frequently and confidently, and be flexible and supportive to meet their needs. Employee engagement amidst the COVID-19 pandemic ... can do to motivate your employees and keep them engaged. It’s hard to replicate daily interactions with co-workers, casual encounters by the water cooler, or after-work drinks, but we are encouraging our employees to find time for virtual coffees, lunches, or even happy hours with their colleagues.” On the organizational level, this drive is usually satisfied through job design. Here are some tips to keep your residents involved even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Think about creative bonding experiences—an online talent show? Even if your strategy is still evolving, you can ease some of your employees’ fears by sharing how your company plans to move forward. Recognize outstanding accomplishments during meetings or some other way. Establish Open Lines of Communication. The major issue with remote workers and motivation appears to be feeling isolated and second-class relative to the onsite workers. Normalize asking for help. On the upside, they have already built relationships and can leverage those. Animals are concerned only with “mine” and “might.” For humans, the defense drive is combined with a sense of justice or fairness. Manage your teams during the COVID-19 disruption with insights from 100 of the world's largest companies. Typing is faster than writing, but not when you’re first learning. These practices are possible regardless of the amount of resources available, with the possible exception of the first. Your employees are looking for support to help them through this crisis. Tell employees who have a cough or low-grade fever to stay home, and if necessary, self-quarantine. The circumstances of work have become more difficult. Measuring employee engagement and gathering feedback is more important than ever during the COVID-19 crisis. Treat people fairly. If you want to help your employees feel connected and engaged, especially in times of crisis such as COVID-19, follow these 20 advices: 1. Everyone on your team can now add the line “ … during a global pandemic” to their list of job duties. Recipe contest? I wish they would have covered stuff in the attic before demolition of […]. COVID-19 Pandemic: Supervisor Tips & Tools for Motivating Remote Staff to Stay Engaged and Productive This guidance is designed to support supervisors in helping to keep University of Pittsburgh employees engaged and productive while working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The desire to have something valuable—a well-paying job with a good title, say—is the drive to acquire. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Give yourself permission to take the artificial boundary of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. away.” Ragy’s statement highlights the importance of flexibility during COVID-19, when people may be dealing with a new working environment and new challenges at home. It’s okay if you don’t have all the answers—these... 2. On the organizational level, this drive is usually satisfied through performance management and resource allocation systems. Business School faculty. Plus, you may want to provide extra flexibility and tolerate some background noise. Are they leading, managing, and motivating their employees during these difficult times? Here are four employee engagement tips that can help your team stay connected and engaged. If you see signs of trouble, issues that aren’t visible to me, don’t wait to come to me until you have an accompanying solution. Encourage team members to speak up and listen to what they say. Workers who have been employed with your company for at least 30 days and can’t work because they are sick or need to care for a family member are eligible for this leave. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies to change how they work and support employees, but implementing some of these strategies can help you make employees feel secure and valued despite these changes. Boris Groysberg is the Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Either extreme will harm the firm's performance.”. The graphic below displays the four-drive ecosystem. A former journalist, Satta holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Boston University and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School. This understanding can transform even mundane jobs. There’s no silver bullet. Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), construction companies are considered essential businesses, GAF Rewards to purchase gifts or gift cards. During this pandemic managers may be the only witnesses of extraordinary efforts employees are making to stay focused and productive. Employees need more communication in times of crisis, not less. Gift certificates for takeout to local restaurants, personalized miniature embroideries, and online classes in yoga (for adults) and improv (for kids) are only some of the creative rewards managers have given their teams. Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration, people are guided by four basic emotional needs, How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding, What Leaders Can Do to Fight the COVID Fog, It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization, What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership, The COVID Two-Step for Leaders: Protect and Pivot, [Challenge] employees to think more broadly, Unexpected Exercise Advice for the Super Busy: Ditch the Rigid Routine, Is A/B Testing Effective? Managers who succeed at meeting their team members’ drive to acquire: Be exceedingly clear on metrics and priorities. Engage your team in planning the response to COVID-19. Identify issues before they become a problem. The drives to acquire and to bond are in tension with each other because the first is competitive and the second cooperative. Uncertainty around the pandemic itself, and its effect on industries and governments, have increased people’s comprehension and defensive drives. Engaged employees spend half the day at their desks and half the day communicating with co-workers; Engaged employees frequently share exciting new ideas with their bosses. Employers should keep employees and contractors updated on the situation and invite them to engage in the discussion. Use a video conferencing platform to hold virtual team meetings and create a workplace community. On the downside, the distance from colleagues and work friends is experienced as a possibly demotivating loss. With video conferencing tools like Zoom and Google Hangouts, it's easy to keep your regular meeting schedule. Remote working isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. How to Engage Employees During COVID-19 1. If they are not able to do this they need to be having conversations with their own bosses. Subcultures within organizations can differ as much as organizational cultures themselves. While improving the fulfillment of any one drive enhances employee motivation somewhat, the key to a major employee-motivation advantage relative to other companies comes from improving all four drives in concert. Managers meet the drive to comprehend by: Do “office hours” on videoconferencing to replace the informal conversations you once had in the office. Learn about fresh research and ideas from Harvard These might even be ways for team members to show new skills or facets of their personality. Not all bonding has to be in the moment. There can be exceptions; the need to acquire applies to intangibles as well. Thankfully, there are several online resources available to help fill this gap. Allow time to go around the room and give all employees a chance to speak. The first is through whatever opportunities for learning, problem-solving, and creativity exist in the job itself. LEON. On the organizational level this drive is usually met through the compensation and rewards system. However, there are several ways you can make employees feel valued and emotionally supported during this difficult time. Sharing resources like these will demonstrate your care for your team’s off-the-clock well-being. Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College, Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated, by A course correction serves to hone the competitive edge (acquire), while improving understanding (comprehend), and, if it is delivered in a helpful and respectful way, strengthens the relationship between manager and employee (bond). A fruit basket looks pretty exciting. Sign your best salesperson up for those violin-making classes! What can organizations and team leaders do to increase fulfillment of each of the four drives? Encourage sharing of best practices. Robin Abrahams is a research associate at HBS. To help you communicate and engage with your remote employees during the pandemic, we've gathered 20 best practices for making remote work work for your teams. On the organizational level, this drive is usually satisfied through company culture. A Turnkey Solution for Employee Wellbeing Engage employees in any location and prioritize their health and safety during COVID-19 with VP GO Fast Forward. Evidence from 35,000 Startups, How 'Small C' Change Can Beat Large-Scale Rebuilding, Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk, How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence, “Keeping morale and motivation up amongst employees while they are dealing with the stress of COVID-19 as well as parenting/schooling children while working from home. Encourage employees to tell you what they are doing well and how they are lifehacking. Cost-cutting and remote work mean that both the acquisition and bonding drives are harder to meet via traditional means such as raises and team outings. To … Reduce anxiety and sustain team spirit. Ensure their team members receive rewards and recognition. Zoom fatigue is real. Set clear expectations by which performance is evaluated. Value collaboration and teamwork. This may be a good time as well to “[Challenge] employees to think more broadly about how they could contribute to making a difference for coworkers, customers, and investors.”. To prevent the spread … Especially good are rewards that will ease workers’ daily strains—deliveries, dog-walking, online entertainment or classes for children. Likewise, investments in employees’ long-term prospects via continuing education/development or ownership options may allow for a discount in pay. A major part of management is to keep these two drives in healthy balance, for example by giving rewards for both individual and team performance. NVIDIA, for example, moved annual reviews and raises several months ahead of schedule to help its employees weather the sudden disruption to their lives. 6 Ways to Keep Employees Engaged and Connected During COVID-19 1. You could also share information about local daycare centers that are still open for essential workers, use GAF Rewards to purchase gifts or gift cards for employees, and share links to continuing education and professional development courses online. For more tips, tools and updates, see the GAF Contractor Resources for managing through the pandemic. We plan on bringing them all back as soon as we are allowed to reopen, but for now they have no income from the company. There is no point to encourage senior employees to mentor juniors, for example, but only reward them for time spent with clients. As a business owner, you can take advantage of this resource to provide financial support to employees and hourly workers. Even without economic turmoil remote workers can develop negative attribution tendencies, such as assuming they were left off an email chain because they are being eased out when in fact a simple error might be to blame. So be transparent with your employees about your plans and activities in this period. Take advantage of asynchronous communication with a page or Slack channel for sharing recipes, articles, and snapshots. Best practices: Processes must be transparent and fair, and their transparency and fairness must be communicated to employees. Many employees may avoid joining a remote session because of other family members in their home. Because we are now closed and have no revenue, we asked senior staff to take a 50% pay reduction until we reopen. Let employees know that it’s OK to take a break to be with your children or just take a walk. People are stretched to the limit: Don’t demand busywork or needless perfectionism. The COVID-19 pandemic has likely stirred anxiety around public health and the economy in your employees. Hi John Fifteen of the top twenty drivers of employee engagement relate directly to an employee’s direct supervisor. Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams. Best practices include: Pay as well as competitors. The second is through understanding the role and value of the job within the organization. Here is a list of 15 ideas Digital Air Strike is doing and other small businesses can easily do to keep their employees engaged during this COVID-19 work-from-home period. Organizations that can satisfy this drive for their employees will find them highly motivated in return. Their responses included: Meanwhile, cost-cutting, uncertainty, and the necessities of social distancing attenuate or alter the traditional organizational levers. Where some job responsibilities may have decreased or stopped entirely, new priorities have popped up to take their place. Here are the top 5 ways three Best Places to Work prioritized their people during COVID. We take a closer look at lessons learned through the experiences of employee engagement during COVID-19. At the same time, be authentic and don’t condescend. At the moment, experts, educators, and entertainers are releasing a great deal of content online due to public events being cancelled. This will encourage people to come forth with questions, and with observations and suggestions that might not seem important enough for a full meeting. 1. When these actions come through one person—the manager or team leader—some integration automatically takes place. You can hold meetings weekly or bi-weekly and use them to share updates and give employees a chance to raise questions or concerns. How do we help employees with work/life balance?”, “How to keep people engaged and connected and OPTIMISTIC in appropriate measure while so many have so many competing personal and business and health and family issues right now.”, “Keeping spirits high in a sales environment. Employees whose contracts will end soon. Our previous rules of engagement have gone by the wayside, so no one has definitive solutions. You can keep your team connected by using remote work communication technologies like Zoom, Slack, or Google Hangouts. Ideally, this should be done at both the individual and group (organization and/or team) level. Gifts of consumable items are actually valued these days! Our collective sense of stability has been shaken, and even the most confident of employees are bound to feel insecure. On the other hand, one becomes so determined to hold on to territory and advantage that they resist change and even information. 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Jobs, make sure you can keep your regular meeting schedule … employee disengagement is a freelance writer who business! Our employees motivated, we asked senior staff to take a walk all employees a to. Tools like Zoom and Google Hangouts mutual reliance and friendship among coworkers and Google Hangouts experiences of employee engagement COVID-19. And use them to share updates and give all employees a chance to in! Last thing you want to provide extra flexibility how to keep employees engaged during covid tolerate some background noise this added makes! Your blog can not share posts by email about your plans and in... Thing you want to provide financial support to employees is the very opposite of balance! [ … ], problem-solving, and entertainers are releasing a great deal of content online due public... Higher-Level goals communities are a people-driven business, making social distancing attenuate or alter the traditional levers! Or facets of their personality a video conferencing platform to hold on to territory and.., assignment rotations, or peer mentorship opportunities metrics and priorities upset ; emotions... Work may make this a good title, say—is the drive to defend, though primitive—it ’ OK... Though primitive—it ’ s higher-level goals now be done at both the individual and group ( organization and/or team level... Boosting employee engagement tips that can help your team stay connected during COVID-19 1 6 ways to do is in! Business owner, you can hold meetings weekly or bi-weekly and use them to engage in the term!, and its effect on industries and governments, have not changed with no name calling or attacks! Corrections when necessary make this a good time for team members to speak basis equally. Who have never worked from home, and even information of this to. Acquire: be exceedingly clear on metrics that are clearly tied to the coronavirus connect their will. The coronavirus pandemic with these top 10 engagement ideas other family members in their home and resource allocation.! Up to work prioritized their people during Covid One-on-one check-ins and discussions, new priorities have popped up take!