Staff morale affects your company’s success. During trying times like this, it’s important to keep your staff happy and motivated. Which can be an especially tough thing to do during the current Covid-19 scare in Singapore right now.
But the lack of staff morale affects your company in more ways than you can expect. Overtly stressed and anxious employees result in poorer quality of work, as well as disengaged employees. At times, it can even lead to a higher turnover rate, which will be detrimental to your organization.
Here are some ways to improve staff morale in Singapore during the Covid-19 pandemic by a trusted recruitment agency in Singapore, BGC Group:
1. Provide Employees With Basic Amenities
By basic amenities, we mean masks and hand sanitizers. Don’t forget to keep hand soaps well stocked as well. Forget everything you’ve read up about face masks and hand sanitizers being ineffective against the Covid-19.
Other safety precautions you can take up include providing each department with thermometers to monitor employee temperature. You want to make your employees feel as safe as possible. Additionally, the Human Resources department should also provide counselling services. This will provide employees with an outlet to express themselves. However, this should only be done if the HR department is equipped and certified to do so.
2. Communicate More With Your Employees
Fake news, social media, and slower connectivity rates are just some of the reasons why SARS wasn’t as a fear-mongering as the Covid-19 pandemic. But don’t brush away your employee concerns regarding the Covid-19 virus. In fact, a man in India, unfortunately, took his own life after being convinced that he was infected with the Covid-19 virus.
It’s an extreme example, but understand that your employees might be dealing with similar anxieties. One way to alleviate such concerns is by communicating more about the steps the company is doing should such an outbreak occur within the office premises.
You can keep your current employees posted with official news and updates from reputable websites either through chat applications such as Google Hangouts or even through weekly newsletters.
Learn more about effective communication with your employees in this article here.
3. Listen and Understand Your Staff Concerns
You can only provide the proper solution to fix your staff concern when you know what their concerns actually are. As part of the human resources team, it is your duty to talk to individual staff members to learn about their concerns.
When employees feel like their concerns are being listened to, they bring in several benefits such as:
-
Quicker Work Turnover Rates: Clearing your employee’s concerns can help improve clarity as well as maintain focus to concentrate and complete the tasks on hand.
-
Less Distraction: People’s imagination can often run wild. The gossip and rumour mill might create unwarranted concerns with no truth behind it. This could be a cause of distraction for a number of staff members.
-
Illustrate a Caring Attitude: Listening and addressing your staff concerns during the Covid-19 pandemic shows your employees that you care about their health, as well as their safety.
4. Inspire and Encourage Your Staff Members
One way to inspire your staff members is by showing them that management trusts them. How can you do this? Well, here are three ways you can inspire and encourage staff members:
-
Test ‘Work From Home’ Scheme: The Covid-19 pandemic has been dubbed as the largest global work from home experiment. Which is why your organization should take the opportunity to conduct the same experiment. This is the time to figure out if your organization is equipped for such a change.
In fact, the work from home scheme is one that kills three birds in one stone. Doing so makes your employees feel trusted, allows both HR and management to see if they’re equipped to work from home, as well as give you an option to test your Business Continuity Plan.
Learn more about how the steps you should take to ensure that your organization works from home smoothly here. -
Educate Your Staff on Safety Precautions and Measures: Education is the key to quelling rumours and fear. Take the time to teach your staff of effective safety precautions and measures that they can take. This is a simple way to encourage staff morale and keep collective fears at bay.
-
Be Transparent: Sometimes, the best thing you can do is prepare for the worst and encourage the downward spiral. One way to keep morale up is by divulging the organization’s “worst-case scenario” to your employees (e.g. pay cuts, unpaid leave of absences etc).
5. Keep Things Clean
Fortunately, good personal hygiene is one of the best protection against contracting the Covid-19 virus. A point stressed by Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH). One sure-fire way to improve morale is by encouraging frequent office cleaning sessions.
Whether it’s wiping down surfaces or limiting the number of non-employee visitors. Informing and communicating your employees about the measures that upper management is taking to limit the spread of Covid-19 is an easy way to keep morale strength up.
Learn more about the ways the Covid-19 virus as well as other frequently asked questions about the situation here.
6. Educate Staff Members on Insurance and Medical Claims
You want to encourage staff members and employees to visit clinics and the doctors as soon as possible. To do this, it is up to both the human resources department as well as upper management to ensure that the company’s insurance claim system has been communicated effectively to all employees. Easy access to medical resources is one of your organization’s best ways to keep your employee’s spirits high.
Pro-Tip: Despite it being the start of 2020, employers should consider providing additional benefits to their employees during this Covid-19 season. Additional medical coverage will not only help the employees get through this time of need. It will also allow your employees to feel appreciated and cared for the by company, improving overall morale.
Learn more about navigating the Covid-19 season and managing "work-from-home" schemes with some of BGC Group's Covid-19 themed articles below:
-
Invited Down For a Surprise Video Job Interview During the Covid-19 Scare? Here are 6 Tips For You!
-
Covid-19 Wrap Up: 6 Things HR Departments Should Take Note Of
-
4 Tips Mature Workers Should Take Note in Order to Survive This Covid-19 Pandemic
-
Covid 19: What to Do if Someone at Work is a Suspect Case
What are some measures that your organization has made to improve staff morale during the Covid-19 epidemic in Singapore? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
Read More: How to Avoid the Dreaded Job Burnout