Increase Employee Engagement: Listen to Your Employees as You Reopen During the Pandemic
Last week, our CEO J Rollins wrote a blog post about reopening our office and the unique challenges we've had to face as a software organization. As ETHIX360’s CCO and VP of Customer Experience, I am constantly engaging with clients and other HR and Compliance professionals on their current reopening challenges and possible solutions. Sharing challenges and solutions with colleagues has been a real test during COVID, but it is one of the things I love most about my job and profession.
Unexpected COVID reopening challenges are hitting all industries. I recently spoke with some compliance colleagues that work in manufacturing and I learned that they are having unexpected and unique challenges during the process of reopening their offices and manufacturing facilities. These colleagues are also setting a great example with some of their solutions.
In manufacturing, in-person interaction is required to build products, so, unlike some industries that could survive 100% remote indefinitely, manufacturing compliance leaders must figure out how to meet legal requirements and address employee concerns. Manufacturers are finding that meeting the CDC and State requirements aren't enough to ease the concerns of some employees to get them back to work. Here are some real situations faced by some of my fellow compliance and HR cohorts in manufacturing and how they handled them.
So, what do you do when…?
Situation: Your employees do not want to share their refrigerator with trainees coming into your facility to learn how to use your equipment. The trainees are new to the company, unknown to employees and must be allowed to enter the office for training. Some of the employees were concerned about "cross-contamination" from the trainees using the office refrigerator. So, what did they do and, more importantly, not do?
Resolution: The Compliance leaders listened to their employee's concerns, didn't try to dispute their logic, and simply came up with a solution. The manager of the office went out and bought another refrigerator and designated it for the trainees. The company required all of the contents of the refrigerators to be removed by the end of the day so they could be sanitized. Some of you may laugh at the absurdity of this, and others may agree with their actions. I think their solution was simple, elegant, and swiftly addressed their employees' perceived fears.Situation: You have a crucial member of your leadership team who is very uncomfortable being in the office due to COVID but comes in nonetheless because they recognize they are essential to the success of the company. The leader does speak up and says they are uncomfortable with the weekly all-employee meeting that is traditionally conducted in-person.
Resolution: In this company's case, they recognized the leader's concern and gave everyone the ability to participate in the meeting through a video conferencing tool. If this sort of scenario hasn't already been turned into a Dilbert cartoon, I think it soon will. If you took COVID out of the equation, a company wouldn't think twice about calling a concern like this silly. But the fact is, COVID does exist, and that means embracing "the silly" for the time being to help your employees feel safe. Let's face it, in-person all-employee meetings may not be gone forever, but they are definitely on hold for now.
These were just two of my favorite COVID related stories from my HR and Compliance pals. There were many more stories, and I noticed the one thing they all had in common was they were about putting employees first. I think Dr. Jim Taylor said it best "Perception is not reality, but, admittedly, perception can become a person's reality (there is a difference) because perception has a potent influence on how we look at reality." These organizations are not over-complicating the situation by getting caught up in a political or scientific debate with their employees, they are listening to their employee's concerns and addressing them to the best of their ability. Ultimately, listening will strengthen their corporate culture and improve employee retention. Employees want to work for companies that make them feel heard and valued.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Farmer is a seasoned ethics and compliance (E&C) professional. She has earned an MA in both Business and Professional and Applied Ethics and is a graduate of The Ethics & Compliance Initiative Managing Ethics in an Organization Program. Prior to and during her E&C career, Stephanie served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves and the North Carolina Air National Guard.
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