Planning for social distancing is one thing, but planning for retention is quite another.
As we start to plan for employees to return to work, are we considering all the key factors to ensure the sustainability of our businesses?
Hi everyone
My here now things are very different at the moment we’ve all got let’s be honest. I’m precedent and environment so will lockdown COVID-19 is having an impact that none of us could have predicted but I wanted to think about what it is currently doing with our employees now and what it is that we may need to do in the future.
Many of us have got employees and maybe even ourselves that are furloughed or have been made redundant what impact is that making have we started thinking about the return of people to work now the government in the UK hasn’t said yes yet but it is weeks away and we need to start planning for that.
We can’t just open stuff up many businesses as we’ve already seen that looked at social distancing they put markers down they tell us where we can and where we can’t stand they put up cough guards some people wearing masks but I want you to think about this as to how we looking at the psychology and the behaviours of employees let me take you back a number of years ago I was made redundant but let me tell you the story of that because it’s really important I’d already been offered a role with a different division I accepted that role and I was going to be transferring but the transfer window was 3 months ahead within that 3 months time my division had had to make some roles redundant
I had a discussion with my line manager and director and said why not make my role redundant rather than losing another member of the team so intellectually I was happy with that.
Emotionally I was happy with that but interestingly as the week’s went on I started to think why was my role selected now as it happened the job that I was going to disappeared so I ended up being made redundant with nothing to go to but but the fact that even though I volunteer to go it had an impact on me and even with another role where I took voluntary redundancy we do get that feeling of I’m not loved I’m not wanted perhaps even if we wanted that redundancy ourselves when it comes to maternity leave and people being away many of us do kit days k i t or keeping in touch days where we reach out to those employees and we keep them involved in what’s happening within the organisation and we make them still feel part of the same thing we keep people tide tide in now one particular individual that I’m aware of he was laid off this is not in the UK but it’s overseas knowing that he was laid off for his health because he is at risk with health and now they pulled him back and he’s now feeling resentful as to why was either one of the ones that was laid off somewhere someone we seem to be forgetting that actually there is an emotional time I hear some people feel aggrieved that they were selected not to continue working so if you make people redundant or if you’ve got people on furlough or you lay people off temporarily under whatever framework done to maintain their engagement because what I suspect will happen is when people come back to work they will be thinking at some level this business doesn’t want me this business didn’t value me they laid me off but they kept other people on and that will sit and that will roll in people’s heads and ultimately I predict 6 to 12 months after the New Normal we will have a lot of people seeking new employment unless we can do things to engage so I employ you if you’re a manager if you’re a human resources manager if you’re a company owner or director what have you been doing to engage people to make people feel loved to help them realise that is not just the logic of laying people off or putting them out because you can’t afford to keep them all there’s no work but it’s about that emotional thing of am I loved am I wanted and I needed so my challenge to each of you watching this video is what is your strategy for both engaging with people while they’re not there when they come back not as giving them work and meaning for work but what are you going to do to help them feel that they are really really important to your business and much much more than you’ve done in the past what are you going to do to truly engage them so that they do not go off on that emotion think it was in their head of they didn’t love me as soon as it’s safe I’m going to find something else it’s an interesting challenge for a lot of us so whatever you doing out there protector front-line staff
My name is Mike Morrison thanks very much
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