Covid-19 crisis: The best time to improve employee experience

The ongoing pandemic has radically transformed the way companies work. It has served them as an opportunity to rethink and reformulate their employee communication strategies. To keep businesses running like before, the talent management teams are influenced by the fact of delivering a positive employee experience to keep their morale and productivity high during and after the Covid-19 crisis.

The crisis is disrupting the work culture. It ishelping companies induce new ways of workingand communicating with employees. There are several different ways the management and leadership are using to drive an impeccable employee experience during the ongoing crisis.

a. Becoming a full-time leader in building trust
Coronavirus is a global crisis that has affected the health of humans and businesses. The sudden transition of employees from being physically present to working remotely results in a sense of insecurity at both ends. This has given a wakeup call to talent managers to support people who don’t feel safe, mentally healthy and financially secure at their jobs.

At this time, employees want to hear the words of encouragement from the influencers of the company. The leaders are taking a bigger role in rebuilding trust and reconciling employee communication. By creating a clear plan of communication and connection with employees, engaging them to share their opinions and concerns during the crisis can help them bring sustainability and credibility at the workplace.

b. Focusing on employee’s resilience and well-being
To improve employee experience, companies must stay strong with their employees than having them left in dark during the crisis. A clear understanding of challenges and their emotional and financial condition can help them reshape their experience. The main focus of leadership and talent management teams is to keep their employees well-informed, safe and positive during the time of uncertainty.

Additionally, leadership should focus on creating a culture that boosts social harmony. Now is the right time to take potential actions that can result in a strong team-building. It can look for ways to establish a network with random connections and value inclusion.

c. Embed relationship-building strategies
Employees are working remotely and at this time the companies must include managers to build a better relationship with their teams. Managers’ support is crucial to the messages of the company acrossand it can play a bigger role in influencing employee experience. They are the best people to share the company’s news and updates when employees are physically disconnected.

To build strong relationship strategies, managers can take potential actions in developing employee to employee relationshipsand make them come together to listen, talk and work on tasks like never before. Moreover, they can also embed the ideas of virtual talent shows and peer-recognition sessions to strengthen professional relationships.

d. Maintaining employee productivity and engagement
The Covid-19 crisis has made the companies worry about the employees’ productivity and efficiency. The better way to go is to make them understand the company’s vision and business goals. The visibility of a clear vision makes the employees be more productive and pay more attention to their designated tasks. For larger organizations, making the right use of communication technology can help in delivering the required message at the right time.

While employees are working remotely, the leadership should keep in mind to eliminate information overload that complicates communication structures. Too much information and content can create confusion, miscommunication, and low productivity levels. This will ultimately lead to poor employee experience.

e. Nurturing growth through online learning
In the pandemic scenario, physical or face to face training has been completely shut. It has accelerated the adoption of digital learning models. Coaches are leveraging the use of online training. Companies should make a comprehensive plan for learning offerings for employees. They can build a team of talent managers, IT and learning delivery partners for remote training of employees. Once the clear view of learning is in place, managers can prioritize what needs to be built.

With the strategic allocation of resources, talent managers should give priority to must-haves programs that can enhance employee experience. They can roll-out tropical programs for remote working skills, management skills and leadership skills. Further, they should design a dashboard to show the progress of the training for better employee growth.

To get a clear picture of how employee experience is going to create long-term sustainability for the company, establish a list of effective employee communication strategies. Powerful analytics can assist talent managers to have a better sense of employee experience. Besides, making effective use of technology can enable them to make the employees stay informed and productive while being more transparent and open to their managers. Evaluating different assumptions and understanding their implications on business post Covid-19 is the key to an improved employee experience.

Authored by Yogita Tulsiani, MD & Co-founder, iXceed Solutions