ADDRESSING FEARS ABOUT RETURNING TO WORKPLACE

“The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”- Nelson Mandela.

During ancient times, the early men were afraid of animals, be it snakes, giant hyenas, eagles, snakes, wolves, or cave bears. To deal with this, they started living in caves to protect themselves from inescapable situations. Fear is a term that exists since life on earth does. This is because of the interaction that our thinking brain does with our emotional brain. The brain reacts to the situation when a person reacts to the situations around. That is how the current pandemic has entangled our lives.

Being challenged by the high number of Covid-19 cases, companies are grappling with how to bring the employees back to their workplaces, while keeping their safety at the top of the organization’s pyramid.

As per the survey support by KPMG, for 315 organizations, across 20 industries, only 48% of the organizations have taken a step ahead, to ensure smooth remote working. The survey also shows the extent of support provided to employees to facilitate remote working.

Here’s the analysis of the technical support provided to the employees:

While the average of the above facilities is approximately 34%, the fear of returning to workplace needs to be addressed, in order to build trust in the employees.

In addition to this, organizations have also taken up measures to ensure employee well-being.

A few of them are as follows:

·        HR e-connects

·        Well-being ‘learning sessions’

·        HR & Counselling helpline

·        Leadership memos

·        Revising Employee Assessment plans and health plans

·        AI-enabled pulse surveys

Now that work (happy) from home has become a new norm, a recent update by CBC news says that only 44% of the people are comfortable working outside their homes. Though people’s fear can’t be managed, the organizations can at least support them. The entire nervous system of the organization is to be altered.

Returning to organizations will be like fighting at a border, with high-risk conditions, but with adequate resources, safety and precautionary measures.

To address the fear of returning to workplaces, organizations need to look upon 2 major aspects:

·        Physical aspect

·        Psychological and emotional stability

The challenges are huge since the focus needs to be on every employee. We can broadly divide them into three categories:

To focus upon the physical aspect of employees (including onsite employees), the organizations must ensure certain precautionary measures such as:

·        Temperature screenings

·        Sneeze guards and other protective barriers                                    

·        Sanitizer dispensers & Regular sanitization of office space

·        Reminders to wash hands and avoid face touch

·        Food availability with safety measures

·        Social distancing norms

·        Emergency and accurate contact information to all the employees

To take care of the psychological and emotional stability of the employees, organizations need to:

·        Make sure that the employees who had symptoms before or have been tested positive for the virus are provided early engagement when they return to the workplace

·        Remove the stigma of mental health and instead provide counselors who can help or supervise employees suffering from anxiety or depression.

·        Bridge the gap by encouraging senior managers or HR managers to open conversations and share personal experiences

·        Focus on how things are being done and not just upon getting things done. For example, Pfizer has reinvented jobs to focus on higher-value work, after they realized that their highly skilled workers are spending around 40% of their time on non-value added tasks.

·        Make sure that the requests regarding mental health related issues are treated the same way as any other request and the employees are provided with flexibility at workplaces, since the situation is challenging and a balance of personal and professional life would be difficult than ever before

·        Engage in activities like sprint week or happy hours, with fitness initiatives on a regular basis.

The challenge would be greater for Gen-Z employees as it would become difficult to live up to their expectations, owing to the fact that they need a dynamic workplace, along with a healthy paycheck.

A global survey of 3,400 Gen-Z employees (age 16-35) shows that they would expect the following from an organization:

Organizations need to have a plan, before taking a step ahead in these uncertain times. While the challenges are huge, the employees need to be treated the way a child is treated by his/her parents. While the McClelland’s theory of needs is still relevant, the need for affiliation would be the topmost priority.

“While certain situations demand patience,

We need to look through the glass of emotional-intelligence.

If you express a willingness to help employees with their problems,

And pay heed to their valid reasons or arguments,

 Then you are, as they say-

A people-centric organization,

One that ensures empathy and motivation”