How should employers prepare for the new normal?

The word quarantine comes from “quarantena”, meaning 40 days, in 14th century Venetian language. It came into force during the period of the Black Plague and designated ships to be isolated for a minimum period of 40 days before the passengers and crew could go onshore. Albeit not as deadly as the black plague (at least not yet), these are unprecedented times that we live and work in. Almost a million people are infected by COVID-19 and most of the World is locked down. The global economy and millions of enterprises are witnessing a devastating impact. While the leaders of companies of the World are reviewing various V, U, W and L scenarios in virtual boardrooms, one thing is increasingly certain - there will be a new normal once the lockdowns are lifted. 

Employers cannot afford to wait and watch. No Government and no economy can sustain lockdowns for a long time and there will come a time when Governments will leave it to the best judgement of enterprises to tide over the next several months of this crisis. The shape and extent of reversal of the business fortunes of companies depends squarely on how employers ride the new normal, which may last for the next 6-12 months. While a lot can be written and said about managing business and cashflows in this period, this article focuses on the core aspect of getting employees back to work while ensuring their absolute safety. 

The period of lockdown should be the time for preparation. But where should employers start, especially in this uncharted territory? Here are a few recommendations, many of them inspired by the excellent response of nations like South Korea and Germany to this crisis:

Create segmented actions for every employee and execute proactive interventions

From the evidence on infections and fatalities, it is clear that age, travel history, co-morbidities (like hypertension and diabetes) (see source) and fresh symptoms (like a fever) are key drivers of COVID risk. Furthermore, employees performing factory or customer facing roles are more exposed to an infection. While a COVID risk score (see China health code system) may be a bit extreme, the need of the hour is to ensure real time visibility into employee health.Mandate a health condition and travel survey to be filled by every employee during this lockdown period. Additionally, leverage all recent medical data (either volunteered by employees or from mandatory health check ups done in the last 12 months). For people who absolutely need to show up to work, enable a mechanism to record employees’ daily temperature in a digital health database through facial recognition.

These insights could be leveraged for several proactive actions. For employees displaying fever or other symptoms, enable an immediate consultation with an empanelled doctor, followed by testing (if prescribed). At a minimum, isolate such employees until full recovery. Consider topping up health insurance for certain population groups who are at risk (e.g. older employees with hypertension). When test kits become more prevalent, mandate a monthly swab test for “at risk” employees. (Testing in the new normal - learning from Korea)

Collaborate… even with your arch rivals and crowd-source information

Just like nations of the World are coming together to share medical research, breakthroughs in vaccine / cure etc., companies need to aggressively collaborate during this period. Open channels of communication with war rooms of competitors. Share best practice (e.g. new norms of social distancing, work from home methods etc.) and critical information (e.g. outbreak of infections, symptoms at a location / population level). Set up common infrastructural partnerships for insurance, medical consultations and testing. 

Lead from the front and install a 24X7 employee helpline

The following months will create an emotional and psychological distance between those who need to serve their organisations from the frontline and those who have the luxury to work from home. Leaders cannot run war rooms from their homes - they need to be facing this crisis head on - just like their junior colleagues. Similarly, middle managers cannot conduct virtual huddles when their teams are fighting on the frontlines. Rallying employees and keeping them at work requires dismantling of traditional pyramids and creating logical “circles” instead. Wartime demands empathetic leadership and not arm chair chieftains.

Communication is a 2 way street. Encourage employees to report symptoms, infections and test results. Answer employee questions around doctor consultations, testing and working from home. Clarify and address employee concerns. Conduct pulse checks and run AMAs (Ask me Anything’s - see Bill Gates’s AMA) at regular intervals. Make a clear distinction between requests / information which could be automated and queries / concerns which require a considered human response.

Establish a psychological support cell

It is natural for everyone to be anxious and stressed at this time. Many employees may even be depressed. In addition to the fear of illness, there would also be a fear of losing ones job and a general sense of gloom and doom. Psychological help needs to be available on demand (e.g. DISHA by the Kerala Govt.) at this stage to help employees tide over this crisis and manage stress, fear and depression.

Adopt a humane approach to rationalisation

In the event of a long haul fight, there is a real tradeoff off between employee support and business loss. In such cases, it is natural that the survival of the business will be prioritised. However, before handing out pink slips, businesses must first review all possibilities of securing cashflows without rationalising jobs. If employee costs absolutely need to be cut, there are precedents of companies doing this without laying off their staff. Here, larger companies will do well to take a leaf out of the book of a few innovative pioneers and start ups. In addition to switching off all discretionary expenses, these companies have looked at a consented short term compensation cut across the organisation in order to prevent immediate rationalisation (a few examples). Ultimately, however, loss of jobs maybe inevitable. Even in such a situation, employers can manage layoffs with dignity - reduce the fear in their remaining workforce and set an example for other organisations. Some examples could be to set up an outplacement cell, to extend health insurance for rationalised employees and to continue psychological support for such employees.

A nimble and proactive war room

Executing a crisis response is very very tough as is. It is going to be incredibly hard in this unprecedented situation. While most companies have established a war room, they need to shift gears to initiate proactive measures. For instance, they need to plan and execute sprints around health, travel and business all at once, when data and events may change on an hourly basis. Employers need to build an integrated model to action this. For instance, health data, business metrics, travel plans, diagnostics, logistics, tracking, cure and insurance need to be activated simultaneously and not in silos.

Working from home is the easy part…

There is no time to lose. Companies need to quickly move on from the battle of “getting used to working home” to fighting a medium term war against Covid. Staying at home and doing Zoom calls is the easy part. Surviving and thriving in the new normal is the real test.