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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the entire world. It has affected both individuals and organizations alike, and in an unprecedented way. In these uncertain times the role of leaders has become even more important than ever before. Leaders are asked to help organizations navigate the stormy waters that lay ahead. However, they can’t do it alone.

Leadership today is required not only at the top of organizations, but throughout the entire organization. Every person can make a difference, with no exceptions! This requires highly motivated and engaged employees who can work effectively with remote teams. The employees that are needed must be highly productive, strongly connected, and inspired to innovate under these high levels of stress and pressure. 

In fact, even before the current crisis, many employees did not feel engaged in what they were doing. In a survey, Gallup found that as much as 50% of employees are actively disengaged from work at their organizations. I believe this number is much higher today with the mandatory work from home policy, plus the added pressure of the pandemic. People are much less likely to feel engaged working from home, even compared to the office.

Employee training and development is one of the most valuable tools at the leader’s disposal to help keep people engaged. More importantly, it sends a clear signal that employees are viewed as essential to help keep organizations afloat during these critical times.

For some leaders it might seem that this is not the best time to be thinking about training and developing employees. However, the fact is this pandemic will pass. There is a lot of pent-up demand in the market. Everyone is desperate to get on with their lives again. Therefore, once the lockdowns are over, we will most likely see a boom in the economy. Hence, organizations need to think long-term about what comes next. One example of forward thinking organisations can be seen in L'Oréal. Lóreal recently announced that among their initiatives to encounter the COVID-19 crisis. it will double its training for all 13,000 employees worldwide. They did this because they need them their workforce to be stronger than ever before once the crisis is over. 

As leaders, we need to remember that proper training and development will:

• Boost Productivity  
• Increase Collaboration and Communication
• Stimulate New Innovative Ideas
• Improves time management 
• Improve the organization’s reputation
• Increase engagement remotely  
• Enable a more resilient workforce  

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