The COVID-19 pandemic and its ramifications have left the working world in a chaotic situation. Millions of people have lost their jobs, and many are on the brink of losing their jobs. Not just jobs, several thousand people have lost their loved ones to the pandemic.
In such a situation, most of the people are working from home. In fact, employers are trying to figure out new methods to increase employee engagement during Covid.
This article will walk you through innovative, simple, and sustainable ideas for employee engagement during covid. Keep reading to know more!
Why Do We Need Employee Engagement During Covid?
Before the pandemic hit us and the entire world went on a hiatus, offices used to work during fixed working hours. Employees would come and discuss and talk to their colleagues. Talking often helps as a stress-buster and makes employees feel at home.
Other than engaging with their colleagues, employees would also eat meals together, take part in team meetings, HR team building sessions, et cetera. These have always acted as a morale booster.
When your employees are happy with their work surroundings, they will be more productive and will want to engage more with the team. However, with strict lockdowns and offices shutting down across the globe, everyone is stuck within the four walls of their home.
What Do You Mean by Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement basically means the emotional bond and commitment an employee has with their organization, vision and goals, and co-workers.
Employee engagement is not related to higher salaries, employee work satisfaction, or being grateful to an employee after they complete a difficult task.
Lack of Employee Engagement: An HR Issue or Management Issue?
Understand that it is not a human resource issue. Employee engagement is a productivity and business issue. And if you are looking to increase employee engagement in your company, this article is the one for you.
The management must try to bring in new working mechanisms and policies which will help improve the emotional connection between the employees and the workplace. This will encourage them to stay committed to the company in the future.
Shifting to Online Workplace can be Challenging Without the Right Mindset and Tools
While you are going to shift your workplace to online, you must ensure a strong internet connection and a good configured device to work from home. You need to have access to some tools and platforms.
For meetings, you can use these platforms:
For file-sharing you can use these platforms:
You need to manage remote teams while you are going to shift the workplace online. These tools will help you to work together. It’s not a fact where you are now in the world. If you need to work on a document you can use Google Docs or Google Sheet. These let you work together and live word processing with the team.
Also, using cloud-based employee management software or HR software like PiHR, you can manage employee salary, shifts, tax, expense, or anything online related to your HR department.
Ideas for Increasing Employee Engagement Activities During Covid
Working from home was very challenging in Bangladesh. But during Covid-19, We have overcome the challenge. Now, we are used to working from anywhere. However, if you are looking to help boost morale in your company, we have curated a list of virtual employee engagement activities during Covid which you can try for your organization.
1. Weekly Team Building Activities
Come up with new exciting activities where your employees can forget their work and come chill together for a while. You can try staff engagement activities like Pictionary Nights, Friday Night Dinner Parties, Baking Sessions, or Hollywood Quiz Afternoons.
Ensure that your employees get less work on the days you have these events planned; otherwise, the turnout will be less, and they might not enjoy it much.
2. Create A Positive Environment
Understand that most employees have noisy parents or children at home who make working ten times difficult. Try to make your workplace more flexible in terms of deadlines, working hours et cetera.
3. Show Your Employees That You Care
With the switch in the workplace and the pandemic raging on, several employees have to attend to their personal needs. Show your employees you understand. Let them take time off for their needs or their mental well-being.
Try giving child daycare facilities, mental health days, parental leave, etc. Help them achieve a work-life balance. This will increase the employee’s engagement and thus also their productivity.
4. Frequent Team Meets and One-on-Ones
Keep calling team meets and also one-on-one meets to check in on your employees and encourage them to meet their deadlines. This not only increases engagement but also gives them a driving factor to work.
5. Reward and Appreciate Employees
Positive reinforcement has always helped encourage people to keep working or delivering good work. Appreciate employees during team meetings, applaud the best performer of the week, and send gifts like a surprise meal or maybe a bonus.
Such rewards will instill confidence and motivation in the employee, pushing them to work more for the company. This will also help them relax and be more creative and energetic during work hours.
6. Increase Communication Between the Management and Employees
This approach helps build trust between the management and the employees. If there are weekly or monthly meetings with the management where the employee is encouraged to voice out their issues and their progress, they feel more connected to the company.
When you listen to your employees, they will help you build a better team and thus a better company.
Workplace post-pandemic is gradually shaping up, but it is not easy to ease into the new normal. With people working from home, engagement between employees has declined to a great extent affecting mental health and productivity.
With these ideas and virtual activities, you can help boost the morale of your employees. Be more compassionate and kinder towards your employees. The times are difficult for everyone out there, but together we can get through it.
