Category: Employee Morale

Crisis Management: Employees and COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

Published by Brett Holubeck on April 17, 2020

Image of a medical person to illustrate employees that are working through the COVID-19/Coronavirus crisis. — Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash

Anyone that is working right now is aware of the coronavirus. It is all over the news and is impossible to avoid. Every day the death toll is updated, and more infections are found. Moreover, the news reports are saying that the US may face 18 months of rolling shutdowns. The reality is, businesses will be dealing with COVID-19 (the Coronavirus) for the foreseeable future.

Last week I gave some tips on managing remote employees in light of the COVID-19 crisis. This week I thought I would talk about managing and working with the employees that are on the front lines: the essential workers.

What is an Essential Worker?

Most states are following the guidelines from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) regarding what is and what is not an essential business. Some states have issued additional requirements on what is an essential business. Texas is following the “Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response” from the CISA also.

The CISA has several categories of essential workers by industry including 1) healthcare, 2) law enforcement, public safety, and other first responders, 3) food and agriculture, 4 energy, 5) water and wastewater, 6) transportation and logistics, 7) public works and infrastructure support services, 8) communications and information technology, 9) other community or government-based operations and essential functions, 10) critical manufacturing, 11) financial services, 12) chemical, 13) defense industrial base, 14) commercial facilities, 15) residential/shelter facilities and services, and 16) hygiene products and services. You can read more about whether a business essential here.

Basically, essential workers are the ones that are striving to keep the country running by curing people that are sick, providing food, manufacturing needed goods, and making sure that everything is continuing to operate in this crisis. They are still coming to work every day. They are the nurses working in the emergency rooms putting themselves at risk with people that may be affected with COVID-19, the grocery workers that are stocking the shelves and serving customers, the nursing home staff that are caring for patients, and the food processing workers that are continuing to make products. They are the millions of people that are fighting day in and day out to do their best to keep people safe, fed, and cared for.

What Are They Feeling?

Employees are stressed. Businesses are worried. For employees that are “essential employees” many are extremely concerned about getting sick. Some of them are getting their wills done in case they die from the coronavirus. They are facing their own mortality in this crisis. Many are worried about taking care of their kids. A few are not going home because they are afraid of spreading the disease. Some essential employees are worried about paying their bills.

How Can Companies Help Essential Workers?

Safety Comes First

Employers must take action to keep employees safe and show employees that their safety is important while the world is facing this crisis. Some companies have already started to be sued by employees that have gotten COVID-19 at work and more lawsuits are sure to follow. There is a lot that employers can do to help prevent employees from getting sick and keep them safe.

Post the OSHA poster on COVID-19 in your workplace and follow the recommendations within (it is available here). You should also post information about washing hands around the facility.
Make efforts to obtain masks and other protective equipment. If you are able to obtain masks, then you should require employees to wear them. If you cannot obtain sufficient masks, then you should suggest employees wear masks or other cloth coverings that they bring from home if they are available.
Contact your worker’s compensation insurance provider to ensure that they are prepared to address any COVID-19 related claims in the workplace.
Follow all CDC recommendations to the extent possible at your operation
You should also follow guidance from OSHA regarding protecting employees.
Transition employees to remote work if possible.
Clean and disinfect all surfaces that are touched by employees frequently (doorknobs, light switches, microwaves, coffee makers, keypads, and other flat surfaces).
Space out employees in areas like hallways and lunchrooms.

Employees need to actually see that you are doing these things to understand how their employer is engaging in crisis management. Now is the time to emphasize your open-door policy. Employers should hold meetings with small numbers of employees, provide memos, and post fliers to explain all of the steps that they are taking to care for their employees. Managers and supervisors should call employees that are working remotely and essential employees that are present to ask how they are doing. Managers should ask employees if there is anything the employees need to do their jobs. Companies must empower employees to bring problems to your attention. Any employee complaints should be taken very seriously, and immediate action should be taken, if possible, to remedy the problem. Employers should then follow-up with employees about the steps that were taken to correct the problem.

If Employees Walkout

Employees have a right to walk out because they are concerned about COVID-19 and their safety in the workplace. This action is a type of concerted action that is protected under Section 7 of the NLRA. Employees refusing to work because they believe that they are in danger are also protected under Section 13(a) of the OSH Act.

Employees should not be disciplined, terminated or threatened if they walk out. Employers should try to address any issues that the employees raise about their safety and take additional steps to ensure employees that they are doing their best to keep employees safe after a walkout occurs. The best thing that employers can do to prevent a walkout and address any fallout from one is to constantly communicate the steps that they are taking to keep employees safe and make adjustments as employees raise issues and as new guidance on keeping a safe workplace is released. Companies should follow all guidelines from the CDC and OSHA to ensure that they are doing all that they can do to keep employees safe.

Conclusion

Crisis management is different than the day-to-day operations of a company. This is the time when companies can either succeed or fail, when your employees will either believe that you care about them or not. A good company will act because they care about employees. Employees recognize when an employer actually cares about them and this causes their morale to increase.

Employers have a great chance to build morale and better their company. Every business is unique, so every company needs to conduct its own assessment of its workplace and workforce to determine the best approach to take. The worst thing that companies can do is to keep working as if nothing has changed. We are in a crisis. COVID-19 (the coronavirus) has dramatically changed the workplace. All companies need to recognize that and take action.

The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, then you should speak with a lawyer about your specific issues. Every legal issue is unique. A lawyer can help you with your situation. Reading the blog, contacting me through the site, emailing me or commenting on a post does not create an attorney-client relationship between any reader and me.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.

March Madness and Workplace Distractions

Published by Brett Holubeck on March 16, 2019

Picture of a basketball hoop to show that March Madness is coming and employers can expect more workplace distractions — Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I’m not going to name names here, but two of the men in my family are obsessed with March Madness (I’m looking at you Kent State & UC). I am pretty sure I’m not going to be able to speak with them until April 9th, and maybe even later, so they can process, appreciate, and get over the drama of March Madness. This is like a 2nd Superbowl for sports folks, or for my wife and sister, the equivalent of the season finale of the Bachelor (and yes, Colton, I know you jumped the fence.)

Now what happens when we put these people (like my family members) in their desks at work, when seemingly the most exciting thing of the year is taking place. Chances are your basketball enthusiasts are a) live streaming the games at their desks, b) have ESPN open for the play-by-plays, c) viewing their brackets after every single game, and d) speaking to other co-workers about it.

Why am I writing about this on a Labor and Employment blog? Is it a problem that your employees are paying a lot of attention to something else besides work during the work day? Would it surprise you to know that even outside of March Madness, your employees are oftentimes thinking about something else (e.g. Is my Amazon package yet delivered?) or the usual culprit, updating or perusing their social media accounts?

In short- No. It shouldn’t be a problem that your employees are humans and think about, talk about, and care about something besides work as long as it isn’t a sign of a bigger problem like a lack of workplace engagement and isn’t preventing an employee from doing their work in a significant way. Unfortunately for employers, big events like this result in lost productivity because people are paying attention to these events at work.With March Madness in particular, over the course of the tournament businesses lose a total of around $4.6 billion.

When Workplace Distractions Aren’t Momentary- It Can be a Sign of Disengagement

Workplace distractions can be a big problem. They can result in severe workplace accidents or damage to company property (like this distracted bus driver). While workplace distractions usually don’t result in accidents, they frequently result in lost productivity, and oftentimes the lost productivity can be due to employees that are not engaged at work.

According to Gallup, 34% of US workers are engaged in the workplace (enthusiastic and committed to their work and their employer). This is the highest engagement has ever been since Gallup began measuring it. On the flip side, 13% are actively disengaged (miserable at work) and 53% are not engaged (they show up and do the minimum to keep their jobs but would change jobs for a “slightly better offer”). Disengaged employees do poor and less work. In fact, one survey of office workers in the United Kingdom found that office workers only accomplished about 3 hours of work in a day with the rest of the time spent checking social media, surfing the web, and doing other personal activities.

Everyday Distractions: Social Media Usage at Its Finest

One of the biggest sources of workplace distractions is social media use by employees. Around 77% of employees have used social media during the day. Should you stop this? It depends.

Social media use, provided that it is not affecting the employee’s work, may be permitted. Many employees that use social media at work are doing it to take a mental break from their work. Employers that block social media on the work computers, which may be necessary in some workplaces, simply shift social media use to the employee’s own phone.

The current generation has a different idea of work-life balance than the generations that existed before smartphones, texting, and social media. People want to be connected with their friends, spouse, children, and other individuals throughout the day. The days when an employee could only communicate with their spouse if the spouse called the company’s phone line are gone, and that is a good thing. Social media and texting allow people to stay connected.

Banning social media is probably a wasted effort because employees will work around the rule. The same goes for texting and phone calls with their loved ones throughout the day. There are some work environments where employees cannot have phones and where phone use has to be banned (construction sites, food processing areas, etc.). Employers should ban the use and having a phone in these areas when necessary.

However, most employers should allow their employees to take minor breaks to use their phone and only intervene when an employee is not performing up to your standards. Employees that fail to meet their production targets or finish their work because of their social media use will probably not become great workers simply because you banned social media use in the office. Moreover, banning social media use because of one problem employee is a great way to upset other workers that perform their jobs well.

March Madness: An Opportunity to Engage Employees

Now let’s circle back around to a workplace distraction that we know is coming- March Madness. Your employees are already thinking about March Madness, so why not capitalize on it as a way to engage them (even those who are not into sports)? One of the best ways to do this is to allow everyone in the office to create a bracket and to award a trophy with bragging rights to the winner. In an office setting, employees can post the brackets on their door. You will have more frequent distractions because employees will be talking with each other about their brackets, but many employees that do not frequently interact will have a chance and a reason to which allows them to build relationships.

If you have an office pool, then you need to remember the regulations regarding gambling. Eight states (Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) have legalized sports gambling and 2 have passed bills that would allow sports gambling. In the rest of the states, gambling on sports is illegal and companies should avoid a sponsored office pool with any kind of buy-in.

When rolling out an engagement activity, employers can mention that (of course) you still expect employees to work (this can be said in a way that comes naturally when outlining out the event/activity will happen). Employers will still make sure that employees are meeting their weekly production goals and will discipline or counsel employees (when necessary). However, be careful not to punish employees for something you’ve engaged them in unless absolutely necessary:

Don’t be mad that employees talk about the games, when you’ve done this to build camaraderie.
Do tell the person who has taken it too far and created a viewing room in their office where they have done no work in weeks that they have taken it too far.

Nothing lowers employee satisfaction quicker than telling employees they are in trouble for having fun the way you wanted them to.

A Note for Employers- Bathroom Talk: Is your Employee Using the Restroom Too Much? (TL;DR They may be Pregnant, so Don’t Ask)

While we’re on the topic of distractions let’s review a very common one- going to the bathroom? One of the most frequent complaints that employers have is that an employee is using the restroom too much. The immediate question that needs to be answered before the employer seeks to do anything about it is how is the employee performing? Is their performance still adequate with more frequent restroom usage? Is it less adequate? Issues about bathroom frequency can quickly turn into issues that could relate to a disability or knowledge that an employee is pregnant. It is better to never ask about an employee’s bathroom usage or counsel an employee because of it. The key is to focus on the employee’s performance.

For example, an employee may have the habit of using the bathroom right before a store opens. However, it may be a part of his job duties to be at the register when the store opens to ensure that he can assist any customers as they come in. By focusing on the performance issue (the employee is not at their station when they need to be) you can address the problem.

What Really Matters? Productivity.

In short, employers should always focus on productivity and quality of work, regardless of the presence or absence of workplace distractions. Ultimately, employers need to ask whether the employees getting the work done or are they not getting the work done, and is it good?

Here are some things employers can do regarding productivity:

Employers need to measure productivity. In some jobs this is not easy to measure (they may not have a quota or set amount of sales to make, etc.). However, you need to know whether an employee is successfully completing their job or not, and will need to find ways to determine that. Maybe it means talking to clients about their satisfaction with employee work and the quality of their engagements with your employee. You need to have ways to measure productivity for every job and you need to do this on a regular basis
Address problem employees. When you find out employees aren’t performing well, you need to tell them. Counsel and discipline them (as necessary) if they are not performing well (you can review my earlier post on employee discipline here) because they are distracted. Give them next steps that they can take to meet your productivity goals.
Follow-up with employees that you have counseled to see whether they are making progress on being productive or are still not meeting your standards. If the employee is now meeting the required standard, then there is nothing more that needs to be done.
If an employee is still not being successful and productive, then it may be time to engage in further discipline, develop new solutions to make the employee productive, or terminate them.

Every business needs productive employees. It is the job of every employer to work with employees to make them, and ultimately the company, successful.

Conclusion

No workplace will be distraction free and employers should not aim for this. It is important that employees communicate with their fellow employees and enjoy what they do because ultimately, they will be more productive. If this how it looks when your employees come and leave work, then you have a problem that is bigger than some employees watching a few basketball games or taking some time off of work to talk about it. However, if employees are not completing their work, then you need to address the problem by speaking with the employees and addressing the reasons that they are not productive.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.

Why Employers Should be Thankful for Employees

Published by Brett Holubeck on November 21, 2018

Photo by Mikkel Bergmann on Unsplash

It is the week of Thanksgiving. What does this mean for employees? Does it just mean 2 extra days off this week? During this week all employers should consider thanking their employees. All employers from the giant corporations with tens of thousands of employees to the mom & pop shop should be thankful for their employees not just this week, but throughout each week every year.

Employees want to feel that what they do actually matters. Most people will spend 90,000 hours or 1/3 of their life at work. Whether we like it or not, whether we would prefer to spend more time with our family, helping the community, or just watching TV, we are destined to spend a large portion of our time at work and commuting to work. Many employees feel that their work does not matter. All companies need to change that for their employees.

Let’s look at 5 reasons that employers should be thankful for employees and 5 ways that employers can express their thanks.

5 Reasons that you Should be Thankful for Employees

Employees help ensure that your company is a success

No company can succeed without employees. Even companies in the gig economy like Uber have actual employees (even though they may have lots of workers that are independent contractors). A good employee adds value to the company. They make the company more profitable. Forbes has a great example of this:

In early 1994, Continental Airlines’ culture was toxic. Employee morale was virtually dead and the company went through ten CEOs in ten years’ time. The low morale translated into being ranked last in every measurable airline performance category, and the airline was on the verge of its third bankruptcy. Then Gordon Bethune took over as President in October of 1994.

And further:

By looking inside, at the core of Continental’s culture, and starting with themselves, he transformed the airline from ranking dead last in every customer service ranking to winning more J.D. Powers and Associates awards for Customer Service than any other airline in the world. The stock price rose from $2 a share to over $50 a share and the company was ranked as one of the top 100 companies to work for by Fortune.

Companies succeed in large part because of their employees.

They serve as your ambassadors in the real world

A good employee serves to promote the company and draw more people to the company. They help increase sales, employee retention, and performance even if that is not what they are responsible for. Good employees talk positively about their work and what they do. They are brand ambassadors.

They help you grow and learn

Employees, even the ones that need improvement, help companies learn how to succeed. When an employee fails it is an opportunity for the company to determine whether the policy needs adjusted or if the worker needs more help. By helping employees grow in their skills the company grows too because it has better employees.

New employees bring new ideas to your company

New employees bring new ideas to a company. They come without understanding that things “have always been done this way” at your company, which is a good thing. New employees may question why things are run the way they are which may lead to improvements and changes. They also bring ideas from the prior places that they worked.

Good employees share your mission and want you to succeed

A good employee is invested in your mission and helps you to succeed. Nearly 70% of employees are not engaged at work. According to one report, 76% of workers cited a “positive corporate culture as the single most important quality in an employer.” By hiring the right people (see my earlier post) and engaging them in your mission early on (you should really have a company mission) you have something that most workplaces don’t: employees that care and want you to succeed because they are invested and believe in the company.

Here are 5 Ways that you Can Show Thanks to Your Employees

Reach out when they do not expect it with a note or other word of encouragement

Many employees are only spoken with (formally) when they make a mistake. A good manager will let employees know when they are doing something right.

Do not just meet with them when they are not performing well. Do actual quarterly updates with them.

Quarterly updates are a great way to let employees know when they are succeeding and what they can do to improve. An employee that does not know how they are succeeding and whether they can make improvements is flying blind. Telling an employee what you like allows them to do it consistently for you, and telling them what you dislike allows them the opportunity to reroute their habits.

Give them more responsibility

Give employees the opportunity to do more when they are successful, and not just the work nobody else wants to do. Employees enjoy the opportunity to have ownership over what they are doing, and they appreciate being given a voice in their work- saying what skills they would like to grow and having you (the employer) give them the opportunities needed to grow them. No one wants to be stagnant.

Ask employees for their opinion/help

A good employee is a resource. Ask for their advice on important issues especially something that they had success with. If one employee landed a big client, then you should ask them what they did to do that. See if they are willing to share what makes them successful with other employees.

Step in to help an employee

Many employees put in long hours with little thanks. If you are a manager, then a great way to show thanks to employees and to get a better understanding of what they do is to get your hands dirty and spend some time working directly with them. I’m not talking Undercover Boss, although that’s one way to do it. Go with your employee on a sales call. If an employee is staying late and seems to be overloaded with work, then ask the employee if there is something that you can do to help them. The fact that you noticed their hard work will mean a lot to the employee.

Conclusion

No company can succeed without their employees. Now (and all the time) is a great time to let them know why you appreciate them. It is almost the end of the year. Soon many employees will be thinking about their goals for next year. By showing appreciation now, you can help employees figure out what they want to do for their careers in the coming year.

Oh and obviously all employees like bonuses… but even if that’s not an option, genuine appreciation still goes a long way.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.