COVID-19: How can HR reach their employees and make them feel cared for?

Never before has reaching your employees been a more essential or more challenging task. Before the coronavirus pandemic, remote working was a luxury, not available to all, and the majority of our business conversations took place face-to-face, whether in meetings, over coffee, or by the water cooler.

Now, people leaders face a completely new challenge in reaching workforces that need to feel supported and care for more than ever before. In a time of great societal anxiety, wellbeing and productivity are the two workplace attributes most at risk, and wellbeing programmes that may have been effective pre-pandemic, now may struggle to reach and relieve workforces.

Why is wellbeing a priority right now?

In a time of such great upheaval for businesses the world-over, the bottom line might become the dominating force in all strategic decisions. Cutting expenditures, streamlining processes, reprioritising goals – all of these are important measures, but should not override investment in employee wellbeing.

Why should employee wellbeing be a senior leadership priority right now? Here are a few reasons why, drawn from research conducted by the Limeade Institute:

• Employees who feel cared for are 10x more likely to recommend their company as a great place to work – an essential differentiator for companies who want to thrive hiring the best talent, during and after the current crisis.
• They are also 9x more likely to stay at their company for three or more years – this will prove crucial in retaining key talent throughout COVID-19 and in the war on talent afterward.
• In addition, these employees are 7x more likely to feel included at work – never more important than in a time when teams are scattered to remote workstations, unable to make physical contact with one another.
• And, perhaps, most crucially, employees who feel cared for are 2x more likely to feel engaged at work and 4x less likely to suffer from burnout – high engagement is the one tried and tested way to keep employees motivated and productive during crises, and burnout is the one sure way to lose productivity en masse during such times.[1]

Why should leaders put such emphasis on reaching their workforces?

New research from the Limeade Institute reveals four key use cases for effective communication among workforces, exemplified in the key features of Limeade Well-Being – a mobile-first experience with industry-leading communication capabilities.

1. A central connection point for all employeesCreating a hub for employees to return to and feel connected to their work is a crucial element in maintaining well-being and productivity among remote workforces. Limeade Well-Being facilitates connectivity by helping leaders to reach employees with or without corporate email addresses in a secure way, with a user-friendly app for their personal device. The Limeade Well-Being app also ends the struggle to find benefits information by aggregating all benefits documents and system access in one place.
2. A useful source for company updates and information distributionLimeade Well-Being is intuitively designed to encourage employees to read, comment on and like communications from their team members and leaders. This makes it a perfect connection point to distribute essential information on benefits and enrollment updates, messages from company leaders about well-being, personalized benefits information employees need to feel connected, well-being programme updates, local news and more.
3. Help employees to manage their working livesPutting control into your employees’ hands through self-service HR functionality, Limeade Well-Being allows employees and managers to complete important tasks and locate essential information in one location. Users can submit vacation expenses, see alerts relevant to their roles and find resources to solve their problems, in addition to day-to-day core functionalities such as accessing timecards, paychecks, reaching out to colleagues and more.
4. Maintain culture through thick and thinCulture is never more under threat than in times of separation; without a well-defined and genuine culture, no business can survive extreme turmoil. Limeade Well-Being sustains a healthy and connected company culture by allowing real-time chats between coworkers and teams, with additional features such as employee recognition with peer-to-peer cheers, employee advocacy, regionally specific communications and more.

How can leaders stay connected to their workforces right now?

Whether it’s a video call, a group chat or whatever else, technology helps us all to feel connected during times of separation.

Having a central virtual location for workforces to come together can make a huge difference to engagement and productivity, enabling leadership to effectively care for their teams, and employees to maintain their sense of connection to their organisation. The Limeade Well-Being solution creates this centre of connectivity for remote workforces, putting care and productivity at the core of your mission.

To find out more about how Limeade can help your workforce to feel connected and cared for, download ‘The Power of Reaching Your Entire Workforce’ a free ebook from Limeade, or head to the Limeade website, where you’ll find research and top tips on how to keep essential connection and care intact through any crisis.

[1] ‘The Power of Reaching Your Entire Workforce’, Limeade

HRD Connect Curators of the New Business Landscape. HRD Connect produces industry-recognized content for senior HR leaders. Through articles, case studies, Q&As, podcasts, events, and more, we offer truly progressive and cutting-edge insights designed to help people leaders address core HR challenges and add greater value to their business.

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