The year 2020 has completely changed the way we live, we work, and we communicate. In response to the contagion of COVID-19 in Myanmar, companies have adopted work from home policies. Working from home amid the pandemic poses unexpected challenges such as communications with the team, unreliable internet connection, and occasional power blackouts for many employees in Myanmar. Therefore, how to engage with employees to stay productive in their home office during the pandemic is one of the struggles that every employer has encountered.
Below is a brief of the guide offered by Randstad Singapore* to employers and HR professionals on how to best engage with their employees in this virtual world.
1. Organizational-level Engagement
Transparent communication between leaders and their employees related to business performances is even more important during uncertain times. When employees clearly understand their organization’s goals and values and realize how their efforts contribute to the business, they feel valued and find purpose in their work. This can enhance staff engagement and long-term loyalty to the organization. So, in which ways employers can highlight how much they value their people? The most possible way is having regular virtual town hall meetings. Now, as it is going to start a new chapter of New Year, companies can conduct an organization-wide business meeting where top-level executives get the chance to share company updates or announce new measures to their employees. Secondly, sending daily or weekly news and business updates to your employees is a good way to update them on the business’ progress and performance. Thirdly, a personal message from a senior-level executive can help break seniority barriers and drive inclusivity in the workforce. It can be sharing a podcast or a blog written by a senior-level person or other experts related to the current situations in the industry.
2. Professional Upskilling for the Future of Work
People's investment plays a vital role in the sustainable development of human assets in every organization to be able to adapt to the rapidly changing future of increasing automation and innovation. Moreover, staff will also demand more from employers in terms of flexibility, facilities and safety at work. And, employees would continue staying at a company if it is invested in learning and development because it can make them feel valued and inspired. As a company who agrees on human capital is the main asset of society, they can arrange funny and non-traditional learning sessions to the people in the organization. For example, a digital marketing executive can give a presentation on social selling or a business development professional can share some new client engagement tactics once a month. Besides, it will be better to create a skills development plan with resources which can specifically guide employees to see what courses can be really supportive to their career and to avoid picking up courses that are not related to their career development.
3. Digital Team Building
As human beings are a social species that rely on cooperation to survive and thrive, cooperation lies at the heart of human lives and society from day to day interactions to some of our greatest endeavours. However, the responses of the current health crisis like lockdown and social distancing are really stressful to the people especially employees working from home. If employers can improve interpersonal relationships among employees no matter where they are, they will develop a sense of community even when everyone is working away from one another. To build synergy digitally, we can arrange many creative events like virtual company drinks or lunch every Friday, setting a theme (e.g, dress-up day, favourite superhero, 90’s vibes) for a fun internal video meeting with the team, weekly riddles or brain teasers, etc.
4. Maintaining physical and mental health
During this challenging time, we have faced new realities of working from home, temporary unemployment, home-schooling of children, and lack of physical contact with other family members, friends, and colleagues. It is important that we look after our mental, as well as physical health. At the same time, employers need to encourage their employees to incorporate healthy habits in their day-to-day. To encourage employees to stay fit and healthy, an employer can engage in virtual fitness sessions like Yoga, Zumba, workout, share information to improve eating healthy habits, etc.
In the current normal life, both employers and employees have to accustom themselves to remote working. If employers can rightly implement working arrangements like remote working or telecommuting by setting an effective employee engagement strategy, it can encourage autonomy, flexibility, and agility, all of which could benefit the company in the long run. On the other side, once employees realize the taste of how the flexible work arrangements have helped them achieve work-life balance, they are more willing to find ways to be innovative, get to know and collaborate with each other and produce higher quality work that they take pride in.
*https://info.randstad.com.sg/hubfs/04.%20SG/Files/randstad-singapore-an-employer-guide-to-remote-employee-engagement.pdf?hsCtaTracking=541eeac4-8807-4813-b4ee-bf7d6da6cd1d%7Cf97624f8-0b5e-402e-896c-45a3e28119d4
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