The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the struggles our society was already having with emotional wellbeing.
Emotional wellbeing already had the attention of many in our world before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now everything has changed. Things we thought could take a couple of years to implement now cannot wait even a couple more months. Before the crisis, the research on loneliness, mental health, anxiety, burnout and stress was starting to come into focus. We were running our lives faster than we could manage and were not taking care of our emotional states.
Even if we wanted to take care of ourselves, “the system” was not ready. The mental health stigma is real; there is not adequate access to behavioral health providers, we were not changing our daily lives to create more balance and the current state of emotional wellbeing, as we knew it, was unsustainable.
However, employers were starting to recognize the impact this was having on business metrics and success. Our recent Global Benefits Attitude Survey shows employees with reported wellbeing issues are:
Employers were starting to provide enhanced support where they could to address the current challenges by:
The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the struggles our society was already having with emotional wellbeing and created additional concerns and barriers. Many people are now feeling more isolated than ever before. They’re experiencing severe anxiety over missing paychecks, dealing with immense stress over additional caregiving responsibilities for their children, elderly parents, or sick family members, feeling uneasy about still going to work every day amid the safety risks, and just unsure about where to turn and how to manage through the unknown and limited control over the situation.
We hear heart breaking stories every day about families and friends not getting to visit elderly loved ones in the nursing home or hospital, cancelling weddings, missing out on the birth of a child, delaying or missing a funeral, turning to alcohol or other drugs as a coping mechanism, and the trauma created when a co-worker falls ill with the virus contracted at work. These are all very real stories that are happening to us and those around us. And it should come as no surprise that this puts a significant and sometimes paralyzing emotional burden on us all.
The good news is we aren’t in this alone. We will get through this but we all need support. As an employer, there are ways to provide support and resources to your employees during this time. Your actions today will be remembered by employees tomorrow and in the process can create a renewed sense of culture where your greatest asset — your employees — feel supported, valued and engaged.
Below are steps you can take to support the emotional challenges and overall wellbeing of your employees
Start by addressing primary needs:
The COVID-19 crisis is clearly a threat to employee wellbeing. But by addressing wellbeing head on and addressing employee needs, employers can mitigate its impact and be better prepared for the post-pandemic era.
Double down on manager training and communications. Ensure managers are delivering consistent messages to your employees. Plan for what might be coming next — return to work.
Post-pandemic, the “new normal” is likely to look very different from what we once knew. Organizations will need to first learn from other countries that have stepped into this transition and be flexible in their approach once physical distancing is lifted. While this will vary by industry based on infrastructure and way of doing business (e.g., airlines vs. manufacturing vs. retail), it is most certain that employees will feel a sense of apprehension and fear in coming back together. Inclusion and acceptance of each other will be important, as will the continued emphasis on psychological and physical safety.
Continue to evaluate where additional support is needed for your employee population.
Evaluate the effectiveness of all vendor programs and partners. In many cases it may make sense to repurpose dollars from some low-utilized or low-valued programs to areas of highest concern, such as emotional support, mental health resources, and onsite services for essential workers.
Consider impact of returning staff and ensure emotional wellbeing support is highly visible in communication from leadership, managers, vendor partners and in work teams. The business may have experienced a decline in service and may cause customer dissatisfaction that can be difficult for returning employees to manage, have talking points in place for customers and emotional support available for employees. There may be resentfulness from remaining staff towards those that were furloughed and general low morale.
Update all work environment policies and culture strategies to support employees returning to the workplace, or the workplace settling down if it was always running as “normal.” This might include safety integrations, workplace protocols, flexible working, reskilling programs, critical incidence response, Mental Health First Aid training, etc.
Partner with community programs and resources to support the longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (philanthropy, financial resources, behavioral health providers, etc.). Also determine how you can help foster greater purpose and meaning in work across the organization and workforce. Purpose as we know goes a long way in supporting resilience and wellbeing.
Deploy regular employee pulse surveys to best understand the impact on employees and arm leaders to better manage through the crisis based on data and insight.
Evaluate the long-term impacts the crisis has had on your employee population groups. Look at the pandemic through an inclusion and diversity lens. Ensure this does not lead to stigma or discrimination of race, gender, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status, nor of those employees that may have been impacted by COVID-19. What can you do to make sure different groups of people do not face disproportionate risk?
How is your culture transforming as a result of this pandemic? Are employees coming together to support one another? What additional support, messaging, or leadership visibility is needed to recreate a more sustainable culture?
Author:
Katie Hansen - Health and Benefits Consultant
This blog originally appeared here on the Willis Towers Watson website, April 23, 2020.