Supporting Your Essential Workers

NOTE: I'm abandoning my commitment to posts of 200 words or fewer for this particular post in order to help expose these ideas I first shared on LinkedIn to a broader audience. 

A CNN headline last month read, “The world’s biggest work-from-home experiment has been triggered by coronavirus.” News outlets are helping the vast number of employees working remotely with tips like how to home school while trying to get work done. Articles and webinars for those managing a remote workforce are plentiful, as more and more organizations are asking their employees to work from home during this pandemic.

But what about supporting the people who are still required to report to work in these uncertain times - the essential employees, like those in dining services, facilities, public safety, grocery stores, etc? How can supervisors support these individuals whose jobs don’t lend themselves to working from home?

My colleagues from the Center for Leadership and Organizational Change at the University of Maryland and I have compiled this list for those managers.

• Ensure their safety. The most critical way that you can support these employees is by taking precautions so that coming into work does not put these employees or others at potential risk. A consistently reported concern of healthcare workers during a crisis is fear for the safety of themselves and their loved ones. Make sure that you are limiting employees’ exposure to Covid-19 by following the advice of health officials. Additionally, allowing employees to communicate with loved ones during their shifts could assuage family safety concerns and motivate staff to carry on with their professional duties.
• Provide resources. Another way to support and care for employees who are showing up in times of crisis – and all employees – is by connecting them to your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) or to other available resources, like governmental and philanthropic organizations providing food and rental assistance, or utility companies providing relief and payment deferment.
• Address your own needs. It’s a classic maxim that you can’t pour from an empty pot; you can’t take care of others if your own needs are not being met. Be kind to yourself. Utilize whatever techniques bring you calm so that you can create calm for others.
• Check in on them. Those reporting to work “as usual” have all of the same worries and fears as those who are at home. Ask how they are doing. Check in regularly on their emotional state and how their loved ones are holding up in these uncertain times. Don’t shy away from these conversations because of fears that they will raise concerns that you cannot help them with. Your job is not to provide the answers, but to listen, and possibly to ask questions that can help them to find their own answers.
• Overcommunicate. Provide information about how your organization is responding as it is available. Even when you don’t have information to share, let staff know that the organization is still thinking about its response and that, when thinking about responses, they are thinking about the impact on essential employees. Ensure that you meet more often with everyone on your team, if only to share kudos and "what we know right now."
• Praise more. Show your appreciation for them being there, continuing to do the essential work they are doing. It matters now more than ever.
• Send an email or jot a quick note. Little things do matter, like a quick handwritten note or an email to your team – or an individual team member - after a stressful day. Just a few sentences about why you value them will go a long way. 
• Create meaning. A common theme in the literature about motivating essential employees is the importance of their understanding the significance of their role in responding to an emergency event. The literature indicates that if essential employees feel their jobs are instrumental in dealing with a disaster, they are more willing to report for work. Make sure employees connect the work they do on a daily basis with the larger organizational and societal good they are doing.  
• Lower your expectations. During times of stress, we are less capable of creative, innovative or collaborative work. Also, we may be bringing a lot of our home life with us to work. As a result, we need to remember that no one is capable of working at full capacity. We need to allow for additional breaks, support, time and adjustment of work schedules, wherever possible. We need to be more accepting of mistakes and let go of perfectionism.
• Continue to manage performance. At the same time, we can’t excuse egregious employee behaviors just because we need people to show up to work. Managing performance is still important in times of crisis. During difficult periods, you should work together to address performance issues, asking how ‘we’ can support ‘you.’ The employee may have an idea for a temporary arrangement — some time off, handing off a project to a colleague, or a more flexible schedule for a few weeks — that is amenable to you. 
• Ask what they need. Even though we’re all dealing with the same pandemic, we will all have different reactions and need different things. The best way to support your individual employee may not be on this list. Ask them what it is.