As organizations navigate through the phases of COVID-19, important dynamics and issues emerge in the employer-employee relationship.
- ACUTE: Leaders struggle to address the scale and speed of the business-critical issues and provide support to employees as they adjust to the lockdown and plan for recovery. Employee well-being and communications are critical to business continuity.
- RECOVERY: The uncertainty of the prolonged lockdown creates strain across all areas of the business, resulting in declining employee engagement and organizational stress. Productivity and financial performance suffer. Both employees and consumers/customers struggle.
- THE NEXT NORMAL: Finding our way in the new/next normal presents operational and team engagement issues setting up conflict between business performance and employee well-being.
Important questions must be asked and answered in each phase.
ACUTE
- How do we prioritize the health and well-being of our people?
- How do we communicate operational decisions, changes and business impacts amidst uncertainty?
- How do we keep employees engaged as we migrate to remote working?
- How do we maintain visibility and access to line managers and leadership at this challenging time?
RECOVERY
- How will we explain the decisions we make during the crisis (e.g., openings/closures, stimulus)?
- How will we create alignment and support for the business transformation required to recover and thrive?
- How will we shift from a ‘survival mindset’ to a ‘growth mindset’ and re-build a strong culture?
- How will we manage a safe and successful return to work, as the economy re-opens?
THE NEXT NORMAL
- How will we respond to employee expectations and values that have inevitably changed?
- How will we embrace an authentic purpose that can unify and motivate our people?
- How will we emerge as an employer of choice and attract top talent?
- What can we learn from COVID-19 to be stronger in the future?
Employees’ expectations are changing, and they’re struggling to meet basic human needs.
In a world of exponential change, BCW solves complex problems by ‘Moving People’. In this case, those people are our clients’ employees, facing unprecedented challenges in a COVID-19 world.
Armed with insightful data, deep experience and a sweeping view of current best practices, we take a consultative approach to design communications strategies at the intersection of the employee experience and organizational business models.
We help move employees to think, to feel, to act. So that our clients can move forward.
