Reconnecting and Supporting Employees During Prolonged Crisis
Caitlyn Conner is People Manager at Popspots, a retail tech startup in Austin, and is also a Notley Fellow & 2020 Culturati Fellow.
Right now, we face a constant news cycle that is instilling more anxiety, fear, and uncertainty than ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession ahead of us have significantly shifted our workplace and social dynamics. In a recent KFF poll, nearly half (45%) of adults in the United States reported that their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the virus. On the flipside, Gallup found that in early May, the percentage of “engaged” workers in the U.S. — those highly involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace — reached 38%. This is the highest percentage since Gallup began tracking the metric in 2000.
In May, Gallup found the highest percentage of “engaged” workers — those highly involved, enthusiastic about & committed to their work — since tracking the metric.
COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon, which means employers will need to support a socially-fatigued workforce well into 2021. While team engagement is at an all-time high, more employees are struggling with their mental, social, and financial wellbeing. As we continue to battle the prolonged pandemic, we should not take our eye off the ball to maintain engagement, but also learn how to deepen employee relationships and support the whole self to strengthen the overall wellness and long-term motivation of our teams.
Give Everyone a Nudge
One of the biggest challenges facing teams right now is the disappearance of social opportunities. Team lunches, happy hours, retreats, and casual kitchen conversations are no longer happening. This is an especially complicating factor for teams onboarding new employees. These team members do not have a previous relationship with their coworkers to help them feel connected in a remote environment. They can feel marginalized in team meetings, left out of the Slack jokes, and uncomfortable with reaching out cold to coworkers. Those first few weeks can be awkward enough in person. Also, employees are now experiencing the draining Zoom fatigue, a newer phenomenon amplified if you wear many hats.
Social belonging is essential to individual employee wellness and a company’s cultural growth
Social belonging is essential to individual employee wellness and a company’s cultural growth. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs includes a sense of belonging as a significant need that motivates human behavior — just like food, shelter, and safety. To foster increased opportunities for your employees to connect sans the fatigue, you need to create and curate them.
Start with prompting casual conversations with cross-team employees that do not interact regularly, and give them an excellent topic to start talking. Donut has worked for our startup team by randomly pairing our 17 team members weekly and providing reminders to keep up with meeting scheduling. We try and keep one rule: talk about anything but work. Team members are getting to check in on one another personally and foster new relationships with coworkers they haven’t met before. To make the experience more comfortable with introverted team members, add a silly question (my latest one was to learn everyone’s favorite sandwich) that breaks down the social barriers and provides a more natural path to discovering a common interest.
But don’t just stop there — start thinking out of the box on how your teams can socialize and build deeper bonds. Designate one afternoon where you end the workday a little earlier and provide an optional game night. Whether your employees are playing individually (we’ve been having a blast with https://skribbl.io/) or in a small-team tournament (trivia is a great place to start), they’ll appreciate the ability to let off some stress, laugh, and connect with others. Keep in mind that the larger the group on video conferencing, the harder it is to speak up and feel seen by others.
Don’t Skip (or Skimp) the Celebrations
My most recent (and first) birthday celebration at Popspots was a memorable one. Our team coordinated and learned I was not a fan of desserts, which resulted in a cheese board in my honor — complete with baked Brie at noon. I felt valued both as an individual and a member of the team. It wasn’t the gift, but the thoughtfulness and personalization behind it.
Like most social interactions, celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and small wins has become incredibly difficult for employers. However, these are important milestones that provide a platform for recognition to boost motivation and a reinvigorated sense of belonging for employees who are disconnected. However, there is no one-size-fits-all — each team has its own culture of appreciation.
We’ve begun to create unique cards for each milestone that rival the best in-office cards. Our team members write messages for the recipient on white paper and send a photo of the note. From there, we photoshop them together as if everyone signed the same card. It takes a little time, but it’s a lot of magic.
Our team even took to coordinating a surprise party for a recent employee’s birthday. We scheduled a Tiff’s Treats delivery, and the note inside had the link to a video conferencing call where the team was waiting in anticipation. While singing “Happy Birthday” is undoubtedly going to be impacted by different internet speeds, we had a great time celebrating and spending time together.
I challenge each reader to think about the last employee milestone you celebrated as a team. Ask yourself how to get your entire team involved and how not just to check off the “we sent a card” box.
Re-evaluate the Benefits You’re Communicating
In light of a public health crisis, it’s also time for employers to re-evaluate how they support their team through company benefits. Not only does it provide opportunities for talent attraction, but it re-engages talent for the long haul. Investing in your employees is a signal that you also prioritize them, not just profit.
With more economic uncertainty, benefits that promote financial security can relieve a significant stressor in your employee’s lives.
Start by investigating how your benefits help — or hinder — mental wellbeing. Are your employees encouraged to take regular breaks throughout the day or take a day off to recharge their batteries? Look at the language in your policy and then communicate directly that this is supported. Even better, set the example as a leader, take time for yourself, and then tell the team about your experience. And don’t forget to communicate regularly about mental health benefits for your team to utilize — including how to access mental health services through insurance.
With more uncertainty in the economy, benefits that promote financial security can relieve a significant stressor in your employee’s lives. More and more employees are looking to take care of their loved ones, especially now. According to the Financial Health Network’s U.S. Financial Health Pulse report, only 29 percent of Americans were financially healthy in 2019 while 17 percent were financially vulnerable, or defined as individuals who “are struggling with all, or nearly all, aspects of their financial lives.” Fifty-four percent, or 135 million people, were categorized as financially coping, meaning they struggle with some, but not all, aspects of their financial lives.
Do you provide a zero-cost payday advance option with anonymity features? Do you offer a form of life insurance, short- and long-term disability insurance, or dependent coverage that doesn’t break the bank? Most of these benefits are easy to implement, highly accessible to companies, and a low-cost value-add that can improve your employees’ lives and improve the status quo of their safety nets. However, providing access to these resources is often not enough — educating on how to properly use these benefits and improve financial wellness can bring dividends to the wealth of employees.
Start Listening
How often are you asking, “How are you” to your direct report or manager?
The manager-direct report relationship is one of the core connections an employee has to the company. Performance, feedback, and recognition mean the most here, making it a great place to check in 1-on-1 and start a more in-depth conversation about what’s going on. Having regular, allotted times with your team members will solicit better feedback and understanding of the employee’s whole self — which will ultimately affect performance and motivation in the workplace.
The key to a good 1:1 meeting is the understanding that it is the employee’s meeting rather than the manager’s meeting. This is the free-form meeting for all the pressing issues, brilliant ideas, and chronic frustrations that do not fit neatly into status reports, email, and other less personal and intimate mechanisms.
We regularly pulse our team on what they are experiencing on various topics and watch the trends to inform how to support them. Whether it is dealing with unmanageable stress to decreased motivation to go to work in the morning, we listen and provide resource guides tailored to their needs. As a startup, our culture is combatting the stigma of the classic “burnout” associated with an early-stage company. One way we accomplish this by having our employees take a burnout survey and discuss the results with their managers so they can support a better balance for the individual.
The key to success with listening is to take action. Don’t let the feedback disappear, but make it build a better organization and experience for your employees.
Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed teams to reinvent how they are supporting their employees’ wellbeing. By looking beyond traditional actions and benefits, employers can create more reliable connections to their employees and build healthier teams that show up ready for work for the success of the companies that showed up for them.
Caitlyn Conner
Caitlyn is the head of People Operations for Popspots, a retail tech startup solving core challenges in grocery and improving the way brands and retailers connect with their consumers. Prior to her current role, she managed the Entrepreneurs Foundation and helped entrepreneurs and their teams with employee & community engagement, philanthropy, and corporate culture. Caitlyn is extremely passionate about the role of work in our lives and dedicated to building strong teams rooted in purpose and belonging.
Additionally, she is a Fellow and a Chair for the Notley Fellowship Program, a board member of the Texas Mamma Jamma Ride, and a member of the Culturati programming committee. In her recharge time, she is knitting dinosaurs, doing a crossword, or catching the latest film at Alamo Drafthouse.
