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The Covid-19 pandemic has already caused havoc in the lives of people and pushed many businesses into a state of uncertainty. Understandably, the work culture across the globe has taken a major hit. 

As the world continues to navigate its way through this challenge, the organizations are gearing up to welcome their employees to work post the lockdown phase. 

One question that looms large in everyone’s mind is what will the workplace look like post the lockdown and how different will be the working situation post the pandemic. 

The organizations too are wary of this fact and they are continually thinking of and devising new strategies to welcome the workforce. While some challenges could be easily dealt with some amount of precautions, keeping the employees engaged and productive post lockdown is no simple task.  

Top 6 ways to engage your employees post the lockdown

As David Zinger rightly pointed, “Engagement is all about the work and the benefits for both the individual and the organization.” 

A Gallup report suggests, “Organizations with a highly engaged workforce have 21% higher profitability as well as have a 17% higher productivity than companies that have a disengaged workforce.”

But the times are different and the usual ways of engaging the workforce might fall flat. Organizations need to be more innovative than ever in coming up with ways to engage their workforce when they return to work after the pandemic. 

We made the task slightly easier for you. We’ve managed to put together a few steps you can implement to welcome your workforce and take care of their needs. 

1. Offer dedicated well-being sessions 

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Now more than ever, we need to be cautious and considerate of the physical as well as the mental well-being of our employees. This is something you should prioritize over everything when your employees return to work. 

It is an obvious fact that after working from home for such a long period, your employees will struggle to get back to their usual work schedules. Some of them also might feel zoned out or lose their interest in work with the change of the situation. And more so, the pandemic situation is still on and not faded away completely.

To help them overcome this feeling, you can offer to host a couple of dedicated counseling sessions where you can talk about their health and well-being priorities. Talk about how they can try working in a flexible schedule while attending to their family priorities. Ask them to take a break when required without constantly worrying about deadlines and deliveries. Make them feel completely at ease to discuss any challenges with you or their direct supervisors. 

Further, you can also provide your employees with external health resources such as healthy lifestyle choices, round-the-clock phone support, a health portal, stress-reduction benefits, and more. 

Such sessions will help them get rid of any kind of fear or anxiety and they will hopefully be able to cope up with the situation in a better way. 

1. Offer an employee discount scheme

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Employees love their share of benefits. Believe it or not, 45% of employees stated perks help in reducing their workplace stress, and about 75% of employees claimed they will stay in their current jobs to continue receiving the perks.

Here are a few ways you can offer these perks to your employees:

1. Offer a free health package or a discounted gym membership
2. Free snacks and drinks at popular eateries 
3. Work from home furniture reimbursements 
4. Free birthday hampers and treats 
5. Free movie nights sponsored by a preferred entertainment channel partner 

Perkbox is a great way of offering these schemes to your employees. We often think that choosing the right employee discount package will be an easy task, but it never turns out to be so. Perkboz adopts a holistic approach with its employee engagement platform and gets everyone excited about the discount schemes that it offers. If you’re not already aware, with Perkbox, you can save more than $1400 per year and also get access to more than 285 discount schemes and freebies. 

3. Provide them with a flexible work schedule 

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The lockdown gave the employees a chance to enjoy a flexible working schedule. While part of it is true, there is also the downside of it – working for long hours without any breaks. 

Organizations need to be cognizant of the fact that employees need to have a work-life balance. As much as providing a flexible schedule helps, that should not be a reason for employers to ask their employees to stretch and complete their assignments. Creating a flexible schedule means the employees will get an opportunity to plan the work in a way that helps them cope up with the recent changes and also work towards increasing their engagement levels. 

One of the major yet basic extensions that any organization needs to make to their workforce is trust. Without this basic, none of the flexible working schedules will be successful. The organization and its leadership should be able to trust their employees to get their work accomplished in a timely manner and believe that the employees will not take undue advantage of the flexibility provided to them. In return, the benefits of such a schedule will not only boost the overall engagement but also the morale of the employees thereby driving the organization towards greater success.

4. Acknowledge the efforts with timely recognition 

According to Margaret Cousins, “Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” 

Timely recognition not only helps your employees feel proud of the work that they have done but also boosts the overall morale of your employees. When your employees receive any kind of acknowledgment or appreciation in front of their colleagues, it makes them feel that they are a part of the job and the organization. This further motivates them to work harder and achieve more. But here again, the recognition should be done on time. Delayed recognition has an adverse effect and can demotivate the employees. 

Do things to celebrate different occasions such as big days in the calendar – why not try this things to do for Juneteenth?

5. Make sure high standards of safety are maintained

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Now, this point is not directly related to the engagement factor but is as important as it can get. Post the pandemic, one of the primary concerns of your employees will always be their health and safety. They would never want to catch the infection and carry it back home to their families and loved ones. If they are not sure about the safety standards at the workplace, it will greatly impact their morale and they will not be able to completely focus on their work. 

To make them feel safe and secure, you can take a few necessary steps to ensure they are protected against the virus by all means. These include: 

1. Creating a Covid safety response team at your workplace 
2. Providing safe transportation facilities to your employees 
3. Offering protective gear, such as sanitizers, gloves, and masks, to all the employees
4. Checking temperatures regularly and maintaining proper records of everyone who visits the facility 
5. Disinfecting the common areas as well the cubicles frequently to alleviate the risk of any infection

These small yet significant steps will make them feel at ease without any worry of catching the virus and they will be able to deliver their best. 

6. Engage in virtual team building activities

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We understand these are difficult times for both the employers and the employees. The pandemic has vastly impacted the social connections we usually share at the workplace. Virtual or remote working is the new norm and the organizations have been trying and designing their own formats of working remotely. Virtual team building activities are being encouraged and they are having a positive impact on the workforce. 

These activities come with multiple benefits and those are not just limited to boosting employee morale and productivity. Rather they encourage workforce collaboration, support innovation management, encourage versatility, and help in building diverse and inclusive relationships. 

According to research done by Gallup, “Virtual team-building exercise leads to an increase in employee performance rate, claims 41% lower absenteeism and 21% higher profitability.”

Few ways in which you can promote virtual team building activities are:

1. Virtual coffee or water cooler meets
2. Daily standups 
3. Regular check-ins and feedback sessions with team members 

Conclusion 

In the post-pandemic world, some of the employees would prefer to continue working from home for some time and that is completely okay. In fact, lend them the required support to carry on with their work and not compel them to return to work unless they feel it is absolutely safe for them to do so.  

For those who chose to work from the office, see to it that all safety measures and standards are strictly maintained and make sure to check with them from time to time on their physical and mental well-being. By creating a supportive and inclusive work environment, you will be able to help your employees deal with this crisis situation better without impacting their work performance. 

Let us know in the Comments section below what are you doing differently to keep your employees engaged and ready post the lockdown.