Communicating reassurance & support during Covid 19 (6/7)

Last article I was looking at how you write a structured organisational action plan to support your peoples’ health and mental health during the Coronavirus crisis. Why you need to put some structure or thought into what you need to do, when. I am now going to distill down further into how the different ways of connecting and making sure that as much as possible, you are tailoring support to each individual. 

1.     Communication  

How and what you communicate to your people is of paramount importance at the moment. People are scared, confused and uncertain and are looking to their leaders, or organisations for reassurance and support. Your action plan of what you are going to do and when needs to contain a clear communication plan. People need to know what the organisation is doing to support people (jobs, health, mental health), and what that means to them and their team individually. Organisations may as well rip up their existing values statements and brand values, they will be judged in the future by how they looked after their people and communities during the current crisis. 

2.     Roles 

Your action and communication plans needs to contain clear actions and communication messages for different people within the organisation. 

Senior Leaders need to be seen to be leading. They need to be seen to have and be communicating a clear strategy of business continuity (as much as possible). People need to know that they are valued and that the health and mental health of them and their families is important to the organisation now and in the medium and long term. 

HR need to be clearly communicating to both Line Managers and individuals what behaviours are expected and what individual roles are. HR should have issued guidance to Line Managers about how they look after the individuals in their teams, what they should be doing and how and where to escalate any concerns.

Line Managers need to know their roles and responsibilities in relation to the health, mental health and wellbeing of their teams. They need to take responsibility for their team members, building individual check ins and working with HR if they have concerns. Teams should plan how they look after each other now (including any furloughed people), and how they will manage together the transition back to work in the future. 

3.     Types of connecting 

I’ve seen many articles out there on different ways of communicating to and with your team. Suggestions include daily check ins, 1-2-1s, virtual coffee breaks and drinks. I think the following are also very important to build into your plan:

Safe space Putting a Zoom call or conference call in your diary for anyone with concerns or vulnerabilities to dial in. This is a time to discuss feelings, thoughts and non work-related issues with the intention of hearing people and answering them.

Office hours Hold hours in your diary for people to contact you with quick issues (10 mins or less) a bit like a GP surgery. If someone dials in then lock the call for 10 mins so anyone else knows to come back then. This will clear quick issues and queries. 

Boundaries State your boundaries on when you are / aren’t available to others and encourage your team to do the same. 

Buddy system Link each team member up with someone else as a buddy. There is a tendency if you are struggling to pull back and disconnect. Buddies can check in each other a few times a week as an extra level of support.  

4.     Support 

Work through a list of your team members and figure out what each will need from you or the organisation going forward. Look for those juggling remote working at home with families, vs. those at home and totally isolated. Work with HR to look for anyone with a disclosed health or mental health condition / disability / vulnerable or unsafe home environment who may need extra support. Use your 1-2-1s to find out what support each individual needs and do it. 

I hope that the above is useful to you and your organisation. As always, please leave comments and questions below. 

In the meantime, if anyone wants any help drafting an Action Plan, or feedback on one they have already written, then do drop me a DM. I’m aware times are tough for all right now, so I’m now taking bookings for 1hr or ‘Power Hour’ consulting sessions, which are affordable to all business sizes. If I can help, I will.