How to write an action plan to support your employee’s health & mental health during the Covid 19 crisis (5/7)
As you may know, I’ve been discussing on my vlog the need for organisations to create Action Plans to support the health and mental health of their people during this Coronavirus crisis. The key to this, and the bit that I think that most strategies are missing, is structure, structure, structure. Putting some thought into what needs to happen, when.
The reality is we have all felt like rabbits in the headlights as the crisis hit – and panic and business continuity has been the name of the game so far. However, if we want to get out of this as unscathed as possible, both economically, and in terms of our individual and collective health and mental health, we really need to start thinking about employees’ wellbeing as a priority.
Over the next few weeks I will be sharing with you some of my methods on how to do this, but please do get in touch if you need further support. Here are some tips to get you started:
1. Size Doesn’t Matter: Your action plan doesn’t need to be pages long. It needs to be succinct, well-structured and full of realistic actions. It needs to be agreed and supported by your organisation (senior leadership by in) and quick and easy to implement.
2. Timeline: You need to think through what easy actions you can do for your people now, what they will need in a few weeks, months and long term. Needs will change as this crisis continues. Thinking through what your people will need at different stages of the crisis is paramount. This includes how you will support people coming back from furlough and back into the workplace. The present panic has been about getting people away from work, not how we support them to come back. There will be a lot of anxiety, fear and trauma to deal with.
3. Existing Strategy: Use your existing strategy if you have one. Regular readers of my content will know that I strongly advocate structure in a health and mental health strategy (just as I am in an action plan here). I recommend three parts to a strategy – health education / promotion (how you keep well people well), early intervention for the first signs of illness (stopping people from getting sicker), and how you care for your people who are unwell and absent from work. I think the same thing applies here. You need actions for each of these 3 groups of employees for the different timelines above. Start with 2-3 actions for each timeline and each group of employees. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. Start with your existing strategy and build from there.
4. Roles Count: I’ll be covering this in more detail next article, but it is really important that your plan contains specific, and integrated, roles for different people. The senior leaders of your organisation need to be communicating and acting in a specific way, line managers, team leaders and HR too. Thought needs to have gone into roles and responsibilities throughout the crisis.
5. Existing Providers: Point your people to existing sources of help if you have any, and to good other free resources if not. I would start with ‘Every Mind Matters’ from Public Health England which lists a lot of other good resources. Bear in mind that many existing EAPs and Occupational Health providers weren’t built for a pandemic or the crisis we are in so may not have the capacity / right trained professionals. Start where you are and look at what else you will need in the medium and long term.
I hope that the above is useful to you and your organisation. As always, please leave comments and questions below. Next I’ll be tackling another important issue Covid-19 has brought to light which is “staying connected”.
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.
