Keeping HR teams and employees connected and online during these unprecedented times is now more vital than ever. How and where employees work has changed suddenly, leaving HR teams needing to keep the wider workforce productive, supported and engaged.
We have faced the same challenges at Advanced. Up to 90 per cent of our employees now work remotely, with video and audio calls dominating our diaries. We’ve been focusing on a few things to make our people’s current working life easier:
- We’ve provided an online training course, to offer guidance and best practice on working from home. This aims to maintain employee engagement and help staff manage their wellbeing during times of isolation.
- There’s additional guidance for employees temporarily working from home with children, we know how hard it can be to look after loved ones and work effectively!
- Swiftly introducing self-isolation workflows within our HR software, which allows our employees to log their own self isolation, if needed. Building out this new workflow will save both the HR team and wider workforce a good deal of time in processing this new kind of absence and avoiding going back and forth on policy.
- We’ve held a dedicated conference call for our managers, helping them to support their teams who are working remotely – specifically those who are not used to it and may find it an isolating experience. We want to ensure their teams have regular ‘switch on and off times’, and understand all the ways to keep in touch.
- Financially, we’ve committed to paying all our staff for their time in isolation, whether sick or at risk, but unable to work from home – even those who fall outside of the sick pay policy. We believe that we have a duty to care for our employees now, and that during the economic recovery from this epidemic we will be relying on them to accelerate back to business as usual.
At Advanced, we leverage the benefits that technology can bring - which has been hugely beneficial during this unpredictable time. It is helping us to look after our own people, keeping them engaged, connected and productive – providing them with the tools and all-round support they need right now.
When unusual is the new business as usual, we can help you understand what is possible for your business.