How Employers Can Manage Workplace Disruptions During the Pandemic?

With the spread of COVID-19, we have discovered a new way of working and living. While work from home and halted functions are stressing everyone, we don’t really have a choice. Either it is this or COVID-19, a deadline virus which is apparently swirling the working of every office.
Naturally, there are multiple questions that HR teams are currently struggling with. To help you overcome this situation and still continue the workflows and functioning of the office, we have prepared a list of tips. These tips can help you manage the disruption caused by the pandemic 2019.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s move forward and understand how you can improve productivity during a pandemic.
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Tips to Manage Disruption During The Pandemic in 2020

As employees across the globe sit in front of their laptops at home to work during work hours, HR managers play an important role in shaping this workplace setting. Here’s how you can fight this pandemic and reduce the impact on your business.

1. Prioritize Health

The topmost priority of every employer is to protect its employees from the potential harm, hence, the work from home situation.
But, there are jobs that can’t be accomplished while at home. These employees need to visit the office to keep functioning and to keep business productivity.
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So, what can employers do?
Here’s an example:
John is an employee of the bank. However, since the bank can’t be closed during the lockdown due to the needs of the common public, the bank has found a perfect way to overcome the situation.
On any given day, only 50% of the employees visit the office. They have seating arrangement which is not in contact with any other person. Further, they have the proper equipment such as masks and gloves to protect themselves.
While such drastic measures are not necessarily needed for every employer, arranging things like these can help employees.
For every employer, keeping employees safe is the first step towards managing this disruption.
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2. Virtual Workplace Infrastructure

Honestly, it is necessary for employees to have proper infrastructure for the virtual workplace. Today, most of the employees already have a laptop. However, the HR team needs to offer software access, VPN, and high-speed WiFi.
Other than this, the HR team also needs to offer basic infrastructure. For example, tools for communication, set up for virtual meetings, and time schedule for every employee.
The HR team also needs to have a structure to keep a track of employees’ working hours.
More than anything, communication and collaboration are necessary. This is because, without necessary communication, your team can’t collaborate during the pandemic, which will lead to lower productivity and missed deadlines.
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3. Virtual Culture

Working at home is not the right route for everyone. It may sound exciting for two days or maybe a week. But, after that, the employee can fall in engagement pits. This means they can feel a lack of communication, collaboration, and miss the workplace setting. This can enable them to procrastinate, hence, it reduces their own productivity. As a result, it reduces the productivity of the workplace.
To help the employees get through this pandemic without falling in the pit, the HR team can arrange small activities.
For instance, a virtual tea break wherein every employee gets on a call during their tea break to feel connected. The HR team can also arrange gaming sprees to help the employees adjust to pandemic situations and work from home settings.
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4. Effective Communication

We have already covered this topic, but it is necessary to understand how important is collaboration. During the pandemic, the teams don’t have a source of communication. Lack of communication leads to various things:

• Miscommunication
• Misinformation
• Low transparency
• Micro-management
• Missed deadlines
• Poorly managed workflows

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Keeping Workplace Clean

One of the things that the employer needs to ensure now is to keep the workplace clean. How can you achieve it?
Regularly sanitize the work desks, doorknobs, floors, conference tables, remotes, keyboards, and other such equipment which is utilized on a daily basis.
Further, it would be great to have sanitizer bottles and tissue boxes on every table to help employees stay away from the threat.
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Precautions to Take After the Pandemic

The HR team’s work doesn’t end once the pandemic 2020 ends. The work continues because it is necessary to stay future-ready. So, what can you do?

• Research and understand what preventive measures were taken during this pandemic. For instance, it might be time for permanent work from home policy, which can prove beneficial in the future.
• Practice how you can respond to an emergency like this in the future in a better way. For example, how can you provide the necessary software to the team remotely and how can you manage remote teams.
• Lastly, always ensure the safety and health of your employees under any circumstances. If you fail to achieve it, you may earn yourself a bad name in the employment market.

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Conclusion

COVID-19 pandemic 2019 has literally disrupted the work of every small and big organization. But, we should not be in a situation like this in the future. To achieve that, proper measures should be taken and these measures should start right now. Therefore, read the above tips and start making your teams pandemic-ready.
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