In a recent article for BNN Bloomberg, Mark Wiseman rightfully pointed out that “it is critical” that we act as if we are “on war-footing” when considering the ways that businesses must react to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19. As Wiseman shares: “Businesses and government and health officials have to come together to combat this situation.”
That being said, it can be difficult to figure out how to best heed Wiseman’s advice, even when your business isn’t facing down supply shortages or dealing with the effects of a pandemic. If you’re truly interested in getting things done during COVID-19 and taking Mark Wiseman’s philosophies to heart, here are just a few simple things to do.
Commit to your employees.
In a time fraught with uncertainty, showing your employees that you are sticking by them can be a major boon for your company. When Wiseman talks about “coming together,” this is exactly what he means; you won’t be able to find success and stability in your work if you don’t have a team that’s willing to help you get your necessary work done.
Resist the urge to furlough or lay off your employees, because finding and training new employees is going to be increasingly difficult in an era of social distancing. Finding other ways to reduce expenses and pay your staff is thus critical to your success. As Wiseman correctly shares with business leaders, “At times like these, you don’t worry about budget deficits. You don’t worry about who’s going to pay for it. You just need to get it done.”
Be generous in your understanding.
This pandemic is stressful for everyone, and it’s hard to come together to fix the problem in your business if your team members are burnt out. Consider offering extra PTO and flexibility in working from home to your staff, especially if they are currently at home with small children. Having a spirit of generosity and understanding can go a long way in making it easier for your employees to get their work done while balancing different responsibilities.
One thing you may want to do is perform an audit every week to learn about how your employees are doing. Each week brings different challenges, and your staff members’ bandwidth may shift from week-to-week and even day-to-day. Staying open in the way that you communicate with all of your employees and flexible about deadlines can make everyone feel empowered to do their best work, even with such disconcerting circumstances.
Find tools that increase productivity — even while working from home.
The chances are high that prior to working remotely, you likely didn’t have a unified way to connect your teams. Project management tools are always beneficial to any business, but especially when your departments and team members are fractured across a variety of locations, having ways to maintain productivity is pivotal.
OKRs software, or objectives and key results software, might be exactly what you need to keep things running smoothly while so many people are working remotely and unable to come to the office. OKR software helps you identify the objectives that are crucial to each department as well as the key results that could be clearly measured as to whether they were successful or not. An OKR software tool helps everyone in your organization get on the same page about major projects and goals, as well as smaller projects and goals within each team or department. This makes it much simpler to unify who is working on what and when deliverables are due, relieving some uncertainty within your business by providing structure and accountability.
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