Supporting Your Employees During a Global Crisis

Like everyone else, we wanted to make sure we were supporting everyone in the Beamery community as well as we’re able to, and that we were enabling our team and customers to stay safe and take care of themselves and loved ones for as long as the outbreak lasts.

We looked into our own guidelines and identified what we were already prepared to deal with, and what we needed to make a plan for. Luckily, there are plenty of resources out there that can help every organization tackle the many facets of a global health crisis like this one. We’ve curated the ones we found most useful and shared them below.

The people team’s guidelines on the COVID-19 pandemic

The vast majority of employees will need guidance on how to react in case this particular crisis affects them personally. Here are some guidelines and templates of communications that your people team can share with employees:

• Sample memos and posters for the physical and virtual workplace by SHRM
• Email template: First All-Company Email to send–by Lifelabs
• CDC’s guidance for employers on handling Coronavirus
• CDC’s guidance on what to do if you are sick
• Advice on Handling Coronavirus for HR teams by EMEA-based law firm Pinsent Masons

Communication in times of uncertainty

Global crises like COVID-19 create high levels of uncertainty, and understandably, make us all nervous. One way to manage that anxiety is to acknowledge it as an organization and tackle it with increased communication: how the organization plans to tackle the crisis, what leaders are doing at the time, when there will be further communication coming out… Frequent and clear communications are especially helpful when most of us are either working on reduced shifts or from home, and not seeing nearly as much of each other as we are used to.

Here are some of the best resources we found on keeping communication flows open in times of crisis:

• Communicating Through the Coronavirus Crisis by Paul Argenti for HBR
• Examples of COVID-19 notices, blog posts, and updates by Coca Cola, Nike, and Salesforce
• An excellent piece on tips to break anxiety cycles around Coronavirus outbreak on the NYTimes
• Coping with Anxiety around Coronavirus by the Harvard medical School

A crash-course on remote culture with COVID-19

With many asian and european countries moving to social distancing, isolation, and enforced closures of business, remote work is an essential part of the temporary “new normal”.

• Advantages of asynchronous communication—by Amir Salihefendic, founder and CEO of Doist
• Gitlab’s Remote Work resources
• Working from Home playbook by Coinbase
• A few sample chapters of the book “Remote” by Basecamp
• Example of a WFH policy by Hubspot

Added bonus: try out Virtual Lean Coffees to make sure your team doesn’t lose out on opportunities to be creative and brainstorm while working remotely.

Recruiting during the coronavirus crisis

Remote work will have to apply to talent teams’ work as well. Consider refreshing the team’s policies on remote interviewing, and equipping recruiters to reach out and recreate as many aspects of face-to-face recruiting as possible with their candidates:

• Video interviews that mimic the progression of a face-to-face interview, starting with an informal chat with the recruiter to ease the candidate in, then bringing in the interviewer.
• Virtual fireside chats where candidates can ask questions about the company
• Company-sponsored lunch-and-learns where you offer candidates a voucher to a delivered meal near them during a lunchtime session about the function or role they’re interested in.

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People teams everywhere have an increased level of responsibility these days as they work to support employees and candidates. Hopefully, this list will have made some of those responsibilities easier to tackle.

We’re hoping everyone is staying safe and reaching out to others for help when needed. If there are other resources that you found helpful and that didn’t make it on this list, please share them with us!