Crafting and supporting a meaningful and aligned external and internal brand identity requires us to be proactive in nature. COVID-19 required us to be reactive in nature. While we were busy reacting to the imminent threat in front of us and scurrying to move our workforces’ home, figure out testing, manage through a reduction in force in some cases, many forgot their brand.
Brands do not only require management during the good times but require even a more significant effort during the difficult times. This is the opportunity to have your vision and guiding principles be more than just words on a wall. This is the perfect opportunity to show your employees that you value them and not just say the words. In many cases, when our economy and our companies return to “normal”, there will be significant repair work to be done by those that did not understand that a pandemic is not a good excuse for exiting your internal employer brand. The good news is, however, you can get a head start!
Reduction in Force
Think long and hard about your need to do a RIF. While cost savings are typically the primary motivator, who has created the spreadsheet and calculated what will be lost on the other side? Good employees may not want to return and will have moved on. They will also have told a dozen of their closest friends not to work for you as you will be viewed as a Fairweather Friend. Those employees who are still with you, may choose to seek out other opportunities when the economy picks up as they will have seen how committed to the employees you really were and believe that they will fare no better during the next tumultuous event.
Top Workplace awards
If you treated your workforce well, if you stood behind your employees and did not succumb to panic, now is the time to showcase that by crafting an entry for Best Places to Work, Energage or one of the many other employee engagement surveys. Your employees will know how fortunate they are and will want to tell the world what a great place your company is to work.
While Glassdoor may be the bane of their existence for many in HR, you can learn to leverage the site to your advantage. Actively ask your employees to write a review. It is always the hope that they have something positive to say, but even when they don’t think of it as a learning opportunity for how you can improve.
Keep in mind that what you do today will remain a part of your employee culture for much longer than COVID will be a pandemic and ensure you are making the right decisions for the long term.
When HR Reporter asked participants to rate how challenging 12 major workplace issues might be in 2021, more than six in 10 (66 per cent) said recruiting and hiring would be challenging. Make sure that you are doing everything you can today to set a successful stage for tomorrow for your current and future employees!