This guide outlines employee engagement strategies to maintain performance during a crisis.
To many, it feels like a lifetime ago that we were able to clock into work and be productive without worrying about some significant global concern. A major economic recession, extreme political divisiveness, a devastating pandemic and now the threat of a world war loom over the workforce, creating undue stress and potentially lowering performance.
Employee engagement strategies during a crisis
Unfortunately, many businesses cannot survive a workforce that has succumbed to the effects of a crisis. Business leaders looking to keep their productivity and profitability high need to employ the following employee engagement strategies for motivating a workforce when times are tough.
Be Generous With Appreciation
In non-stressful times, it is possible to provide too much recognition and employee rewards, as the workforce will come to rely on these external motivators to reach performance goals.
However, during times of crisis, the willingness to come to work and accomplish any task should be a cause for celebration. Business leaders can be downright effusive, offering thanks and praise freely to lift staff spirits and encourage continued work.
There are many employee engagement strategies leadership can use to improve the confidence and competence of their workforce in times of crisis. Even the smallest act of affirmation from leadership, like a handwritten thank-you note or an email acknowledging one’s efforts, can be enough to sustain morale through tough times.
More grandiose employee engagement strategies, like listing an employee’s accomplishments in a meeting or sharing about a worker’s efforts with a superior leader, demonstrate a deeper appreciation that will drive a worker to continue contributing toward common goals and perhaps result in unexpectedly high levels of performance. You can also check performance of your projects and text preparation with Primetric.
Offer Unlimited Support
Individual employees have individual needs, and business leaders need to learn employee engagement strategies about what type of support allows each individual worker to accomplish their tasks and meet their goals. Observation and communication can help reveal what kinds of support are most effective, though it is important to note that needs and wants can shift as a crisis unfolds.
For example, as the beginning of the pandemic, workers needed tools for completing their tasks remotely, and two years into the pandemic, workers need workplaces that allow greater flexibility to navigate ever-shifting COVID regulations.
As important as identifying the proper type of support, leaders need to be careful not to limit support in any way, especially during particularly severe crises. It might be useful to maintain performance management processes to see which workers are struggling. Then, managers can redistribute tasks to make work more manageable for those suffering unduly during the crisis.
Give Employees More Power and Responsibility
When the world feels particularly chaotic, people are desperate for more control in their everyday lives — business leaders included. Often, leaders respond to crises by adopting a command-and-control posture, which helps them feel that they are keeping their operations and teams on track. Unfortunately, this reaction can severely interfere with creativity, critical thinking and the flow of information through the business.
Workers crave extra control in their lives as much as business leaders. Instead of reacting with domination, leaders should be charitable with authority as one of their employee engagement strategies.
Employees who are typically high-performing might thrive during crises with greater challenges and more responsibility — but it is important that managers discuss these opportunities before assuming that the employee will be grateful for the extra work.
When staff is struggling to perform to basic standards, it might be useful to award them with power and responsibility of a different kind. Typically, only leaders are involved in business decision making, so when employees are invited to weigh in on important issues, they will feel honored by the opportunity.
What’s more, leaders can learn from the perspectives of staff, who likely have excellent ideas for improving various processes and boosting productivity and profit.
Encourage Social Connections at Work
Though many business leaders feel nervous about the prospect of social connections amongst the staff, there are many useful benefits to a workplace filled with friends, which is a key one of the employee engagement strategies.
Studies on organizations with strong internal social connections found that workers in these spaces are happier, less stressed, healthier and more loyal — all of which are particularly advantageous during times of crisis. When going to work feels more like spending time with loved ones, employees will spend more time in the office (physical or virtual) and accomplish their tasks while they are there.
Some of the best employee engagement strategies for leaders to build friendly relationships amongst their staff include:
Encouraging face-to-face interaction. A workforce with flexible schedules or a remote workforce might rarely get time to interact with their coworkers. Providing opportunities for face-to-face interaction — on video calls or in person — will help develop bonds between employees.
Providing space for team bonding. Workers do not need to participate in trust falls or paintball to learn how to work together and form bonds with one another. In fact, leaders can create space for team bonding by allowing workers to socialize before and after meetings or enjoy lunch together.
Be Adaptable to the Situation
Crises are not merely bad for employees; they can also be bad for business. Thus, business leaders need to be able to analyze the crisis as it evolves and make decisions that keeps their organization safe.
It might be prudent to put major initiatives on hold until the situation is more stable, and leaders should ruthlessly prioritize projects and processes to ensure the mandatory systems survive. As the business adapts, it is useful to keep the workforce well-informed, so employees do not feel further stressed from being kept out of the loop.
Conclusion
It has felt like one crisis after another for more than a decade, so business leaders should get in the habit of managing staff who are on edge. With the above employee engagement strategies — and plenty of patience — everyone in an organization should survive upcoming crises with success.
