Best HR Practices during COVID-19

Effective Communication is Key

The communication strategy should be multi-pronged and use all channels of communication available. Along with this, HR departments should pull together information pertaining to the coronavirus to create a ready-to-refer instructional guide for employees that not only educates them about the viral infection, but also enlists ways to avoid it.

For most of the employers who have given work from home to their employees, communication is key. This is because the work shouldn’t stop neither its quality.

Implement Flexible Working Arrangement Plans, or BCP Protocols

For those in the thick of it - like countries that share a border with China, or have multiple reported cases of a coronavirus infection - allowing employees to work from home is the best way to prevent contamination given that human-to-human transmission is possible.

Many countries, in fact, have now implemented lock downs or curfews to control the spread of the pandemic. By implementing flexible working arrangements, you are not just eliminating the possibility of transmission at the office but also during commute. This is especially so for densely populated cities where you are literally inches away from someone’s face.

Reconsider Leave Policies

The last thing a company would want is for an infected employee to turn up to work because they didn’t have enough paid time off left. That not only hurts the sick employee who has had to stress him/herself out to get to work, but also their colleagues, as well as everyone and everything they encounter and touch on the way.

If the company is results-driven, whether the employee works from home or in the office should not matter as long as the work is being delivered. Given the developments in technology today, there is a suite of solutions for companies to use such that meetings, discussions and day-to-day work can go on per normal. 

Using Tech to Avoid Human Contact Might not be such a bad thing

Platforms that allow teams to collaborate and communicate effectively can be used during work-from-home days. Meetings can be done over Skype, Google Hangouts, or Zoom.

 Other HR Initiatives, Apart From Handing Out Free Masks, According to Tan

• Besides provisioning free masks and sanitizers, the cleaning schedule of the office can be increased.
• Senior management has to walk the talk to ensure they mask up wherever appropriate to.
• Temperature taking could be incorporated so that everyone in the office would have a peace of mind and not be paranoid that their co-workers may be infected. Such information should be openly available so that employees have complete trust in the information provided.
• Lastly, lunch could be catered so as to minimize employees’ exposure to crowded areas like the food center.