Best practices for engaging your confined employees

How do I engage my employees in the context of the crisis we are going through? While one of the main objectives of managers is to maintain the commitment of their teams, we are collectively facing an unprecedented situation that can put business investment in difficulty.
The manager is thus forced to adapt to numerous scenarios (teleworking, maintaining activity on site) which inevitably shake up his management and his managerial objectives.

Nevertheless, it is essential to guarantee a key concept: maintaining the commitment of the teams to maintain, at best, the performance of the company.

Committed employees are the ones who drive growth

Isaac Getz, professor at ESCP, categorizes employees into three categories:

◾ Committed people, who contribute strongly to the company's performance, they are the ones who innovate, create value, drive growth
◾ The disengaged, who do the minimum, are rather passive and unfaithful to the company
◾ The actively disengaged, who are not only unhappy and unproductive, but who make it known: they spread negativity to colleagues, challenge the authority of managers, and sabotage projects and initiatives

Thus, the fundamental questions in this time of crisis are, of course, ”How do I keep my teams engaged” and “how to increase the engagement of employees who are already disengaged, or even actively disengaged? ”.

What are the fundamentals for maintaining the commitment of your employees in times of crisis?

Maintain a human dimension and strengthen the local relationship
With respect to employees, the manager (or on a larger scale the company) is responsible for the moral health of employees, i.e. he must do what is necessary to support his teams so that the situation takes place in the best conditions.

Therefore, it is essential to keep in touch with employees, the rise of digital tools is a valuable aid in achieving your goals..
These collaborative tools make it possible to maintain a sense of team, to show solidarity with colleagues in difficulty, to share and exchange professional and/or personal tips to maintain morale and overcome the difficulties of the crisis.
Indeed, giving your team the opportunity to discuss the difficulties encountered and the resources made available is remarkable for preventing psychosocial risks. This can also be implemented through Lyrics groups and/or practice analysis groups supervised by a professional. These exchange times aim to support employees in solving problems and allow them to take a step back from the situation.

In addition, manager coaching may be a good option to help them face this crisis and best support employees who feel in difficulty.

Be in a position to anticipate individual and/or collective problems in order to optimize the social climate and employee engagement

According to a Qualisocial survey conducted among employees during the first lockdown,77% are worried and 1 in 4 people suffer from isolation. We know that corporate commitment is directly linked to employee well-being. Thus, knowing the emotional state of each employee is essential to prevent risky situations and to take the necessary support measures.
There are new managerial practices that rely on digital tools to anticipate and limit the professional risks inherent in the COVID-19 crisis. For example, the systematization of the principle of the day's weather. In three words, today's weather forecast is:

• Offer employees the opportunity to express themselves anonymously about how they felt during the day (what went well, what went wrong and what we need to do to improve)

• Allow everyone to visualize how others felt
• Conduct weekly and monthly managerial retrospectives to create a liberated social climate and a dynamic of continuous improvement