Designing an Effective Employee Listening Strategy for COVID-19

This is a time of great uncertainty. COVID-19 is changing the way people work—with travel bans, social distancing, skeleton crews, and remote work becoming the new norm. In many organizations, employees are worried.

If you haven’t asked your workforce how they are feeling, what their concerns are, and what support they need right now, you are missing out on critical information. During times like these, it is important to give your employees an opportunity to voice their questions, share their concerns, and identify emerging issues. Various studies have found that social support increases our resilience and ability to cope. Listening to your employees is an effective way to provide support and solve organizational problems.

So what’s the best way to listen to your employees during a pandemic? Taking a business-as-usual approach won’t work. If your next engagement survey or quarterly pulse doesn’t ask employees about their here-and-now concerns—if it doesn’t convey a sense of compassion and concern for the challenges created by COVID-19—it may be perceived as callous or tone deaf.

(Source: Mercer.com)