As we climb out of lockdown there has never been a more important time to have a well-developed employee engagement strategy. We know that Covid-19 and lockdown has created some of the largest challenges (and opportunities) which HR professionals and internal comms leads have ever had to face.

Who Cares Wins when we come out of lockdown.

Jodie Hill from Thrive Law:

1.  Continue to innovate – don’t just innovate during lockdown use this as an opportunity to continue to innovate to stay ahead of the curve.  Whether that is innovating on the way you deliver your services or how people access your products to how you work; stay flexible and open-minded.

2.  Lead through change – as we come out of lockdown leaders need to continue to step up and lead through change.  The new normal will continue to evolve and we need to lead through this.

3.  Manage the mental wellbeing of your team – use tech to do this, platforms like Thrive Wellbeing can give you and your team access to Mental health awareness training and support for managers anytime, moving away from the tick box and reaching all staff wherever they are. This is especially important given many companies are unlikely to all return to this office in full this year. Where staff are furlough they can, and a should be, accessing the training from home during furlough.

Adam Mitcheson from My2Be:

1.  Develop a remote working strategy – Remote working is not new and is here to stay in some capacity. You should consider what is likely to be required in your organisation in 6, 12 and 24 months with a clear internal communication strategy.

2.  Utilise Technology – There is more available technology at your disposal than ever before. Conduct a review of the available tools and match with your future business needs. Getting this right now, will be a great investment for your organisation.

3.  People first – Your people are your greatest asset so you should utilise the latent potential of your existing workforce. Mentoring programmes have been proved to increase productivity and retention during challenging periods. My2Be allows you to scale mentoring programmes quickly and measure the outcomes.

Annette Gann from Camden 360 Communications:

1. Enforced lockdown has reminded us that signature corporate buildings are not what makes a company. The biggest asset are the employees who have kept the wheels of business rolling remotely.

2. Edelman’s pandemic Trust barometer, published in March, highlighted that employees placed their trust in employers as their primary source of information and care during the pandemic, over and above government. Employers are the custodians of this trust and should nurture it.

3. The usual formalities and distance between employees and employers has been replaced by a joint understanding and appreciation of the shared challenges of homeschooling and caring for vulnerable relatives. Video conferencing has levelled organisational hierarchies and introduced our respective families to colleagues and employers alike.

4. Regular communication and authentic, accessible and visible leadership is a great outcome that should remain after lockdown.

Employee Engagement Community

We hope to see you at our next employee engagement event in Autumn. But for now, we leave you with a few statistics that will affect your employee engagement strategy going forward.

1. There’s been an increase in the shift to homeworking, with 48% of the UK workforce working from home

2. 74% of companies plan to permanently shift to more remote working

3. 38% of remote workings had no training on how to organise their remote work, affecting employee engagement levels

Strategy-led internal comms has never been more important.

Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation on how to create an effective post-lockdown internal comms programme.