HR Industry Brief

Honest answers to a few key questions can help you measure where your company culture is most successfully integrated and working:

• What do you do to attend to employees’ physical, emotional, and financial health? Do you demonstrate support of their lives outside of the workplace?
• Are your employees empowered to work hard and succeed?
• Do your leaders connect initiatives to your overall mission?
• Does your organization have a clear reason for existing?
• What does it mean to your employees to be successful?

Talk about the possibility of an economic crash worse than The Great Depression is everywhere. Before you panic and surrender all hope for your organization’s future, take a deep breath. Then consider what you’re doing to weather the storm and survive (or even thrive) in its wake. Here are some key steps:

• Take care of your teams. Create a plan to protect workers. Make sure they have the tools, skills, and support they need to work through this difficult time. Help those working remotely to stay connected, engaged, and productive. Give managers the tools, technology, and training to effectively lead their remote team members. Implement and promote flexible leave policies; ensure workers that they won’t be penalized for missing work because they or family members get sick.
• Look for opportunities to cut costs, not people. Brainstorm with team leaders about unessential expenditures and their suggests for saving money.
• Help others. People will remember … [Read more...] about (4/3) Leading Your Team Through the Virus Economy

Right now, your employees may feel like castaways. Like it or not, decentralization is here for the foreseeable future and perhaps beyond.  There are issues you can address now to keep people connected and rescue your teams from isolation:

• With lower costs and more options than ever, there is no excuse to skimp on technology. When in-person meetings and conferences aren’t possible, this can save your business and prevent disruptions.
• After this crisis passes, consider a way to get your teams together face-to-face for some brainstorming and bonding.
• Provide your managers with training on how to lead, inspire, and empower remote teams.
• Find innovative way to keep people connected—from games and contests to virtual activities and social media.

Political officials and health care leaders have been on the news imploring health care practitioners from other states to make a temporary move to help their hospitals and other facilities address the surge of patients needing care for COVID-19 infections. Sadly, there just aren’t enough nurses to fill all of the job openings. However, there are some steps you can take to attract the nurses you need during this crisis:

• Incentivize nurses to serve in affected areas. Higher wages and extended student loan repayment programs can help. Consider paying all or some of travel and housing costs for relocating nurses.
• Reactivate licenses and let nurses practice across state lines. Work with nurse licensing boards to facilitate deployment of RNs to where they are needed via expeditated processing of license applications.
• Relax scope-of-practice and oversight laws. Encourage state policymakers and regulatory agencies to ease scope-of-practice … [Read more...] about (4/1) There Are Not Nearly Enough Nurses to Handle the Surge of Coronavirus Patients: Here’s How to Close the Gap Quickly

Moving through this global crisis, leaders face new challenges daily. The work processes that were effective last week may not work now, and adaptations made today may not work next week. Leaders need to change the way they lead and work in this new reality:

• You need different instincts to be successful. For starters, focus on responding and not reacting. This means calming those around you with a constant flow of communication and updates.
• Decision-making is happening every four hours. You no longer have the luxury of waiting days or weeks and collecting significant data before making a decision.
• It is essential to look at employees as whole people. Look for ways to boost morale. Attend to workers’ needs, feelings, and concerns. Anticipate and address their immediate needs, such as food, child care, and stress relief.

The psychological and emotional toll the COVID-19 has taken and continues to take on workers is significant. You can help your employees and yourself find moments of peace and joy among the chaos and stress. Here are a few ideas:

• FaceTime a friends or family. Consider having a room with computers that employees can use to connect with their loved ones during breaks. Remember that not all staff have the technology at home, so they may appreciate an opportunity to enjoy videoconferencing with their loved ones. This can be a tremendous boost to weary people.
• Go for a walk. As long as social distancing is maintained, fresh air and sunshine can make a big difference.
• Don’t underestimate the value of music. Sing in the shower, on your way to work, and anywhere else the mood strikes you. Make sure employees and residents have access to music they love. Instead of the news, put on a playlist first thing in the morning.
• Order in dessert. Order … [Read more...] about (3/30) Simple Ways to Find Joy During a Crisis

While some industries are laying off and firing workers during this pandemic, healthcare hiring is booming:

• March’s healthcare job postings are 35% ahead of January’s numbers.
• The top job category for postings is registered nurse, followed by physician, healthcare specialist, licensed practical nurse, patient care technician, and psychologist.
• The number of listings in different geographic regions is reflective of the current or expected influx of patients symptomatic of or diagnosed with COVID-19.

As you attempt to lead your organization and/or team through COVID-19 response, avoid these management pitfalls:

• Taking a narrow view. Pull back to take in the big picture. Consider all the options for actions and the potential implications on outcomes, morale, finances, etc.
• Getting caught up in the “thrill” of management. Anticipate what comes next week, next month, and next year to strategize and prepare. Delegate and trust your people to make tough decisions; provide proper support and guidance.
• Over-controlling. You can’t control everything, so don’t create new layers of approval for minor decisions and directives. This is likely to cause confusion and frustration. Seek order rather than control.
• Forgetting the human factor. Don’t forget to care for your teams. Start with a clear mission that infuses work with purpose. Then monitor to identify those who may need additional support or guidance.

Meetings, hallway huddles, and other ways teams commonly work are out the window in the new world of social distancing. Consider these ways to help your teams function when they can’t work shoulder to shoulder:

• Reset Expectations. Change how you expect work to get done and how tasks are accomplished. Focus on results and offer as much flexibility as possible, including extended deadlines.
• Stay in regular touch. Use instant messaging and other tools to enable constant contact and quick response to questions or concerns.
• Support continued learning but keep it short and simple.
• Assign buddies/peer coaches to provide additional support.
• Realize that it’s harder to read emotional cues when you’re communicating remotely. Watch the inflection, pitch, and volume of your voice on calls and gestures and facial expressions in video conferences.
• Model optimism and positivity.
• Update and check-in even when there is … [Read more...] about (3/25) 8 Ways to Manage Your Team While Social Distancing

Every day, there are new developments and updates regarding COVID-19. It can be overwhelming keep track of everything, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has one important recommendation: Act as if the virus is already in your community. Toward that end, take a few steps:

• Take aggressive efforts to keep residents, visitors, and other health personnel healthy.
• Restrict visitors and nonessential health personnel, practice social distancing of residents, communicate regularly with residents and families, educate your teams about the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, communicate with the local health department, and assess supply/personal protective equipment inventories.
• Create a list of staff and others who enter the facility and create a plan about how the facility may limit or stop visits.
• Cancel all group activities and communal dining. Hold staff meetings via video or phone conferencing.
• Talk to and … [Read more...] about (3/24) CDC: Act as if Coronavirus is Already in the Community