28 May 2020

Key emerging reward and HR trends for the recovery period

To even mention the word recovery felt a little out of place during the first few weeks of the coronavirus outbreak. The focus was creating a thoughtful response to a situation that no one had planned for let alone experienced before. But now, sights are firmly set on how we all come out of this.

One of the key focuses for organisations over the coming months will be to better engage with their people, arguably the most powerful and important asset during this time. This means that there’s going to be a shift in focus for reward and HR leaders to re-engage with furloughed staff, show reward and recognition for those on the frontline and make sure wellbeing is at the forefront of the agenda when dealing with remote workforce.

Reward and recognition

Staff on the frontline have shown great courage and commitment during this time and organisations should think seriously about how they reward those members of staff. Any reward or recognition needs to be meaningful, and a great way to do this is by giving frontline staff a voice on how they would like to be rewarded or a forum through which they can make suggestions at a senior level on issues they feel passionate about. This in time will help to grow engagement and loyalty with staff and return some of the goodwill they demonstrated throughout the outbreak.

Reassurance

For businesses that have mainly furloughed their employee base and that are now looking at opening back up again, and dealing with the challenges that presents, there will need to be a focus on encouraging staff back into work. Aside from the practical challenges, employers will need to work on building confidence with their staff that their safety is paramount and that they’re not being encouraged to do anything that would put them at risk.

Employers should look to re-onboarding staff like they’re joining the organisation for the first time to effectively communicate distancing strategies and reassure staff.

Financial resilience

According to a YouGov survey commissioned by the Standard Life Foundation, 19% of Britons have used a form credit to cover necessary expenses during the first four weeks of lockdown. It’s clear that among all the upheaval, financial resilience across the UK has taken a real hit. In re-engaging with staff, reward and HR leaders need to bring a focus on financial resilience and provide the right tools and resources to help staff get back on track. Providing support in this area has the potential to create a strong level of engagement with staff that will help businesses through the next few months of recovery.

Recoveries from some of the biggest economic challenges of the past century have provided a chance to completely disrupt the business landscape and COVID-19 is certainly no different. This pandemic has forged a multitude of challenges for the working. Although no one knows where we’ll be in 12 or 24 months’ time, organisations that truly adapt and change are the ones that have the potential to have the biggest impact on employee wellbeing.

This article is provided by Wagestream.