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Editor's Note: Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a professor of Arbuckle at Harvard Business School and the author of Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time (PublicAffairs). Follow her on Twitter @RosabethKanter. The opinions expressed in this comment are exclusive to the author.
(CNN) - Faced with long hours and health problems, workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic are beginning to reach a breaking point. Whole Foods had cases of illness, Instacart faced a work stoppage, and a large carpenters union has called for a strike. Now that social media is ready to spread the discontent, there will undoubtedly be more to come if leaders don't address their concerns quickly.
Millions of American workers are already in the abyss of unemployment, but for those who are still working, or who could return to work, business leaders must take note: Employees, as well as customers and partners, notice how a company handles companies. people he dismisses. And failure to prioritize worker concerns could cause further deterioration in business confidence while prolonging the crisis by neglecting the health of families and the economy.
To take care of the workforce and avoid further disruptions, business leaders must address four priorities.
Physical Health
Safety and cleanliness have risen to the top of workplace concerns.
At a minimum, companies must provide everyone with hand sanitizers and antiseptic wipes, and cannot allow people to work if they show signs of being sick. For those going to the workplace, companies should make flexible hours the standard for everyone and consider staggering their days from time to time.
They should also ask employees for suggestions on how to make the workplace safer and work more attractive. For example, valuing cleaning crews and letting them innovate can lead to improvements that bosses wouldn't have thought of. TESSEI of Japan, a company that cleans the country's bullet trains, has earned acclaim and respect over the years for the speed and thoroughness with which it scrubs trains between stops and its teams of trained workers. The success of the American cleaning company ServiceMaster has been attributed to the high levels of contribution of workers to innovation.
Even point job companies, which have long claimed that their workers are simply independent contractors, are realizing the importance of showing workers that health and safety come first; Lyft is distributing disinfectant products to drivers, and is teaming up with Uber to offer sickness payments to drivers with the coronavirus.
Financial health
Attacking financial insecurity must also be a top priority. The value of front-line workers has yet to appear in their wages. Although some restaurants and supermarkets offer salaries close to the US $ 15 per hour sought by some politicians, when hours are reduced, even those salaries disappear. For essential health workers, low pay can cause them to leave the ship.
Sick pay is essential for all workers; A pandemic is not the time to force employees to work because they cannot afford to give up wages when they are sick.
Paying risks for higher-risk jobs, as proposed by Senate Democrats, is a significant bonus companies should offer to give people for going to risky workplaces.
Emotional health
Compassion makes a difference. The best leaders communicate regularly with their workers about unfolding events, regard everyone as “family,” and acknowledge particularly heroic or poignant stories of people who go above and beyond to help others as they sacrifice. Recognition can make people feel valued and also inspire others.
Leaders should ask about people's families and offer support based on their circumstances. Pointing resources like educational videos, meditation apps, and free online exercise classes can help. Startup Ed-tech Caribu, an application that allows remote reading to young children, is working with AT&T, the parent company of CNN Business, to distribute the product at no cost.
Businesses can also create and manage online communities based on interest or even geographic proximity. For example, during a previous financial crisis, when almost half of North American IBM employees worked remotely and morale was low, an executive decided to lift their spirits by connecting those who lived nearby and coordinating enjoyable creative activities for them to do. together. This type of morale booster could easily be replicated online.
Community health
Leaders must look beyond their own company or industry to help deliver essential services. Hospitals and healthcare workers have particular needs, and some large companies are overhauling facilities to produce masks instead of clothing or fans instead of cars. That's not enough.
Many companies have underutilized resources or creative ideas. To help schools implement online learning, for example, companies can lend idle office computers when white-collar workers are suspended or working on home devices.
Those who have lost their jobs could also return to work doing other useful tasks, while still receiving their unemployment benefits. Could they offer online training in areas where they have skills? Could they become financial mentors? Could they work as tutors for local schools? When a large bank I worked with was faced with the need for a layoff during a previous recession, it undertook a challenge in which some suspended workers could compete to earn an investment in a promising startup. Winners could start developing the startup before the crisis subsided.
Associations open up new opportunities. A consortium of corporate human resource executives is currently working on developing a correspondence service to help laid-off workers find jobs at other companies. During the Great Recession, a group of large companies formed Supplier Connection, a web-based procurement platform that helps small businesses obtain contracts; This type of effort can be made simpler and more accessible. By joining forces, companies can do more for their workforce or contractors and also ensure a faster recovery.
The COVID-19 crisis should be a wake-up call for compassionate attention to the needs of workers. Business leaders must heed the call or risk facing resentment and its consequences when the economy reopens.