Employee morale needs to be measured — and acted on

Remote work has given us the opportunity to sleep in and make better use of the time we previously wasted on getting ready and commuting to the office, but it has also taken away informal meetings with colleagues, casual exchanges of ideas, and recognition. Yes, those small, everyday compliments for a great idea, a job well done, or an initiative that helped the company improve. In the office, motivational words are often spoken during brief conversations with colleagues about a specific project or when a manager walks past your desk. In formal video meetings, there is often not enough time for such praise, which can leave employees feeling that their work goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Not to mention the simple act of asking how everyone is doing.

While such problems may seem insignificant in the short term, months of working with rare or no physical contact do not come without consequences. However, even in these unusual circumstances, it is possible to look after employee well-being, according to the HR Director of Visma Enterprise, Ineta Juškēviča. She suggests focusing on two essential elements: gauging employee sentiment and providing tangible support.

How are you doing?

The first does not actually require much effort. Many companies have devised simple ways to keep track of the well-being of even large teams without meeting them in person. Self-assessment surveys, which employees fill out and send to the HR department from time to time, are useful for this purpose. These ask about everything from the setup of the home office and its suitability to physical and emotional health, as well as collaboration with colleagues and management.

For employees, the mere act of showing interest means a lot, provided the surveying is not done in a draconian way, such as by demanding long and detailed reports on short notice. Friendly inquiries about mood foster a more positive outlook on life. It is important for the HR department not only to prepare and send out the surveys but also to aggregate the data and act on the information provided. Employees need to feel heard and that they can trust management. If someone complains that their home workspace is not suitable for productive work, management should look for ways to improve those conditions. If someone’s internet is too slow, perhaps the company can find a technological solution to the problem. In a survey we conducted, we found that 47% of Latvian companies have already helped employees set up their workspaces.

Listen and act

It also doesn't hurt to regularly summarize and share the most important insights gained from the surveys with the team. For example, how employees are coping with the challenges of long-term professional isolation, how they manage their working hours, and how they handle their responsibilities. Colleagues can draw advice and inspiration from these answers to solve their own problems, and this is one of the most significant contributions an HR department can make right now: acting as an intermediary for experience sharing among employees and as a filter for excessive emotions.

The next step—caring for employees—largely follows from the results of surveys or other forms of employee feedback. People are very different, and their psychological resilience varies. One person might bury themselves in their apartment like a cave and find joy in no longer having to go to the office, while another might experience increased anxiety after just a week and rapidly approach an emotional breakdown due to loneliness. Consequently, company management must constantly keep a finger on the pulse of their employees to avoid reaching a point where a staff member is simply no longer able to perform their duties.

Remote visits and activities

Some companies have already proactively organized online seminars for employees with specialists who help them better prepare for the new reality. Others have paid for remote psychological consultations or simply provided funds for emotional well-being activities of the employee's choice. Remote exercise, yoga, or meditation are no longer unusual today. Just like "letting off steam" in thematic discussion clubs or intellectual games. For active people, there are countless sports challenges available, competing remotely in the number of steps taken, kilometers cycled, and kilograms lifted.

Jumis Pro team plays board games via video conference on the last Friday of every month, says company manager Viesturs Slaidiņš. It is an opportunity to discuss non-work-related topics in an informal atmosphere and to gauge the emotional state of each colleague. Whether they feel exhausted, unappreciated, unheard, anxious, or perhaps are satisfied and happy with everything.

Over the past year, the range of remote education, entertainment, and exercise options has grown dramatically, and companies should not ignore these opportunities. Even those whose strategy is to just weather these turbulent times. Because after the pandemic, not all employees will return to the office. The results of our survey show that nearly a tenth of companies will continue to work remotely after the pandemic, while 45.6% will switch to a hybrid model, coming into the office only a few days a week. Valuable food for thought regarding work organization and maintaining employee well-being in the future, isn't it?