Paula Caligiuri, Northeastern University and Helen De Cieri, Monash University


The coronavirus pandemic has forced tens of millions of employees across the U.S. to work from home. While this will save lives by limiting the transmission of COVID-19, it also poses significant challenges for employees’ well-being.

How can companies support the health of their employees – many of whom have never before worked from home for a significant amount of time?

As researchers in the area of human resource management, we have studied companies’ ability to adopt and encourage practices to improve employees’ well-being.

Here are four research-backed ways we believe companies can promote employees’ health and well-being during this crisis.

1. Provide more flexibility
Before the pandemic, only about 5% of the U.S. workforce worked from home on a regular basis.

But working from home affects every employee differently depending on their responsibilities and living situations. For example, with widespread school and childcare closures, workers with younger children need to balance keeping them occupied while trying to keep up with work tasks. And the same goes for those with elder-care responsibilities.

That’s why employer flexibility to match specific employee needs is crucial.

A good step is for companies to require managers to have open conversations with their employees about how and when work can be accomplished – without intruding on employees’ privacy – and offer a wider range of options for flexibility, such as more leeway when assignments need to be turned in or adjusting work hours per day to allow more time to care for children and others.

It’s also important for this order to come from the top because not all managers view flexibility positively.

For workers in states where they can still head to the office, companies should also offer more flexibility, such as reduced hours, a compressed work week or even a leave of absence.

And employees should not be passive. Let your managers know what kinds of flexibility you need to balance your work and home lives.

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https://aidenpromotions.com/blog/4-ways-companies-can-support-their-workers-during-the-coronavirus-crisis/