When the going gets tough, have a good think about how to respond.
Since lockdown, it’s been really interesting to observe how companies are treating their customers and their people. I’m not usually one for motivational, or inspirational quotes, but I do agree with the idea that when things get tough, you see peoples’ (or organisations’) true colours.
There are broadly one of two ways it goes – firstly, there are those companies who are pretty brutal in their response and approach. I won’t name any names, but you’ve probably come across these stories yourself:
- The cinema chain who, on lockdown, terminated employment contracts for many of their people with immediate effect, despite the support provided from the government to furlough employees covering 80% of their pay.
- The travel company who asked their people to take three months’ unpaid leave and accept a pay freeze, despite recent dividend payouts in the hundreds of millions to shareholders and their founder.
- An airline carrier charging £80 to rebook cancelled flights, despite claiming this would be fee free. They have since removed this fee, but when booking a new flight, any difference has to be paid. And guess what? According to consumer group Which?, the airline has increased the cost of those replacement flights by as much as £80.
And then there are the companies who are doing the right things, I’m happy to name a few of these!
- Greggs is offering free hot drinks to all health, social and emergency service workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Timpson, the retail chain, which provides shoe repairs and more, says it will keep its 5,500 employees on full pay while its shops remain closed.
- Fullers, the pub and hotel chain with over 400 sites, has said it will not seek rent payments from its tenanted pubs.
Companies have a choice in how they respond to the crisis, and the decisions made now will have consequences for years to come, either good or bad.
One company who’s definitely in the camp of responding in the right way is LNER. Jennie Pitt, Inclusion and Engagement Manager, shared some of the actions they’re taking to support their people over the coming weeks and months. They have set up a dedicated ‘Wellbeing Workstream’ to focus on the physical, mental and social wellbeing of their people. Examples of the actions they are taking include:
- Provision of the Headspace meditation app to all staff
- Exercise challenges to encourage people to get their 30 mins each day
- Frontline teams are using Tik Tok to set challenges, and then sharing their videos
- Virtual Yoga and Thai-Chi
- Home schooling resources are shared across the company
- There’s a range of virtual learning and development on offer, as well as for staff that are currently stood down
- To keep people connected, they are running ‘community cafes’ where staff can dial in with a cup of tea and have a chat
- The LNER chefs who are stood down, are creating a dish of the week and the one that receives the most likes gets shared on social media
- There are various virtual quizzes happening too to keep people connected
The company is working really hard to engage their people during these times, and there’s been some surprising benefits; for example higher levels of interaction with company comms.
When things slowly get back to normal (whatever that looks like) companies will be judged on the way they behaved during the Covid crisis, not only with their customers, but with their people as well. Now is not the time to put off engaging your people, engagement is more critical than it has ever been.
We’d love to hear from you if you have a good story to share about how your organisation is responding during the Covid crisis, so please get in touch.
