Keeping Your Team Motivated Whilst On Furlough

With work in a very strange place at the moment, managing your team has never been more important.

Your employees may have been off work on furlough for months, and although for you, as small business owner this will have been very stressful on you, your employees have also been feeling the strain.

Here are a few key things you can do to keep your employees engaged and happy. It may not seem particularly important now, but w

hen they do return to work, having an engaged and 'raring to go' team will help in getting things back to normal as quickly as possible for everyone.

1. Communicate

This may seem like a really obvious one, but catching up with your employees on at least a weekly basis is key. It can easily be forgotten. You can become bogged down in the day to day stress of possibly running the business on your own, but just a quick call or email to your employees will make all the difference in keeping them engaged and motivated. They will also be interested to see how things are you with, and the business. They have an invested interest to know that the business is still OK and that they have a job to come back to, so keeping in touch with them is important. Also try and have some fun with it! I know the day of Zoom quizzes may be over, but maybe sending a bottle of wine and some goodies to them through the post, that you can then all catch up over share a drink online will make them feel valued and still very much part of the team.

2. Be Personal

Some of your employees may not want to discuss their personal life much, however whilst they have been on furlough, there could have been some life changing things happen to them. A loved one could have been ill with the virus, a family member or spouse could have lost their job, they may have had to home school their children.

All of these things play a big part in their wellbeing, and understanding what challenges they have had to face during this difficult time will help you understand them better, and help them through this difficult time. You would be interested in all these things if they were in the office working with you, so nothing should be different just because they are on furlough. Understanding these things can also provide some common ground. With people not being able to do a huge amount (no chats about holidays and trips away!), realising you may have gone through the same things will really show your employee you are relatable and show you really care.

3. Plan Their Return.

Talk to them about what their return to work may look like. The fact you have had them on furlough for such a long period would indicate that when the time is right, your employee will be returning to work. This may be from home, back in the office or on site, or a mixture of the two.

Before you chat to them, it's important that you know what this looks like! If you have specific requirements for them, then it's important that these are all written down so that you can clearly communicate this to them. It's also really important that you have a COVID-19 risk assessment in place for anyone returning to an office or site environment. This is vital in safeguarding your employees, and staying within the law.

Chat to them about how this will work, ask them if that have any questions or concerns. They may have some ideas also about what this looks like. Take these on board, they may have some great ideas that you didn't think of, so be flexible, as not always does one size fit all.

If you need any support or guidance on anything you have read here, drop me a line to bennormanhr@gmail.com as I would love to chat about your business and see how we can work together.

Ben