By Zhenyu Yuan, Zhuxin Ye & Meng Zhong
Much has been written about how to manage through the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic. But what can managers do to set themselves and their teams up for success when lockdowns and social distancing requirements are eventually lifted?
To explore this question, we surveyed more than 350 employees in Wuhan, China, in the aftermath of a strict citywide lockdown that ended in early April. The vast majority of the respondents had been forced to stop working when their employers shut down businesses during the lockdown and were motivated to make a speedy return to normal operations.
In our surveys, we were interested in exploring what people did to prepare themselves to go back to work. We also asked employees about the extent to which they felt their managers were committed to promoting workplace health and safety (e.g., wearing masks themselves and communicating the importance of safety protocols). Four weeks after surveying the participants, we conducted a follow-up to assess their engagement and productivity at work.
We found that engagement and performance were highest when employees had mentally prepared for their return to work and their managers had demonstrated a commitment to promoting workplace health and safety. Importantly, neither of these factors were enough on their own: Both workers and managers have important roles to play. So, what does it take to keep yourself—and your team—engaged in these trying times?
Employees: take some time to reconnect with work
First, take a moment to acknowledge the fact that the lockdowns have been extremely disruptive to many people’s work lives. Don’t try to jump right back into the daily grind without pausing to reflect and reconnect. Past research has shown that employees returning to work after large-scale disruptive, traumatic events may have trouble staying focused at work, and that some readjustment is often necessary.
Make sure you’re not just physically ready, but also mentally prepared, to return to work. In our surveys we found that it was very helpful when employees spent some time reviewing their past progress, setting priorities for upcoming goals and creating short- and long-term to-do lists for themselves, before coming back to work.
Managers: proactively promote workplace safety
For many employees, the return to work will be accompanied by the knowledge that a second (or third) wave of the pandemic is possible, and that loosening social distancing restrictions doesn’t come without risk. Concern about their own health and safety upon returning to work is likely to be a major source of stress for employees, and that stress can significantly diminish engagement. While managers can’t directly eliminate these real risks, our research suggests that managers can mitigate people’s concerns by going out of their way to proactively promote—and enforce—workplace health and safety.
Managers should thus make sure that everyone in the organization fully understands and abides by health and safety protocols. This includes clearly communicating what measures (e.g., mask wearing and daily temperature checks) are being taken and compassionately but firmly correcting those who fail to follow the requirements.
Managers should also ensure that their teams are actually able to follow the rules by doing everything they can to provide personal protective equipment and disinfecting supplies. A little extra planning to determine clear supply lines and rationing can go a long way.
Because the situation surrounding the pandemic can be so volatile, organizations or even individual managers can demonstrate their commitment to safety by going above and beyond minimum health and safety standards set by local public health departments. For example, a manager may choose to proactively enforce mask wearing within his organization before it is officially mandated by local regulations, or may elect to use a lower positivity rate than local guidelines require as the threshold for increasing health and safety measures.
Most critically, managers’ commitment to the health and safety of their employees must be more than mere lip service. In addition to listening to what their managers say, employees closely watch what managers do. That means that announcing your support for employees’ health and safety is a good start, but it is only a start.
A rich body of workplace safety research has shown that the root cause of many safety incidents can be traced back to managerial practices that deviate from stated procedures. Through our studies, we consistently found that when managers fail to “walk the walk,” the inconsistency sends a signal to employees that their organization does not truly care about their health and safety.
For example, if a barista is confronted by a customer refusing to follow safety guidelines, the worker may look to his manager to support him in enforcing company policies (potentially at the cost of this customer’s business). If the manager fails to support that worker and instead allows the customer to skirt the rules, the barista may come to the conclusion that his manager prioritizes profit over employee health and safety.
When managers are not genuinely and consistently committed to following their own rules, employees are likely to become more concerned about their own safety, thus increasing their stress levels and reducing their engagement. This ultimately creates a vicious cycle of mounting stress and safety risks: As our findings highlight, a lack of managerial commitment to health and safety can reduce employees’ engagement at work, leading employees not only to underperform on the job, but also to fail to abide by health and safety protocols themselves, further increasing the risk of virus outbreaks that threaten both safety and stress levels.
Of course, it is important to note that our research focused solely on the situation in Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged and was effectively brought under control many months ago through strict lockdowns, large-scale testing and widespread contact tracing. Given the discrepancies in how the virus has spread and has been managed in different locations globally, it is possible that our findings may not be fully applicable to other countries and regions.
For example, in places where the risks of transmission are higher or where local guidelines (or adherence to those guidelines) is less consistent, employees may be even more concerned about their managers’ commitment to health and safety. Furthermore, as some countries enter new lockdowns, a growing sense of “pandemic fatigue” may make it even more important for employees to reconnect mentally with work to maintain engagement. But regardless of location, our study highlights how important it is for managers and employees to work together to effectively promote post-lockdown engagement, productivity and, most important, safety.
Zhenyu Yuan is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Meng Zhong is a PhD candidate. Zhuxin Ye is an assistant professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology.