Blurring boundaries: Why in times of crisis, the professional becomes the personal

Every crisis be it a technical breakdown, economic recession, or health threat like the current pandemic affects the relationship between employers and their employees directly or indirectly, and blurs the boundaries between personal and professional. Unprecedented restrictions on people’s lives, as playing out now within social distancing, lockdowns and absence from loved ones, have a direct correlation with how they perform professionally. Employers must not only recognize this correlation, but act on it, thinking holistically about employee support through the lens of social justice. It’s widely known that what keeps an employee not only onboard, but also actively participating, is a lot much more than salaries and benefits. A positive working environment, strong working relationships, and the opportunity to be creative in one’s role, are golden threads contributing to the employees’ sense of value and purpose in their organization. Employees that feel supported personally and professionally will, by default, perform better at work as the two are intrinsically combined. Yet this must start before a crisis. Just as countries with existing infrastructure and population trust in their leaders have, in general, been more reactive and efficient in curbing the spread of the virus, so organizations that have already been actively providing the necessary support for their employees will fare better when tackling a crisis. Of course, there are checklists, HR protocols and resources that are helpful for all organizations, but in unprecedented times of crisis, organizations that are already actively offering empathetic, human-centered support that takes in both personal and professional trauma will succeed. Even before the start of the pandemic, UGHE were providing staff, students and faculty with tailored counselling services, that they could access virtually at any time to speak with a trained counsellor. These sessions, paired with the existing provision of a communication allowance and internet package for all UGHE staff, came into their own when the realities of remote working, social distancing, and quarantine put new pressures and anxieties on employees. This applies also to how agile you are as a workforce - as flexibility is crucial when faced with unprecedented circumstances. There is a tendency in some workplaces to think employees can be prescribed to one role only, with their specialisms fitting only to that spec. However within times of crisis organizations, and their respective HR teams are forced to take a wider lens. Flexibility becomes crucial to the smooth running of your organization, and by facilitating the transfer of staff from one role to another, you protect your workforce against job loss. Whilst some roles such as event management and transport, were rendered temporarily redundant by Covid-19 related restrictions on movement, rather than letting go of these valuable staff, they were simply reassigned. For the employees concerned, their agility, flexibility and openness to tailoring their experience to support another area of UGHE output was exemplary, meaning no job losses, and dedicated resources to other departments requiring support. This did not happen overnight; it began in the hiring decisions (recruiting adaptable people), and was maintained through talent management strategies like hiring staff and faculty with high quality skills and expertise created models, systems and organograms. Similarly, communication is critical and, again, employees should expect strong, transparent communication from their employers and HR teams before a crisis hits. Employees that have a collaborative, empathetic connection with their supervisor is key - it will enable both mentee and mentor to understand one-another from a human perspective, and adapt communication accordingly. When face-to-face interaction is stripped away with the new realities of remote working, line managers need to make meaningful connections with their teams, and have flexibility, for instance, with employees who might also be juggling family priorities with children homeschooling. With new challenges comes new responsibilities, and levels of accountability. Supervisors should need to step up to find ways to support their employees personally, and professionally - especially now, but at all times, knowing that by investing in each other, you build stronger foundations for the future. At UGHE, an Emergency Response committee was quickly and reactively assembled at the start of the pandemic, yet communication was channeled only through the Executive Leadership Team. This ensured only credible, evidence-based information about the pandemic evolution and prevention measures was shared, so as to not incite panic with the dissemination of fake, or contradictory news shared through informal channels such as social media, or WhatsApp. A monthly Town Hall was also initiated, encouraging open discussion internally about large-scale global issues, to challenges they were facing on an individual level. Out of times of crisis, comes innovation, and a new direction for the post-Covid era. The learnings that all organizations will have absorbed through the rapid adaptation and additional measures implemented to meet new working realities, will lay solid foundations for future organizational success. The writer is The Director of Human Resources University of Global Health Equity.

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Blurring boundaries: Why in times of crisis, the professional becomes the personal