Motivating all staff during Covid-19

During the pandemic of Covid-19, employees are being categorised whether they like it or not. Category titles include ‘key worker’, ‘essential worker’, ‘home worker’, ‘furloughed worker’ and, sadly, ‘redundant worker’.

It is fair to say that there is a lot of information available regarding key and essential workers, rightly so. With the recognition they are receiving for being on the front line, working directly with Covid-19 and keeping essential services available for all, it is easy to see the direct impact and influence these roles have in the fight against Covid-19 and, therefore, for those role holders, the link to contribution and motivation is clear. However, what about other employees who are not in those types of roles, perhaps on furlough, having to isolate, or are shielding – what are they contributing to the fight against Covid-19 and how does this impact on their motivation in their work?

As we know, motivators differ for people. For some it is financial and for others it is recognition.

However, for employees who want to do more i.e. involvement/assistance/contribution during Covid-19 but are inhibited from doing so, how do we maintain their motivation in the workplace?

How do leaders motivate an employee who has to shield because of their health categorisation but is in a key worker role? Or motivate a furloughed employee during lockdown because their role can’t be delivered from home?

In these circumstances, three actions are critical to motivate employees, these are - contact, listen and communicate.

Keep in contact, and not just task-based contact, outside of work information is even more important now as home and work boundaries blur. Outside of work has an even greater influence on an employee’s motivation at the moment and the more contact you facilitate, the more opportunity the employee has to seek your help and guidance around their motivation levels.

Listen, really listen to what the employee is saying and how they are saying it. It could be the last sentence of the conversation that is most telling about where your employees’ level of motivation is.

Finally, communicate, tell the employee what you think you have heard about their motivation levels and ask how you can support them. Take your discussions forward by continuing to listen and communicate. Individual circumstances change, therefore leaders’ methodologies of motivation will need to adapt and evolve too.