Small business owners can benefit greatly by eliminating the notion that we are going to return to “normal”, whatever that means, anytime soon. One thing is for certain however, change is the only thing we can count on, and this latest Coronavirus pandemic has changed our world for the foreseeable future.
Big businesses like Wal-Mart, Apple, Home Depot and Costco are not feeling the impact as much as small business. Most larger businesses can adapt to change easily because they have the resources, expertise, and experience. Small businesses face a much tougher challenge for obvious reasons.
What we CAN do is adapt to the environment and put the focus on our people and helping them to manage the challenges in their own lives. In addition to making the right structural changes to your business, focusing on your people and helping them be successful will bring a significant return on investment.
Let’s unpack 5 important steps you can take to help put the focus on your people’s success:
- Keep your employee relationships strong - Build on the relationships you already have with your employees with a true concern for what Is happening in their lives. Knowing what they are going through can better position you to help them with what they need.
- Accommodate employee family needs - With schools shut down, parents with young children will face challenges with a lack of healthcare and children at home need to participate in class studies online. Be accommodating and flexible so they can take care of their family needs.
- Create a safe and secure workplace - We still have a pandemic out there and creating a safe workplace is a must to keep your employees healthy and give them the confidence to show up each day. Have a plan, take steps to protect your workforce that include social distancing, personal protective equipment, sanitation and remote working where applicable.
- Implement an employee financial wellness plan - You can help with employee’s and their financial challenges by implementing financial wellness plans including SEP IRA, 401k, life insurance, and even supplemental health insurance plans. All are lost cost ways to help your employees succeed financially.
- Know how to respond COVID-19 Events - When an employee experiences an event related to COVID-19, whether a family member is ill, they test positive or experience symptoms, know what to do and how to respond. Infinium HR has managed dozens of cases so call us the moment you have a suspected issue. You can also reference the CDC Business Resource page to understand how to deal with the many variations of issues.
These 5 steps are just a general plan to help you manage the challenges coming up. Problem for many of us will continue to be…what else is on the horizon? Nobody knows for sure, except that it is proven, focusing on your people will help you weather the storms of the future.
