The last few weeks have seen workplaces and working practices around the country change spectacularly. Offices are empty, people are adapting to working from home, and a large number of workers are now furloughed. In previous blogs we’ve focussed on engaging staff who are working remotely, but employers are also questioning what they should do to keep furloughed staff engaged.
What can Furloughed employees do?
With furloughed employees, it’s important to remember that they cannot be asked to do any work or tasks connected to their work or your business.
However, they can undertake training. Of course, face to face training is not an option at the current time, but with the massive amount of training now available online there is plenty of opportunity to help your employees learn new skills, or simply keep their brain engaged to relieve some of the lockdown boredom. Some employers are providing their Furloughed employees with a small budget (e.g. £150) to spend on online training on a topic of their choice using well known platforms such as Udemy or Lynda.
Furloughed employees are also allowed to undertake voluntary work and where their contract of employment allows, they are even able to undertake work for another employer (this works in much the same way as someone having a second job).
Supporting employee mental health and wellbeing
Whilst employees are furloughed, this provides employers and managers with a unique opportunity to connect with the people who work for them. If you consider the normal day to day communications of your business, we would hazard a guess that the majority of them are work based. Having a team on furlough, now enables you to find out more about your staff, without talking shop. Learning more about them can provide an insight into their lives that can only strengthen workplace bonds when the lockdown ends.
From a legal perspective, employers still have a duty of care for the mental health of their furloughed employees. So, checking in and touching base with them seems to be a sensible way of ensuring that they are happy and healthy. Additionally, if they are struggling with the lockdown, whether that is because of poor home life or social isolation, it provides an opportunity for them to let someone outside of their family know.
Keeping in touch with your team doesn’t have to be done by email either. If nothing else, I think we can all agree that the way we all communicate has changed as dramatically as our workplaces. Video messaging platforms like Zoom, Houseparty, and Marco Polo now make it so much easier to maintain face to face contact (and, with Marco Polo you don’t have to be online at the same time), but other traditional forms of communication like texting, WhatsApp, or a simple phone call also work. How often you choose to stay in touch is down to your business and time constraints, but we would suggest speaking to your furloughed team at least once a fortnight.
Another important thing to remember is that your absent team members probably still want to stay up to date with what is happening at work. Just because they can’t do any work for you, doesn’t mean that you can’t update them on how the business is going and the latest things that have been happening. Sharing this kind of information will be invaluable when they do finally come back to work and will help everyone to reintegrate. Additionally, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with furloughed team members reading about or studying things that may help them in the workplace in the future.
There’s also no reason why your furloughed and non-furloughed staff shouldn’t be in touch with each other. Setting up group chats for them or video calls that aren’t work related can keep team spirits up. There are also online pub quizzes and games, or remote keep fit activities that everyone can get involved in. Keeping everyone in touch also prevents awkwardness when the lockdown ends and helps office friendships to stay alive.
In a nutshell, the general rule of thumb is a bit like buying birthday presents. Think about how you would want to be treated and then try to do the same. So, ask yourself the question, “how would I feel if I couldn’t go to work for weeks and what would I need to make myself feel I was still a part of the team?” and then work from there.
If you have any questions about furloughing staff or the processes involved, please don’t hesitate to get it touch with us.