05. Covid -19 Pandemic and Employee Wellbeing

 

According to World Health Organization the definition for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is “an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus”. Further it says that the virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing or breathe and those particles range from larger respiratory droplets to smaller aerosols. Therefore, it is important to practice respiratory etiquette by employees, for example by coughing into a flexed elbow and to stay home and self-isolate until the recovery and also by the employers by providing the needed facilities to the employees.

Following are some steps that employers can initiate and conduct at the workplace to save the employees from this disease

1. Conducting body temperature  checking at the entry to the workplace
2. Make it mandatory to clean hands or sanitize hands before entering the workplace by employees and customers
3. Make hand washing facilities or sanitizing hand rub dispensers available to employees and customers at the entrance as well as suitable other places
4. Ensure the hand rub dispensers are regularly refilled and soap and water are freely available at all time.
5. Demonstrating correct hand washing techniques through posters, leaflets, via LCD panels
6. Paying attention to regular disinfection of surfaces
7. Keep the doors open as much as possible
8. Minimize the overcrowding of customers inside the workplace
9. Minimize the work in person at office and encourage work from home practice
10. Keeping at least one meter gap between the people who have direct customer relationships
11. Keeping surgical masks and paper tissues available at the workplace for use by those who develop a runny nose or cough at work, along with closed bins for their hygienic disposal

The Covid 19 pandemic which centered the issue of physiological and mental health of employees by changing people’s lives drastically has negatively affected the economies and the businesses world worldwide. Now the organizations are forced to find out the solution to new challenges arising with the aspect of employee wellbeing than the past. On the other side the employees are feeling unsafe about their job. As per the survey by CIPD conducted in 2020 regarding this pandemic, the employees are worried about returning to the workplace during the pandemic, feeling anxious about the health risks and the commuting to the work place. The survey also found that Top employers are anxious about the mental health and wellbeing of their work force as the main challenge to face (peter cheese, CIPD survey, 2020).

There were some researches who researched on the connection between the pandemic and employee wellbeing where a summery is mentioned below.

• With the setting of work from home to de-densify the workplace and to maintain the physical distancing, these arrangements have their side effects on the mental and physical health of the employees (Brooks et al 2020)
• With the new setting of work from home or the alternate days of working in the office, it has shown the negative relation to employees affecting their commitment, behavior and performance (Ozcelik & Barsade, 2018). On the other hand Gigauri, (2020) says companies need to manage the people during crisis so as to enable work continuity and life balance.
• The impact of covid-19 and ongoing pandemic would be seen on the employment condition and employee wellbeing for the long time (Akkerman’s 2020).

 References & Bibliography

CIPD(2021). [online]. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/latest-research. [Accessed on 14 December 2021]

CIPD Community. [online]. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/community/blogs?pi236=44&pifragment-1424=6#gref. [Accessed on 14 December 2021]

Science Direct (2021). [online]. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?qs=employee%20wellbeing. [Accessed on 10 December 2021]