How Companies Treated Employees During COVID Crisis

“It’s easy to maintain great organizational values during good times. But in bad times, you get to know the real organizational value”

COVID-19 has been one of the challenging periods for most of the business. And the manner in which employers treated their employees during COVID crisis will determine how employers are able to attract the right talents required for their business and how employees will trust, respect, and have faith in employers.

As normally happened in an economic crisis, employees are the first to suffer and COVID crisis was the worst ever, bringing business to a prolonged halt resulting in lower sales and profits. It created an enormous blow to cash flow of most of the organizations. 

Employees costs in a company range between 5% to 12%, depending on the nature and the scale of business. Cost reductions because of employees’ salary are not very significant as compared to revenues, etc. As against these benefits of long-term loyalty, trust etc. far outweighs cost so reduced. 

Employers exercised following options to save employees cost during COVID crisis;

1. Pay cuts ranging from 25% to 50%
2. No pay 
3. Employees told to leave the job 
4. Status quo; which means no cuts, promotions, increments given in the normal course  

The third option was the worst of all, and the second was the most desired. 

First and second options would have demotivated employees and employers would have lost their trust and royalty, that may be reflected in the adverse performance of the companies. Companies need their employee to be motivated to keep business at the top level. Pay cuts and no pay cannot sustain long term and it will result in a fall of business if not fixes quickly. 

Apart from that, many companies were sensitive to employees’ needs. Work from was a necessity for the safety of employees. But it influences the mental health of employees because of loneliness, depression, etc.

Many excellent companies took care to keep engaged with employees through video calls.

Over and above normal work, events such as quizzes, group games, entertainment, tea with teams, etc. Even CEOs took personal efforts to engage with employees, either one to one or in groups. This kept employees motivated, charged, and even resulted in an increase in their productivity like never. 

A few companies emphasised with their employees and started interesting initiatives during COVID crisis like, 

• The leadership team at Hilton lowered their salaries to take care of frontline employees. 

• Ally Financial helped its employees to shift their work to work from hustling equipment to helping them set up the internet. They provided additional bonuses like free access to mental health professionals and more. 

• PepsiCo gave at least an extra $100 per week to employees who produce, transport or deliver its products; also providing a full salary for 14 days for any employee who must be quarantined because of COVID-19 

To sum up how companies treated employees during COVID crisis,

The companies which are empathetic to their employees be ultimate winners and would come out strongly post Covid era. They will have a loyal and strong workforce. 

The companies who did not take care of their employees would be losers unless they do timely course correction.  

It is said backed by anecdotal experiences that employees first is the best policy to keep employees motivated and companies successful.  

Employees are the greatest treasure for any business, and all success leads from their collective work. 

Employees are the first contact point with customers, and if they fail in this critical aspect, they will be out of business, eventually!

If your company has implemented interesting to treat employees during COVID crisis, please let us know in comments. We will add it to the article and post it on our social network.

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