Employee morale sinks when there is a national or local tragedy. A national tragedy like the recent Boston Marathon bombings makes people feel angry, frightened, and helpless. And, there are other tragedies as well. Tornadoes, floods, fires, and other tragedies can occur anytime and anywhere. As a supervisor or manager, how do you keep employee morale up and lower employee stress during a crisis?
You get to work on a beautiful sunny day. You’re employees are happy and productive. Everything is running smoothly. Then, all of a sudden your assistant runs in and shouts, “Did you hear the terrible news?”
You can’t expect employees to work as if it is an ordinary day. Their minds will not be on their work, and they may not even be able to concentrate. They certainly won’t want to be cheerful when others are suffering.
Employee morale during a crisis is not about being cheerful or happy, it’s about banding together and doing something useful and productive that helps the situation.
5 Ways to help your employees deal with the tragedy and feel empowered
1. Moment of Silence
A moment of silence for the tragedy is a way for employees to show their respect to those whose lives have been devastated. It also helps people clear their minds and focus on what they may be able to do to help. A moment of silence is something that not only bonds people together, it shows that your company or organization cares.
2. Do Something Helpful
The constant pictures on the news and over the media can be depressing , but personally doing something helpful can be uplifting in the midst of the tragedy. If tragedy strikes someone at your workplace, or people in your community you may be able to help those people by:
- contributing items that are needed,
- visiting people and offering consolation,
- bringing and serving food,
- asking what ways your company can help.
When employees band together in an effort to lessen someone’s pain, there is a bond and good feeling that is created. Helping creates the positive emotions that raise morale.
3. Have a Fundraiser
When tragedy strikes, money is often needed to deal with the emergency. The Red Cross is is a good organization to contribute to during natural disasters. You can hold a fundraiser:
- bake sale,
- garage sale,
- arts and crafts sale,
- raffle, etc.
When you do this as a team project, it helps raise employee morale because people are working together towards a common goal of being helpful to those in need.
4. Get Prepared
It’s the unpredictability that is most fearful, so helping people prepare in advance for possible tragedy can lower those fears. Planning for the unforeseen is empowering and makes people less fearful.
At http://www.ready.gov/ you can find ways to prepare for and protect yourself, and recover from from all kinds of emergencies and natural disasters such as: tornadoes, fires, hurricanes, terrorist hazards, as well as how to create a family disaster plan.
This is also a good time to discuss emergency safety plans at your company.
5. Take Time Out
During a crisis, productivity may suffer. Here are some ways to take time-out:
- Advise your staff to take a period of emotional time-off each day when they won’t think about the tragedy: a half-hour, an hour, a half day, etc. This will rest the brain from the negative and fearful thinking about the disaster, and allow the body to feel calmer.
- Create a Crisis Free corner with a comfortable chair and some motivational books where employees can take their break.
- Advise them to watch the news only once during the day. This way they are not cutting themselves off from the news, but they are limiting the time they are getting more negative emotionally charged information.
In short:
Don’t ignore the fact that a disaster has occurred. Instead, do something positive. When your employees take positive action and band together to help others in need, it makes them feel more empowered, less stressed, and more connected to their co-workers. This improves employee relationships and raises employee morale, and allows employees get back to doing productive work even in the midst of a tragic crisis..
