LizStevens, Author at Best Money Moves

COVID-19 2020: Managing Employees During the Coronavirus Pandemic

by LizStevens | Apr 8, 2020 | Blog

COVID-19 2020: Managing employees during the Coronavirus pandemic. Dealing with employees who may be sick and making temporary policy modifications.

More than 70 percent of companies didn’t have a crisis management plan in place when the Coronavirus outbreak hit, according to a survey by Blank Rome. Even those who did anticipated natural disasters like floods and fires, but not a global pandemic like COVID-19.

Without an emergency response plan in place, how are employers dealing with things like emergency contact systems, data privacy, defining essential functions, managing employees who become ill and avoiding panicked reactions to negative news?

COVID-19 2020: Managing Employees During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Here are some of the temporary modifications employers told Blank Rome they’ve made in response to the Coronavirus pandemic:

We are following CDC guidelines; if an employee is sick we are sending them home.
We started specific weekly communications on March 3rd regarding precautionary personal and workplace hygiene, staying home or going home if ill, social distancing. We applied more specific polices on March 13th and formally implemented work from home as well as rotational work assignments.
We extended the absence period for returning to work from 3 to 5 days and on a case by case basis in some instances.
We have released anyone with symptoms and required doctors notes to return.
We’ve requested all employees to get tested and made arrangements for the testing to get done.
We are operating on the honor system for absences or modifications and accommodations during this time.
We are asking screening questions and are considering temperature checks.

Responding to Employee Testing Positive for COVID-19

Nearly 7 percent of the companies Blank Rome surveyed had an employee test positive for COVID-19 and in response to it:

23 percent of employers converted to remote work for all employees not required to be on-site.
17 percent continued operations with modifications.
3 percent closed the entire worksite where the employee who tested positive reported.

Managing Paid Time Off

Over 40 percent of employers have paid employees who show symptoms of COVID-19 but haven’t been diagnosed or allowed them to use paid time off. Nearly half of businesses that have had to temporarily shut down business operations are still paying workers and more than 20 percent are requiring use of paid time off.

Managing Employee Complaints

Less than 15 percent of employers have received COVID-19-related complaints from employees, but more than 90 percent have required responses that don’t fall within the traditional framework of complaints, including disability discrimination, retaliation and OSHA. Here are some of the COVID-19-related complaints employers have received:

Employees requesting shutdown.
Employees complaining about lack of sanitizer and masks.
Employees frustrated about working remotely.
Employees complaining the company failed to act quickly and put inexperienced people in charge of decision making.
Employees complaining that there isn’t a policy in place.
Employees upset about being required to come into work when they think they should be allowed to stay home during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Employees concerned about how matters will be handled.

How employers respond to the Coronavirus pandemic will have a significant impact on business for years to come. It’s crucial to empathize with employee concerns and communicate what the company is doing to protect both employees and business operations.

Helping Employees During Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic

by LizStevens | Mar 31, 2020 | Blog

Helping employees during Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. How you support workers during the outbreak could have a lasting impact on recruitment and retention efforts.

What will you say when asked how you helped employees during the COVID-19 outbreak?

We are in the midst of a crisis. The Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak is dramatically reshaping the working world. Healthcare workers, delivery drivers and grocery store shelf stockers are being overworked while waiters, bartenders, musicians and those in the hospitality industry are dealing with shutdowns, layoffs, and unemployment. All of them are looking to their employers for help to get through this uncertain time.

How employers respond to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant impact on recruiting and retention efforts for quite some time.

Helping Employees During Coronavirus/COVID-19 Outbreak

Employees at all levels are dealing with increased financial stress. Nearly 60 percent of Americans say the Coronavirus has had a negative impact on their finances, according to a survey by the National Financial Educators Council. Over 40 percent of them are more concerned about their personal finances than they are about contracting COVID-19.

There are a number of ways employers can support employees during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. These are a few areas some organizations are zeroing in on and others where the U.S. government is providing assistance:

Financial Wellness

Employees want to know how the Coronavirus is going to impact their retirement savings, their monthly budget, their credit card debt, their paycheck and they want to know what they should do about it. Best Money Moves, a mobile-first financial wellness platform, just added new resources to answer employees’ questions about how the Coronavirus will affect their finances and for a limited time, new clients can get Best Money Moves free for the first three months.
Paid Leave

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) mandates certain employers provide up to two weeks of paid sick leave related to COVID-19. Employers who provide paid sick leave under the FFCRA will be eligible for two new refundable payroll tax credits that the IRS will “immediately and fully reimburse” according to the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) provides almost $350 billion in partially forgivable loans to small businesses and nonprofits with 500 or fewer employees impacted by COVID-19 to help cover payroll and temporary closings.
Unemployment Resources

Some employers, especially small businesses, will have to layoff and furlough employees during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak. Whenever possible, employers should provide severance pay, extend health benefits and give a tentative rehiring date if the business plans to remain open. Employers should also help employees navigate the unemployment process.
Mental Health

Mental health platforms that offer teletherapy have noticed a surge in usage during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. People are anxious, depressed, isolated and lonely as they socially distance themselves and stay home to limit the spread of the Coronavirus. Providing resources for those who are struggling with their mental health during this crisis is important. Employers should evaluate their current mental health benefits and consider telehealth solutions.
Virtual Recruiting

Employers in essential services are struggling to fill open positions and comply with social distancing restrictions. CVS Health will fill 50,000 full-time and part-time positions through virtual job fairs, interviews and job tryouts. Walmart is shortening its hiring process to hire associates “in as little as 24 hours” to meet its goal of hiring 150,000 new workers by the end of May. Employers who were in the process of evaluating and interviewing top talent who still need to fill the position and have the budget to do so shouldn’t suspend the hiring process until the Coronavirus outbreak is behind us. Instead, those employers should look to virtual solutions like video conferencing for interviews.

This is a defining moment for business leaders around the world. Years from now potential hires will ask employers what they did to support employees during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. What will your organization have to say when that time comes?

Coronavirus 2020: Effectively Working from Home

by LizStevens | Mar 25, 2020 | Blog

Coronavirus 2020: effectively working from home. A good remote work policy can help businesses maintain productivity while limiting the spread of COVID-19.

Businesses everywhere are implementing work from home policies to protect their employees but maintain business operations while federal, state and local governments impose various restrictions on public gatherings to limit the spread of the Coronavirus.

Establishing a successful work-from-home program is not easy. Communicating with employees to stay on track while minimizing panic about COVID-19 in the coming weeks and months is critical.

Establishing a Work from Home Policy

Organizations without a remote work plan in place can begin to assess their ability to do so in four steps:

Review Operations. Determine what processes and procedures can be completed digitally. Explore remote solutions for things like team meetings, data security and certain HR functions.
Evaluate Equipment. Make a list of the equipment employees need to get their work done and see what that looks like from home. Find out if employees already own laptops or computers and if they don’t, decide if loaning out office equipment will be worthwhile.
Plan Procedure. Figure out how the team will communicate with one another to stay on track to reach business goals. Think about how frequently group and individual check ins should occur and how to monitor remote work performance.
Communicate. Let employees know about your new work from home policy and ask for their feedback. Employees want to be involved in organizational change and they might be able to fill in any unforeseen gaps in the policy with their on-the-job knowledge.

A good remote work strategy is the best way to keep both your employees and your business safe during the Coronavirus outbreak and if you don’t have one yet, now is the time to put one together.

Coronavirus 2020: Effectively Working from Home

Here are three tips for effectively working from home during the Coronavirus outbreak:

Keep the Routine. It’s important in times like these to keep certain routines to minimize stress and maintain a sense of normalcy. It’ll also be easier to monitor remote work performance if employees are expected to be online during specific hours.
Open Communications. More than half of remote workers feel lonely, according to research by Porch. Checking in with colleagues, asking them how they’re doing with everything going on, sharing something you think they’ll find funny, asking about their families, talking about a news headline, all of these things can increase social connectedness and stave off the loneliness.
Encourage Work/Life Balance. Recommend that employees get ready for work like they would on any other day. Encourage them to designate a space for work and take breaks at regular times to get in the working mindset. It can be nice on occasion to work from bed in your pajamas, especially if you’re sick, but it’s not good for productivity or mental health to continue to do so for an extended period of time.

More on the Coronavirus and Work From Home Policies

How Will the Coronavirus Impact Your Business?

How Does Remote Working Work?

Coronavirus and Financial Stress: How Will Employees React?

Are Employees Who Work From Home Happier?

Do Flexible Work Schedules Work?

Why You Need a Remote Work Strategy

Coronavirus and Financial Stress: How Will Employees React?

by LizStevens | Mar 5, 2020 | Blog

Coronavirus and financial stress: how will employees react? They’re worried about losing pay, their jobs and being unable to afford the costs of healthcare if they’re infected with COVID-19.

Update: The number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the U.S. were updated as of April 13th, 2020.

There are more than 500,000 known cases of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, in the U.S. and over 20,000 people have died. Stores everywhere are selling out of hand sanitizer, face masks, groceries and household supplies as Americans panic about an outbreak reaching their neighborhood.

Employees, especially those in industries like hospitality, retail, healthcare and food service are fearful of what will happen if they’re infected with the coronavirus. Without the ability to work remotely, they worry about losing pay or their jobs while they’re quarantined.

“We’re seeing a significant number of employees register higher levels of financial stress in the past two weeks, which isn’t much of a surprise given the financial ramifications of catching coronavirus,” said Ilyce Glink, CEO of Best Money Moves.

More than 75 percent of employees live paycheck-to-paycheck. Nearly 40 percent couldn’t come up with $3,000 if an unexpected expense arose in the next month, according to a report by Willis Tower Watson.

One thing is clear: The coronavirus is heightening the financial stress employees experience every day, further damaging employee productivity and engagement.

Financial Stress and the Coronavirus: How Will Employees React?

“Financial health is not just about income. The impact of financial problems on employees’ health and stress, even for those who aren’t living paycheck to paycheck, is unmistakable,” said Steve Nyce, senior economist, Willis Towers Watson.

Money is a significant source of stress for 90 percent of employees, according to research by Thriving Wallet. More than 60 percent of employees feel as though their financial difficulties are piling up so much they can’t overcome them and 25 percent make purchases they later regret when experiencing financial stress.

Even a high salary doesn’t always salve financial woes — 18 percent of employees making more than $100,000 annually live paycheck to paycheck. Some employees are unable to pay for basic needs like healthcare, while others are having trouble saving for retirement.

And for employees who get sick, high-deductible healthcare plans have shifted much of the cost onto the shoulders of already struggling employees, who must find a way to come up with the initial costs of care for themselves and their families. (As of this writing, it’s unclear whether the US will shoulder the cost of testing for coronavirus, if insurance will cover it, or if employees themselves will have to pay that cost. Regardless, if an individual is forced to quarantine, the financial cost will be painful.)

Willis Tower Watson defines those who are “struggling” financially as those who live paycheck-to-paycheck and have difficulty controlling spending. Over 60 percent of those who are “struggling” aren’t fully engaged at work. Close to 40 percent said money concerns keep them from doing their best at work. More than 40 percent of “struggling” employees reported suffering from stress, anxiety or depression over the past two years, compared with just 16 percent of employees without financial worries.

Roughly 40 percent of Americans don’t have emergency savings and skip medical care they can’t afford. If those employees get sick, they might not get tested and come to work sick, infecting colleagues and limiting productivity.

How Financial Wellness Programs Pay Off

Even in a good economy, the majority of employees say financial stress is their top stressor. In a bad economy, that number grows exponentially.

A good financial wellness program can ease financial stress and help employees boost their financial wellbeing. Willis Tower Watson found nearly 70 percent of employees who were given access to four or more financial wellness tools said their finances are headed in the right direction. Over 60 percent of workers said those resources met their needs and encouraged them to improve their financial situation.

“We believe, with the right actions and insights, employers can help lower the financial risks that workers face. Access to the appropriate benefits and decision tools is a great start. These employer resources should include supportive social connections, such as coworkers and family, all of which can help employees keep and enjoy more of their money and, ultimately, improve wellbeing,” concluded Shane Bartling, senior director, Retirement, Willis Towers Watson.

Best Money Moves is a mobile-first financial wellness program with a wide range of tools to help employees measure financial stress and then dial it down. Our Stressometer measures stress in 14 categories and uses artificial intelligence to push relevant, contextualized and personalized information, tools, and solutions to users to solve the biggest pain points quickly.

We have a library of over 700 calculators, articles and videos, a budgeting tool that does the math, and tells workers what their neighbors are spending in the same category.

Best Money Moves is also gamified, it features a point-based rewards system where users earn points every time they log in, work with their budgets, read articles and measure their stress. Each point translates into a chance to win a monthly contest.

How Will the Coronavirus Impact Your Business?

by LizStevens | Mar 3, 2020 | Blog

How will the coronavirus impact your business? Employers respond to the spread of COVID-19 with strategies to help employees who don’t want to get tested or take time off.

Update: The number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the U.S. were updated as of April 13th, 2020.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is monitoring an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus, COVID-19. Over 500,000 cases have been detected in the U.S. since January 21, 2020, resulting in over 20,000 deaths.

There are a lot of workers out there who don’t have emergency savings and skip medical treatments they can’t afford. If those employees get sick, they might try to “push through it” and bring the virus to the workplace, infecting colleagues and further limiting productivity.

Mercer has released a report to help employers understand how the spread of the coronavirus will impact their employees and how they should respond to it.

How Employers Are Responding to COVID-19

The initial employer response to the coronavirus has been to stay informed, protect and minimize exposure and take precautions, according to Mercer. This is what companies are specifically doing to minimize COVID-19’s impact on their business:

96 percent of employers are not ending expatriate assignments.
72 percent postponed nonessential travel to countries where there are confirmed cases of the COVID-19.
68 percent are providing hand sanitizer in the workplace.
58 percent are arranging for greater flexibility to work from home.
58 percent are requesting self-quarantine of 14 days for staff that recently traveled to mainland China.
48 percent are providing masks in the workplace.
43 percent have instituted a mandatary self-quarantine.

How Will the Coronavirus Impact Your Business?

Nearly 90 percent of global employers are concerned about how the coronavirus will impact their businesses. Over 20 percent of employers are lowering threshold or target goals, changing or adding performance metrics, isolating China business and providing for automatic adjustment for the impact of the virus or allowing for discretionary adjustments at the end of the performance period to account for COVID-19’s impact on business results.

Employers fear a serious impact if a large proportion of their workforce is ill. In the U.S., where employees going to work with a common cold happens regularly, it’s a valid concern that an employee with untested COVID-19 could come to work and spread the illness throughout the workplace. Mercer recommends employers listen to what employees are asking for, address their concerns, set firm policies to keep sick employees away from work and provide protection or prevention supplies onsite to limit the impact of the coronavirus.

Review Your Business Continuity Plan

Mercer also suggests that employers review their business continuity plan to ensure they have a plan in place to handle global outbreaks of pandemics like the coronavirus. A good business continuity plan ensures continuity in the event of a disaster, enables ongoing operations and outlines procedures and instructions to follow in the face of a disaster; whether it is a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane; a fire; a cyber-attack or a medical epidemic.

Employers can minimize employee panic by keeping up to date on reports from government entities like the World Health Organization, communicating updates frequently, following government guidelines, listening to employees and providing protection or prevention supplies.

COVID-19 2020: Managing Employees During the Coronavirus Pandemic

COVID-19 2020: Managing Employees During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Responding to Employee Testing Positive for COVID-19

Managing Paid Time Off

Managing Employee Complaints

More on Topics Related to COVID-19 2020: Managing Employees During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Helping Employees During Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic

Helping Employees During Coronavirus/COVID-19 Outbreak

Financial Wellness

Paid Leave

Unemployment Resources

Mental Health

Virtual Recruiting

More on Topics Related to Helping Employees During Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic

Coronavirus 2020: Effectively Working from Home

Establishing a Work from Home Policy

Coronavirus 2020: Effectively Working from Home

More on the Coronavirus and Work From Home Policies

Coronavirus and Financial Stress: How Will Employees React?

Financial Stress and the Coronavirus: How Will Employees React?

How Financial Wellness Programs Pay Off

Read More on Topics Related to the Coronavirus and Financial Stress

How Will the Coronavirus Impact Your Business?

How Employers Are Responding to COVID-19

How Will the Coronavirus Impact Your Business?

Review Your Business Continuity Plan

Read More on Topics Related to How Will the Coronavirus Impact Your Business?

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