We Can Get Through Anything Together

Coronavirus Q&A series: Interview with Brett Barlow, CEO, Everee

 

The COVID-19 crisis has impacted various aspects of our lives - especially work. With remote working becoming the norm, employees and employers alike, especially the first-timers, are experiencing the ups and downs related to the situation.

On one hand, employees are worried about job security and the challenges of working as a team, on the other, employers are facing issues such as engagement and productivity drop, among others. It now falls upon the leadership to keep the team up and running.

How are the leaders handling the situation? HR.com interviewed senior-level executives from various organizations and asked them to share their lessons and insights.

This situation came at us quickly so we had to adjust quickly. It certainly impacted how we work as a team and being productive during this uncertain time. We refocused our external messages to be value driven, helping our customers by providing free access to information and tools like an FFCRA calculator. We moved our Pay on Demand feature to our basic package to make it more affordable and accessible.  

Yes, we’re fortunate to be able to pivot quickly to working remotely but it’s come with challenges. Communication needs to be purposeful and frequent, no water cooler or drive-by conversations. The feeling of isolation is real, so we’ve created moments of connectivity with virtual lunches and birthday celebrations, we started a fitness challenge with people posting their workouts and we’ve started to mail personal notes from the exec team to our employees with words of appreciation and encouragement. 

From the beginning, our approach to policies has not only been to stay compliant but to put guidelines in place that foster the culture we aim to achieve. We take time thinking through the practical application of any policy we put into place. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) is a good example of what I'm talking about. This is a policy that applies to all businesses under 500 employees. When working on digesting the confusing guidelines, for ourselves and our customers, we realized that understanding this policy and living it are two different things. So, we developed a tool that acts as a translator between the law and how you live the law. It calculates an employee's FFCRA leave eligibility.

Across each department, people can feel lost or isolated.  We’ve started virtual daily stand-ups and weekly company “all-hands” meetings. Managers have started regularly hosting one-on-ones with their team members to provide clarity and focus. These are practices we had hoped to implement anyway, and this situation has actually been a forcing function for better and more frequent conversations. 

We are currently in the process of rolling out a year-long Proactive Enterprise Program. This program differs from traditional Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) in the sense that it focuses on addressing emotional and mental health problems in a proactive manner vs. reactive. We believe the first step in addressing mental health in the workplace is making sure we establish a culture free from stigma. The PEP program will provide management training centered around normalizing the mental health conversations in the workplace; provide employees with access to mental health professionals via a support center and connect them with professionals within our benefit network should they need additional help.

I’ve really tried to lead with empathy, lots of listening. This is a stressful time and each employee has their own circumstances they’re dealing with. It’s made me realize how important it is to provide clarity and be transparent. There are so many questions and a high level of uncertainty, so it’s important to share timely and relevant information. 

I’ve also made it a point to continue to be decisive: Even with the uncertainty, I’ve tried to make decisions for the business quickly. Some of them have been wrong but that’s OK—we acknowledge and pivot. If we wait for definitive information every time, it’ll slow things down. We act with the best information we have at the time and adjust as needed. 

We are in a unique situation that is being felt by everyone around the world in one way or another. Our employees are reaching out to each other proactively offering help and showing interest in their daily work. It’s fostered a sense of “we can do this” and “we can get through anything together” in our company, and I’d like to keep that sentiment forever.