Shawnee Love   •   February 28, 2020

Lately, every where I turn, I hear about the corona virus. Media is fanning the fear flames and people are getting scared. Employees bring these fears to work, so I thought it appropriate to discuss what you as an employer can do to help.

This is not a blog about the facts and myths of the corona virus, but rather a blog about what employers can do to protect their workers and keep their businesses on track.

Travel:  I would start with avoiding airline travel where possible. Even within Canada which has a very low number of confirmed corona virus cases, the circulated air on planes means its hard to stay healthy if you are flying a lot.  With growing fears of the virus and everyone with the sniffles being a suspected carrier, avoiding airline travel not only helps people stay physically healthy, but it can ease mental stress of travel as well. In fact, shares in Zoom (a video conference service) are zooming through the roof right now as companies turn to video conferencing with clients and colleagues over travel.

Video Conference: As noted, video conferencing is a viable solution when you can’t be face to face.  It doesn’t replace the face to face connection, but amidst a wave of fear, it is a pretty decent alternative.  It also works for people who are not well but need to stay in the loop on a project.  Conferencing in from home for a quick meeting (video camera off if needed) to stay connected can reduce the germs brought into your office.

Sick Practices: Encourage your people to stay home and get well rather than “push through” at work. This is good advice no matter what season it is, because sick people just make others sick. Even if they truly aren’t “contagious anymore” (which is usually a lie in my experience), the absence of snorting and sniffling enables everyone to focus on work. Tell people who are sick to stay home.  You can support that practice by offering paid sick time, something I know is very difficult for small businesses, but perhaps worth it during a serious epidemic just to ensure people can afford to take care of their health.  On that note, what is stopping you from offering a couple paid sick days temporarily? We often think if we do something like that, it has to be forever. However, offering a benefit or perk for a limited time is something employees can easily wrap their heads around and will likely appreciate.

Wellness Encouragement:  Not everyone learns how to be healthy from their parents, and while the schools have some curriculum on being healthy, there are still vast numbers of people who truly don’t realize how their actions and thoughts impact their health. Being a mentoring manager who does not judge but gives tips on how to build wellness is another way to help people stay healthy (not to mention feel healthy which is often even more impactful). Another great support for wellness is an employee family assistance plan. We know lots of great ones and are happy to recommend whenever employers are interested.

We hope at least one of these four tips resonate with you but even if not, another way to help your employees is just to ensure they know they can talk to you about their fears. Sometimes just being heard makes a world of difference.