Covid-19 pandemic created an unprecedented situation all over the world. Tens of millions of employees had to work from home, salaries have been cut, massive lay offs started in almost every industry. Gloomy picture of the global economy. Challenging time for HR professionals and internal communicators. It is very hard to keep the level employee engagement when so many other things are at stake. Seasoned PR professional and employee engagement guru Crispin Manners answered IdeaBank’s questions.

I believe the Covid 19 pandemic is likely to be a genuinely defining time for employee engagement and how employees view their current employer. People will remember how other people, brands, governments and employers behaved. And there will be tighter emotional bonds with those who were considerate and helpful.

So my first advice to employers is to be kind. Kindness can come in many forms. It can be the tone in which you explain the need to furlough an employee or the genuine recognition that an employee who has to home-school simply cannot perform the way he or she would at work. But being kind, like all leaders actions, has to meet the needs of SCARF (explained in this blog) – a neuroscience framework that should be part of every leader’s toolkit. Because if you are seen to be kind to one employee and not to another, you will have a negative impact at a time when you hope what you are doing creates only positive reactions.

Our Worldcom Partner – R. Nagy Andras from Próbakő Communications interviewed Crispin Manners about employee engagement in Covid-19 pandemic.

You can read the full interview with Crispin Manners here.