Question

The coronavirus is hitting businesses and their employees. Some businesses are still open and millions of employees are working to serve customers. Some of the employees work in their workplaces while some others work from home. Almost all employees worry whether they will lose their jobs or if they will have a pay cut. It is obvious that unemployment will rise because millions of employees will lose their jobs and the remaining employees may have a pay cut (10, 20, 30, 50%) depending on the position in his/her workplace.

Because of the coronavirus, the business environment has started to change. It is becoming a challenging fast-changing environment. Currently, many managers are faced with difficulties. In the near future and in the long run, they will need to deal with important issues.

Lastly, you have to remember that one can easily manage firms during prosperous times but effective managers flourish during difficult times.

Below is a sample list of terms that you can use when answering the questions.

Job security and protection; Employee morale; Employee stress; Anxiety; Employee wellness; Effective decision making; Work performance; Key competencies; Productive employees; Quality of work produced; Work-life balance; Mental health; Employees in a high-risk health category; Illness; Government sector; Health sector; Security forces.

Q1-What should managers do to manage employees and minimize the negative effects of the coronavirus on employees? Discuss the major OB issues faced by managers when dealing with employees who are currently working and the major OB issues that managers need to handle in the near future.

Answer 1

Around the world average public sector employment is around 21% only. Now that means out of every 5 almost 4 are working for private organizations and this corona virus phenomenon has tremendous repercussions on global economy and workplaces around the world will never be the same again. Employees of manufacturing companies, airlines companies, and hotel chains are under extreme pressure due to nil profits in these fields now a day. On top of that global lockdown even though is slowing down the covid-19 pandemic spread there is global concern that the cure might be costlier than the disease in terms of its economic repercussions. As the global economy is looking down the barrel and an economic depression of enormous magnitude is expected. In such dire situation most of the global workforce is facing uncertain future, job loss, pay cuts are happening almost every day. Few of the companies have adopted the work from home model but some essential services sector employees are still working on the ground. Industries like hotel, aviation are completely shut down as there is no scope of remote working for them and the nature of business makes it impossible to work now.

Managers have added burden to carry on their shoulders right now. As the old adage goes tough times doesn’t last but tough people do, managers have to realize that there two types of effects on employees due to corona virus pandemic. One is the eminent threat of physical transmission for people working in healthcare, cleaning services, essential services as they are working on ground. They are risking their lives for the work and stress of dependents, life threat is prevalent every day. Now apart from the physical risk there is mental stress of losing job and pay cuts. Managers have to smart to understand this is the time they have to back his employees right now as they need more support. More one on one interaction over the phone, con-calls to enquire how they are, family condition etc. Simple words of motivation from the managers would make the employees a lot more inspired for the work and relaxed. For employees who are working on ground should be provided with PPE, handwash, sanitizer and other required kits to guard them against the dreaded virus. Managers should arrange over the net yoga sessions, exercise protocols for all employees working from home. Team conference calls should be held every day where even though business should be prioritized a greater emphasis should be given enhancing human touch and connection. Employees should be made aware that once the lockdown is lifted and normalcy is restored clients, intermediaries, vendors will remember who supported them during the tough times most and hence will give more importance them. Thus employees should focus more on building relationships. Managers should also focus on up skilling of the team as chances are regular workload will be lesser and it poses a great opportunity to enhance ones skil set.

Major organizational behavior that any manager right now will be the fear among employees and the negative thought process due to ongoing atmosphere, feeling of uncertainty for job security, Lack of motivation due to changed workplace environments, health concerns , manpower shortage as some roles might not be able to work at all, Infrastructure issues wherein some firms might not be able to shift to remote work due to information technology capabilities .

Future of organizations are going to be forever changed as economic and psychological effects of these pandemic will be seen even after years to come. Remote working might be the way ahead for many organizations as they find it won’t harm their productivity anyway and organizations would realize there is no need to pay hefty money for real estate’s as a good number of employees can shift to remote work. Cross functional abilities and skills will need to be nurtured more as there will be high demand for those employees who can handle current perilous situations with ease due to their multitasking abilities. This will mean firms have to shift their hiring criteria and focus more on general management and a myriad of skills. Informed and calculated employees will put more emphasis on the health coverage and benefits they are getting from the company compensation. Once normalcy is restored there will be a tendency to focus more freelancing as job-losses and pay-cuts will make the employees realize that probably freelancing is the way to go ahead which will serve them well in terms of convenience of work from home, better work hours. There will be increased focus on less travel (especially global) for next few years and this will make a case for a strong infrastructure of information technology to formed to facilitate the backbone of the organization.

Risk management and crisis management has to be prioritized and separate dedicated teams should be formed for the same.