SLC Top 5 Tips: Managing your people in a pandemic

SLC’s Top Five Series: Managing Your People in a Pandemic

18 months into the COVID Pandemic the landscape for businesses continues to change, especially in Australia – just a few weeks ago business was talking about the post-covid world, the “new normal” and getting people back into offices as much as possible, now many businesses are facing lockdowns, restrictions and uncertainty.

Here are our top 5 tips for helping business manage their people in a pandemic:

Well-being:

The most important advice we have is to focus on well-being, well-being and well-being. We cannot underestimate the health impact (mental and physical) that these difficult and uncertain times have on all of us – employees and business owners. It is imperative that employers act with compassion and be focused on the health and well-being of their people. Employees are juggling concerns for their own health, isolation, child caring/remote learning challenges, caring for other family members, distance from family and friends and financial stresses. All of this makes even just getting their BAU day jobs done very challenging.

Employers have an obligation to step up – offer flexibility, support, employee assistance programs and check-ins. Now more than ever, business needs to recognise and respect that people are their biggest assets. Each organisation will have a different approach but we recommend regular checks-ins, open lines of communication, compassion and support.

Can your people still work?

Look at your workplace and type of work: can your people continue to work remotely (if that is in-line with applicable public Health Orders). What support can you offer people to work effectively remotely – talk to your people about what technology they have at home, what their physical workplace setting will be like remotely – do they need assistance with equipment? Can you loan out ergonomic chairs, monitors, keyboards, or suggest easy ways for them to purchase these items? What expectations do you have of your people when working remotely? Are targets/KPI’s still the same or adjusted for personal circumstances?

Can you effectively manage people remotely, especially where you have performance concerns – in short, we say yes, you can. So many times, businesses struggle with remote working as they think they need to physically see their people to be able to monitor performance and effectiveness. Through technology and communication, even difficult performance management can occur remotely.

Health and Safety impacts on remote working:

Work health and safety obligations do not go away just because staff may be working remotely – ‘Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking’ (PCBU), for the purposes of WHS legislation, have the same obligations as always to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the safety of all workers. This includes asking questions of your people to understand whether their remote physical work location is safe and conducive to working. Have you put in place a WFH checklist? Have you kept a record of checks you have done or asked your people to do regarding WHF? Some organisations have their people take photos of their workspaces and send them through to WHS/HR or their manager, others rely on checklists.

What is appropriate in each organisation will differ but it is important that businesses turn their mind to ensuring health and safety in remote locations. It is also important for PCBU to continue to carry out appropriate due diligence, ensuring staff know how to report incidents and accidents, as well as the Board or senior executives having regular updates on WHS even if such updates are virtual.

What to do if your people cannot work:

Whilst those employees who are unable to work at home are often permitted by public health orders to continue to attend work as essential workers, some businesses have to cease all work for a period of time (for example, hospitality and some retail in lockdowns, airline industry when borders close, etc). Other businesses are able to continue operating but in a reduced capacity with a large downturn in work, and other businesses may have disrupted staffing as we now live in a world where we have become used to phrases such as “close contacts” and “casual contacts”, meaning there are often times where people cannot work. We recommend all businesses have plans in place to make sure they know what to do:

If there is a stoppage of work: including what the parameters are around stand downs, redundancies, redeployment of staff and other options. Don’t forget to look at what government support there may be for businesses and individuals where there is no or little work due to government imposed restrictions;
If there is a downturn in work: can you utilise people in different ways – what ability do you have to look at asking people to do different duties, different hours, reduced days/hours – this will largely depend on your employment agreements and whether you and the employee can reach agreement. Can you direct people to take leave? Every workplace has those staff who use up all leave every year (although less travelling this year may mean there are few people doing that in 2021), and then those who are reluctant to take it. Whether you can direct staff to take annual leave can be a tricky question and depends on what is reasonable, what Award or Agreement may apply, and what your contract or policies say – but there is no restriction on encouraging staff to take leave for their own wellbeing.
If individual or groups of employees are directed to isolate pending COVID test results or time periods as close contacts, or caring for family members who may be unwell: what are the parameters that apply for the employer and the employee? Will personal leave always apply? What if they have used up their personal leave? Do you offer special unpaid or paid leave? Can they perform some work whilst isolating? Often the solution in these times will be a mix of a number of scenarios and open communication with impacted staff will be critical.

The vexed question of vaccinations:

As the pandemic moves into the phase of mass vaccinations, what role do employers play in this? Many commentators have put forward their views on how, and to what extent, vaccinations become a workplace issue. We have heard of businesses offering incentives (financial or other) to encourage employees to be vaccinated, and we have seen the Fair Work Commission uphold a dismissal for an aged care worker who did not have the compulsory flu vaccine, and more recently, federal legislation, regarding compulsory vaccinations in some sectors and for some workers.

We suspect there will be more legislation or policy in this space in coming months but for now, we encourage all businesses to look at their workforce, look at the work they do, the sector they work in, and conduct a risk assessment to work out the appropriate approach for their business and people.

Bear in mind there is a risk of discrimination (even indirect discrimination) in offering incentives for those employees who meet a particular condition(ie being vaccinated against COVID). There is an argument that those who are unable to comply with this condition (including for medical reasons) may be treated adversely by not receiving the incentive. Of course, where the condition is reasonable, this can be a defence to discrimination. Whether it is a reasonable condition to impose will depend on the circumstances, but in the context of a global pandemic, depending on the work you do and the sector you operate in, it may be considered wholly reasonable to incentivise staff to be vaccinated.

There is also talk of large employers offering inhouse COVID vaccines, similar to how many run annual influenza vaccination programs.

trish@sydneylegalconsulting.com.au

kate@sydneylegalconsulting.com.au

www.sydneylegalconsulting.com.au

https://www.linkedin.com/in/trish-ryan-4a1a3375/