I am a business writer and speaker based in Singapore. As of this writing, I have just entered the second year of the Covid pandemic. There are 3 phrases that have never been close to my awareness: wear your mask, social distancing, and Zoom. None of them make me want to at all. I’m not sure which term I hate more, maybe Zoom, since I’m a teacher who likes to walk in class and impress his students with my multimedia PowerPoint presentation.
Well, the purpose of this article is not about any of these 3 evils, but about a word that starts with D that is not Death. Rather, it is depression..
I want to provide advice for HR and business owners on how to lessen the need for subordinates to reach the D-word stage. (Of course, if any reader here is already clinically depressed, seek immediate, professional help.) .
Well thought out meeting agendas
Every meeting should have relevant agendas that need to be met and acted upon after the conclusion of the meeting. There should be no post-meeting WhatsApp messages unless the business scenario has suddenly taken a turn for the worse and a U-turn of corporate strategy needs to be discussed lest the company collapse.
mask design
I am suggesting that all companies should go ahead and use a single corporate skin design to help in the bonding process. After so much exposed medical literature, there is no doubt that wearing a mask is being responsible and it is a small price to pay for the opening of the physical work space.
Covid-Vaccination
There needs to be a serious push to get all employees vaccinated against covid so that no one person feels ostracized. Vaccination is the socially appropriate action to take to remain part of the team.
tired zoom
Many employees have submitted feedback that they are experiencing Zoom fatigue. A quick solution is to supplement the Zoom session with perhaps some mobile games using Kahoot to break the monotony. Maybe this is how your team really feels when you had long PowerPoint presentations with hard-to-see font sizes.
Vending machines with free products
The company must provide vending machines that offer free products. You didn’t read wrong! Every time you press a button to obtain a product, the information will be recorded with a time stamp in your personal records. Your immediate supervisor will give you weekly approval if your performance is within a mutually agreed target. This will lift your spirits if your business has a variety of vending machines.
Trust
With the current state of Covid, there needs to be a certain level of trust as most of us are still working from our homes. The term KPI can slowly take a backseat as traditional performance metrics are not easy to use. As a suggestion, each employee could be required to do a weekly report so that upper management can see how they can provide further mentoring guidance. Employees become depressed if they are not sure that their bosses appreciate their work.
Tik Tok
Many bosses don’t know that TikTok is now the “IT” thing for many people. It’s like a heavily abbreviated YouTube video with Instagram cleverness. The value of TikTok is that employees can create light-hearted videos together to take a much-needed break. This is the 2021 form of corporate bonding.
I hope these tips can help remove the D-word from today’s workplace.