How to Support Your Employees Through a Hard Time

Keeping up morale in the workplace is essential if you want your staff to stay with the company and maintain productivity, but even if you’re creating an ideal workspace for them, there will be things happening in their lives that are out of your control. Whether it’s the death of a loved one, mental health issues, the breakdown of a relationship, or legal and financial issues, these are all common problems that can strongly impact how people can function at work. Rather than making them feel uncomfortable about it or living in fear of losing their job, you need to make sure that they know you are supporting them and want to do whatever is in your power to make things a bit easier for them workwise. Below are a few tips on how you can show support for your employees when they are going through a hard time.

Open a Dialogue

If an employee is going through a tough time, they might not feel as though they can be honest with their employer about it. Even though it is up to the employee about whether they want to discuss their issues with you or how much detail they want to give, if you have noticed that it is starting to affect their work, it’s important to open a dialogue with them. Speak to them privately about your concerns, but remember to take a gentle tone. Tell them that you are here for them and ask if they would like to arrange a meeting with HR so that you can figure out a plan for them at work so that they can feel more supported and don’t have to suffer in silence.

Ask If They Need to Take Some Time Off

Employee burnout is a real issue, but a lot of people are reluctant to book time off work to recover because they don’t want to use up their annual leave or are concerned about how many sick days they are taking. If you can see that your employee is struggling at work, ask if they would like to take off a few days or a week to recover or deal with whatever is the problem if it’s due to personal issues. They might not take you up on it, but knowing that they have the option and you’re OK with that will make a huge difference.

Counseling Services

Another way you can support employees in the workplace is by having information on counseling services that they can use if they are going through a hard time. Whether this is something that your company will contribute towards in terms of paying for a set number of sessions or just having leaflets, numbers, and websites that they can refer themselves to if they need it is something you should have in place. Counseling might not be for everybody, but talking things through with an impartial person who is a trained counselor could help offload and learn coping techniques to help them get back on their feet.

Legal Issues

If your employee is going through legal issues, this can be an incredibly stressful experience. It might be divorce proceedings, a personal injury claim, or even something more serious like being charged with assault. As the employer, more severe charges like the latter might affect the reputation of your company, and in this instance, it’s a good idea to try to understand the legal proceedings and how to protect yourself from any kickback that might occur. You will need to speak to HR about your options and the best way for you to move forward. You could also support your employee by recommending specialist law firms that you know who might be able to help them with their legal representation. For example, this law firm specializes in representing military clients when they have problems with UCMJ article 128. Even though your employee’s legal issues are private (unless it is something to do with what happened in the workplace), encouraging them to keep in the loop in case they need time off for court dates, etc., could be useful for you both while they deal with it.

Keep Things Confidential

Everybody knows that workplace gossip happens, but anything your employee shares with you about what is going on in their lives must remain confidential. Don’t answer to speculation or engage in these conversations with other employees. While you might not be able to stop them from talking and assuming what’s going on, you should never break the employee’s trust. What they tell others is up to them, but you need to steer clear from getting involved in these discussions unless it becomes an issue where HR needs to step in.

If you want to show your employees better support at work when they are going through a hard time, consider the tips above and see how they can make the office a safer place for them.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for preventing automated spam submissions.