Covid19

As Industrial Psychologists, registered with the HPCSA and classified as Health Care Practitioners, we need to assist businesses (small, medium and large) to provide stability during Covid 19. It is important to follow ethical guidelines of appropriately referring and engaging with other Health Care Practitioners when designing organizational interventions that regulate the (virtual) work environment.

We should ensure that the psychological and medical reactions are appropriately managed in the work setting. This is not a time to sit back, but to actively use our expertise in order to support the economy. Here are some interventions that can be implemented to assist businesses to manage change.

1) Identify and manage work related psychological needs in the remote workplace.

2) Facilitate effective understanding of designed protocols, business change and impact on daily activities.

3) Create emergency operations centers with trusted and competent task teams. Assist with job profiling, workplace counselling, coaching to the team and facilitate effective decision making when the team is at a deadlock.

4) Facilitate the voice of emergency whilst managing the anxiety.

5) Manage change fatigue, which occurs during large scale organisational change. Change strategies may not always be successful the first time, assist employees to see this as a time to be resilient and bounce back, instead of becoming demotivated.

6) Facilitate creativity and innovation within the organisation to allow for appropriate and calculated adjustments to work flow.

7) Ensure effective communication channels that foster clarity, engagement and decision-making.

8) Promote employee health and safety through education.

9) Align business solutions derived form business tracking and forecasting to the remote work strategy.

Let’s support our economy during Covid 19 by doing our part.

This article was adapted from SIOPSA’sarticle: Views on the emerging role of the Industrial and Organisational Psychologist during the COVID-19 epidemic.

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