Many hourly shift workers who were impacted throughout the course of the pandemic continue to be disproportionately affected. Constant changes in operations, vaccination timelines, safety mandates, and limited access to resources can harm their health and wellbeing.
As a manager, you want to create a thriving workplace where your employees feel assured and supported. Read on to discover new ways you support your socioeconomically affected employees.
Get them to (and from) work
Modes of public transportation have become slim due to their influx of demand over the last year. Access to ways of commuting was already limited for frontliners who lived in less populated areas. Without a vehicle, many shift workers left with limited transportation options strategize how to get to and from their places of work.
Your employees will feel empowered when they commute if they have accessible means of transportation. Use a central communication platform to share bus schedules, route maps, guides, nearby stations, and more where your team can find an array of ways to clock in and clock out knowing they have reliable transportation to and from work.
Give them access
Your team might live in multi-generational households with their high-risk relatives. Because of that, your team could be worried about maintaining their own health, safety, and sometimes the sole income of their household. It can be stressful when going to work and potentially risk the lives of their loved ones.
Provide your team with links to nearby COVID testing centers, vaccination registration, and physicians. This way they will know that their health and safety concerns are being addressed. And, you can make sure that you’re keeping your shift workers healthy in the most stressful of times, eliminating burnout from them as well.
Grant them the time they need
Sharing important resources to nearby healthcare providers and testing centers is helpful. But your employees may be wondering when they’ll have the time to schedule and attend their appointments.
Support their commitments to their health and wellbeing. Offer them time to attend any testing or doctor appointments. Communicate with your team to ensure that they know their health is the main priority, and allow them to take time off. Allow other team members that can handle more work to take over the gaps in shifts by using an automated staff scheduling tool.
You can even create a special leave type in your scheduling app so your team can easily schedule appointments and the time off they need.
Put into action now
Knowing that your supporting efforts are helping your hourly workers is one big step in creating an inviting workplace where they want to come to work. Sharing important resources to socioeconomically affected staff members offers access to information they haven’t had much access to during the pandemic. Moving forward, you can continue to share information by using central forms of communication that empower your shift workers.
Continue to use efficient tools to provide your employees with helpful resources. When your team knows they have a manager who cares about their health and wellbeing, it’s something empowering for you, your team, and the future of your company.
The good news is that you can help your staff now. Sign up for a free trial of Deputy to see how you can streamline scheduling to better support your team.
