‘Covid fatigue’ in the return to work
Impact of Covid
As more and more of every day opens, many are returning to work. After adapting to life in a Covid pandemic, we’re now having to go back to how we used to work and live. The impact of staying at home during Covid – restricted socialisation, no commuting, changing caring responsibilities (the list could go on) seems to have already tired those who have already returned to work.
Towards the latter stages of the pandemic, many were eager to get back out in the world, but we also got used to a ‘closed-off’ way of life for so long that it can be challenging both mentally and physically to revert to pre-pandemic living – albeit an adapted version. So, it’s not surprising that people are already feeling the knock-on effect of going back to work and all it entails, whether you are returning to an office, hybrid working or continuing to work from home.
Some have enjoyed working from home not having to commute and having the flexibility in their role, and others missed social interaction. Whatever it may have been, employees are having to re-adapt to working whilst maintaining productivity and engagement levels rather than experiencing fatigue and burnout. Easier said than done.
Managing fatigue
So, how can employee fatigue or burnout in the return to work be managed in the workplace…
- Ensure it’s a gradual transition
- Recognise both employees and employers are likely to experience fatigue; there is no distinction between management levels when it comes to mental health & wellbeing
- Provide mental health and well-being support & activities
- Explore the wide range of existing employee benefits provisions – Employee assistant programmes (EAPs), private medical insurance (PMI), and group risk policies
- Build an open and honest culture of communication so employees feel supported to seek advice
- Create social & physical activities
It’s also about how employers and employees recognise, mitigate, and respond to issues that contribute to fatigue on the return to work. Such as commuting, caring responsibilities, anxiety around returning to work, autonomy to manage your own day and being around colleagues. It’s likely different issues will arise over time and impact employees’ productivity, well-being and so on. Therefore, it’s crucial that continuous attention is paid to effectively act on issues early on and for employees to have autonomy in their management. Another aspect of this is employees need to feel empowered to seek the support they feel would be the most beneficial supplied by their employers who should be providing a space for them to do so. As you can see below, our expert employee survey services and engagement surveys can greatly assist in discovering insights into your employees’ well-being.
A well-being survey can offer insights
An effective way of doing this is to understand the needs of your workforce – conducting a wellbeing survey can gather key information on how employees are feeling, any challenges they face, whether they feel supported, etc. It also provides a foundation to facilitate internal discussions on what initiatives in place are effective, what can be improved and taking action early on. More so, undertaking surveys are vital for employers to eliminate challenges faced when pinpointing issues and acting on such to create meaningful change on a longer basis, which is key to tackling covid fatigue as we return to a ‘new’ normal.
Without a doubt, we have all been impacted by covid over the past year and a half, but it is imperative that businesses continue to provide support to employees as they adapt as they once did at the start of the pandemic with remote working to empower people to feel supported, empowered and valued in their return to work.
If you haven’t already, speak to us about how we can help gather feedback using a well-being survey to help aid and support returning to normal working arrangements. Or if you have any other questions regarding our 360 feedback surveys, pulse surveys or just our overall expert employee survey services simply contact us at info@surveyinitiative.co.uk or phone us at +44 (0)1255 870735.