You’ve heard that “long-haulers,” people with long COVID, suffer persistent symptoms that erode their quality of life. Anyone scanning the workplace soon realizes that some employers also suffer from long COVID. A few refuse treatment, expecting to get well on their own.
Three symptoms signal an employer is suffering long COVID.
Difficulty filling vacancies and continual turnover
U.S. job openings outnumber available workers by 5.46 million. So many potential employees have left the labor market to become self-employed or gig and contract workers that employers with vacancies continue to fight talent wars.
Desperate to fill positions, long-hauler employers hire hastily, hoping the “best of the worst” will work out. Some new hires don’t last a day. Others leave without notice within their first four months, losing 90% of the value the employer poured into their training.
Fractured employer/employee relationships and lack of employee engagement
Employer/employee relationships have deteriorated for so many decades that few working today remember when employees spent 20 to 40 years working for the same employer. The pandemic, with its accompanying layoffs, furloughs and the sense that some employers exposed employees to safety hazards given their urgent need to “get work done,” took a machete to employer loyalty.
Employees facing illness, wages that haven’t kept up with inflation, and escalating economic insecurity soon decided, “I need to be for myself because that’s who I can count on.” Small wonder that the 2022 State of the Global Workplace reported that only 33% of U.S. employees felt engaged in their work.
Productivity
Given employee disengagement, the skill loss that results from regular turnover, and customer dissatisfaction from dealing with unhappy employees, employers with long-haul COVID suffer from dwindling productivity. According to one study, “projects that used to take four people two months to do now take 10 people five months to do.” Decreased performance translates into decreased profitability.
Employers can treat long-haul COVID
Vacancies and turnover
Employers with vacancies need to become an employer of choice and advertise that fact. My April 18 ADN column gives practical, real-life examples of how two local employers show job candidates the benefits of working for them. Reducing turnover starts with fully vetting applicants and continues with orienting new employees so they can succeed in their jobs.
Fractured relationships, disengagement and resulting productivity problems
Employers need to admit employees are key to survival and partner with them by offering respect, providing clear expectations, and furnishing support and communications.
This may involve retraining supervisors and managers to communicate regularly with employees, not only when problems surface. Consider the model provided by football and soccer coaches: These coaches set pregame expectations, hold interim timeouts, and meet with individual players after each game, explaining how they can improve and letting them know they appreciate excellent performance.
As I outlined in “Managing for Accountability,” manager coaches need to regularly ask, “Are there ways in which I can help you this week?”; “What job challenges or frustration you would like to discuss?”; and “What suggestions do you have for making our organization more productive?” By regularly opening the communication channel, managers let employees know they’re interested in their success and in preventing minor problems from festering.
Does your workplace suffer from long COVID? If you’ve been treating the symptoms without success, treat the causes.