Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, we’ve heard much talk about ‘returning to normal’ or getting accustomed to ‘the new normal’. Most of us recognise that, just as the pandemic forced us to change the ways we work and live, so too will vaccines and new ways of managing the disease, bring about further change. How employers respond to continuing changes in Government policy and ongoing health risks will affect us all.
For many of us, it’s a lack of certainty that causes us to feel unease and anxiety. For some, knowing that further change is being imposed against our will can be a cause of stress. After all, we have now settled into new ways of working and perhaps we don’t feel ready for more change!
Some employers are now bringing their people back to physical workplaces, introducing or consolidating safety measures such as physical distancing, mandatory face coverings and protective barriers. What is required in each location is very much dependent on the type of industry and environment.
Other employers are continuing to operate as they did during the peaks of the pandemic, preferring to wait and see how things unfold over the coming months before disrupting their teams further.
Probably the vast majority of companies however are adopting a more mixed approach, recognising the benefits of taking a more flexible approach to home and office working, weighing up many factors that include effectiveness, productivity, staff wellbeing and loyalty. Perhaps the only real certainty for most companies is that further change is inevitable and that, in the absence of certainty, it’s important to prepare people for inevitable disruption.
Not that change is a bad thing! In fact, companies and individuals grow and evolve by continuing to be open to learning from past experience and by adapting to the changing environment around them. A company that keeps doing things exactly as they did in the past is bound to be overtaken by competitors at some time. And as employees too, we would very quickly stagnate and lose interest if we didn’t experience some challenge, some new opportunity for learning at work.
So, while Governments and employers have a vital role to play in setting the right policy and approach for our working lives, as individuals we also have to take responsibility for understanding and managing our emotional response to change. There is much we can do to prepare ourselves, from understanding the nature of change and our human response, to recognising when we are experiencing difficulty and knowing how to take care of our wellbeing. Most importantly, we can develop a mindset that welcomes change and seek ways to influence and be part of our evolving workplaces. Taking some active involvement in the process of change is shown to reduce our feelings of unease and anxiety and to support us to move more quickly towards integrating new ways of working. With this attitude, change can become acceptable, interesting, even exciting!
Onsite Wellbeing Company is pleased to offer an exciting new workshop on Approaching Change at Work with Confidence. It is aimed at employees who have recently experienced or are soon to experience change at work, in particular those who are returning to work after time away, returning to a physical workplace or returning to new ways of working. It is also relevant to those whose roles, hours or other working arrangements are changing in any way or if there is continued uncertainty.
The 1-hour workshop focuses on understanding change and our related emotions and provides practical tips for managing these. It includes the use of a powerful, positive visualisation, used by many top athletes and business leaders to create successful future outcomes.
If you’d like to know more then Contact Us or call us on 0333 900 0212.
