As recently as a month ago, suggests Jason Sibthorpe, Avison Young’s UK president, few workers would have known what the term “furlough” meant. But most will probably know now – many through first-hand experience, including roughly 300 members of Avison Young’s own workforce.
The government’s furloughing programme – or the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – has allowed companies to “press pause”, in Sibthorpe’s words, and conserve cash as they navigate the Covid-19 pandemic. Furloughed staff will have 80% of their monthly salary, capped at £2,500, covered by a government grant while they stop work.
In the real estate industry, a lengthening list of big names, including almost all agencies of note, have signed up. But despite a growing usage of the programme, many business leaders are all too aware of the stresses that the procedure is putting on affected staff. And it’s here that many are hoping their firms’ mental health and wellbeing initiatives can play a valuable role.
The message and the medium
“We are going to see the very best and the very worst of people,” says Rebecca Watts, HR business partner and wellbeing lead at Bidwells, of companies’ treatment of staff during the coronavirus crisis.
“Companies have underestimated that this is how we will be measured. We won’t be measured on our PR, we won’t be measured on our marketing. We will be measured on how we conduct ourselves in these days.”
Company leaders agree that the medium is a big part of the message when announcing such a drastic step as furloughing, even as the lockdown makes interaction more difficult. As horror stories spread of firms announcing furloughs by e-mail – an absolute “no”, according to Juliet Smithson of RICS charity LionHeart – other managers have worked to find more direct or personal channels.
At Avison Young, Sibthorpe had started weekly videos for staff during the UK’s lockdown, and he and the team decided to use that format to announce furloughs and pay cuts in a pre-recorded message.
“We made it abundantly clear that, from the furlough perspective, this is in no way a precursor to redundancy, and in no way has any impact on an individual’s importance, ability or future within Avison Young,” Sibthorpe says. “We had to make some decisions between a rock and a hard place, but ultimately we had to protect the cost base of the business.”
That video was broadcast on the morning of Monday 30 March, and by the end of that day managing directors and principals had held one-on-one calls with every member of staff affected.
“That was so important,” Sibthorpe says. “Imagine: you get that video on Monday morning. Hopefully it does resonate, you do understand and it comes across with a lot of honesty, care and transparency. But you are still sitting there thinking ‘what next?’ That immediate follow-up was absolutely vital, so people understood by the end of the day where they stood.”
Since then the firm has carried out surveys to keep track of staff morale and held virtual townhalls for the workforce. Throughout the process, Sibthorpe says, the firm’s focus on mental wellbeing has driven its communication.
“In every message we are referring to mental health, making sure it is out there as a continual subject,” he says. “We are telling people to take care, to pause, to breathe, to just be for a period of time. We are ensuring that they are aware of being able to call on me or directors, and that we have professional programmes in place – our employee assistance programmes, our mental health first aiders, a health and wellbeing hub that everyone can access via our internal systems.”
Ending the stigma
At Bidwells, Watts says that the firm’s mental health agenda “overrode any of our other policies, processes or procedures” when the firm started to furlough staff in late March. “Initially there was quite a lot of stigma around those who were furloughed first and the anxiety that was experienced,” she acknowledges.
Watts held an individual call with every affected employee, alongside their line manager. “The three key things [on those calls were] compassion, humility and making sure you give them the time, however long they needed, to have really honest and open conversations,” Watts says.
Now, companies are working on how to keep in touch – or not – with staff during the months-long furlough period. At Savills, UK managing director Richard Rees has put in place weekly webinars for furloughed staff to give them access to the management team, part of efforts to remind them that they “remain highly valued and the firm looks forward to them returning full-time with the business”.
Bidwells staff have been given the option to check out completely during this time. “If they want to switch off and do all the things they have been putting off, that’s their decision and we respect that,” Watts says. But those who want to remain engaged with the business and colleagues can still receive company communications and take part in activities such as group-wide virtual quiz nights.
“Unless people have specifically asked to opt out, we have made a real point of including them and reaching out to them,” Watts says. “I call as many people as I can, just to check in with them. It’s important that if they want to stay connected they still feel part of the business and part of the family.”
Consultancy Hollis has furloughed 125 employees, or roughly 30% of its UK workforce – almost all of whom volunteered when the company announced the scheme. HR partner Mel Olrik is now working to ensure furloughed staff have ways to protect their feeling of self-worth during a difficult period.
“The obvious people to go on furlough to begin with are the youngsters – the graduates who are learning and can’t take full responsibility for things or are in training programmes, serving apprenticeships and things like that,” Olrik says.
“But there are mental health and self-esteem issues for somebody who is on the bottom rung and is desperate to get on with their career. They are at home, they can’t go anywhere, and every day you are reminded of the fact that no one wants you to do anything.”
Hollis has set up training programmes for such staff – furloughed employees are able to train but cannot carry out revenue-generating work. Employees are also encouraged to post on the company’s intranet with news of their activities away from the office, such as volunteering programmes they may take part in.
“What we are not doing is treating the furloughed people as a cohort of people,” Olrik says. “I am thinking of them in that I need to look after them in a certain type of way, but I don’t want the business thinking of them as anything other than on an extended leave.”
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