Just a few months ago, businesses were excited for fall to arrive. At the time, the newly available COVID-19 vaccines had created a surge of hopefulness across the world, and companies everywhere were locking in plans for a long-awaited return to the office.
But now, as cases creep back up, caution once again feels like the best policy. As restrictions are put back in place to keep employees physically safe, employers are facing a fresh challenge in supporting staff that’s experiencing a brand new wave of burnout and stress.
According to Scott Domann, chief people officer at meditation and sleep app Calm, the solution isn’t to attempt to solve workers’ problems or reassure them that everything will be OK. Instead, lead with honesty, transparency — and a sense of optimism that’s grounded in reality.
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EBN recently spoke with Domann to learn how to take that advice and put it into practice. Here’s what he had to say.
As we enter this newly scary stage of the pandemic, how are you approaching conversations with employees?
I was just talking to another CHRO about this. As we think about this surge in delta variants and the psychological places that can send all of us, as leaders we’re trying to toe that line and not have toxic positivity but be somewhat optimistic and keep energy up. It’s really just about asking people how they are. But take it a step further: “How are you doing? No, really, how are you doing?”
But once you get an honest answer out of employees, how can managers and leaders lend the support needed?
Over the past 18 months, we’ve really seen people bring their whole self and their whole experience to work. You have to keep up the energy for that, and just keep leaning in to listen to employees. Keep talking about their needs. And as a leader, model healthy behavior. For me, if I take time off, I really take time off — and I hope to lead by example. I don’t want to be the person that tells my team to take time off, but then they can see me being online 24/7 when I’m supposed to be on vacation. That’s not going to help anyone.
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So hiring is obviously picking up like crazy, and we’re all mostly still stuck in a remote or hybrid setting. What does that mean for onboarding and bringing new employees into the culture of a business?
We, for instance, just had our chief product officer start this week. We have a ritual at Calm where we have a Monday morning meet-and-greet at 9:15, and we gather all our new hires on a Zoom and invite anyone and everyone at the company to come say hello. The company has about 260 employees at this point, and typically at these meetings we’ll have a turnout of 30 to 50 people who want to say welcome to the new colleagues. So that’s a great shared experience. I got a Slack from our new product officer, and he was just like, “That was amazing, that was so nice of everyone.” And that’s a good feeling.
What are some tips you’ve learned for figuring out how to manage and collaborate with new team members during this time?
Ask someone how they like to learn, and their preferred way to communicate. And ask: What are your hot buttons? What’s the behavior that pisses you off? It’s really good to understand that because we all communicate differently. For example, don’t leave me a voicemail! I’ll never listen to it, and I’ll just call you back. Other people have told me they can’t stand when managers don’t share accountability. That’s all good info to have from new hires upfront, because then you’ll be conscious of it moving forward, and that will make way to build natural connections that are effective.
As we’ve seen these lines of communication open up, what’s the balance between having more personal conversations but maintaining a sense of professionalism?
Know your limitations. We’re not psychologists or psychiatrists. If your employee tells you they’re stressed or anxious or depressed, listen and empathize and help them prioritize, but don’t try to solve their problems or take on that role of coaching them out of it — that’s not going to be effective. Instead — and this might sound a little basic — but remind them of the resources that are available to them through the employer, like an EAP or even an app like Calm. Make sure people know what support is available.
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That kind of all comes back to what you said at the top of our convo, which is that leaders shouldn’t feel pressure to be too optimistic or unrealistic at this time of uncertainty.
When people ask you tough questions about the state of the world or even work, it’s ok to say, “I don’t know.” When we’re honest, we learn more. And we will all learn together. Come from a place of practicality and pragmatism and optimism, but recognize that this situation is hard.
