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Tips For Managing Your Employees During The Pandemic
There has perhaps never been a more difficult time to manage your employees than right now. As FECs (family entertainment centers) begin to reopen, they will be bringing back furloughed staff, hiring brand new staff, or a combination of both. On top of bringing in new employees, operators have to deal with constantly changing conditions, both internally, locally, and nation-wide. With rapidly changing information, there are also rapidly changing processes. It can be a lot for you, and your employees, to keep up with.
How can you ensure that all of your employees are well-trained, always on the same page, and up to date on all of your policies and procedures? Let’s explore some ways to rethink your employee management strategy.
Keeping Everyone On The Same Page
Making sure all of your employees and staff are on the same page right now is absolutely crucial. With everything changing so quickly, it would be easy for one or a group of your employees to fall behind with all the changing policies and procedures of your facility.
Additionally, the communication between your guests and employees can make or break your business right now. Guests might be hesitant to visit your entertainment center, and an incorrect or misinformed answer from one of your employees could deter that customer from ever returning. The key to interacting with frustrated customers right now is to have patience and understanding. Even though you or your staff might not agree with their frustrations, you still have to acknowledge them, remain calm, and do whatever you can to remedy the situation.
Kevin Williams put together a terrific resource about how to answer difficult questions. Share this resource with your employees and have conversations with them about how to address difficult questions or situations with your guests.
So, how can you make sure that everyone is addressing these situations the same way? A weekly, or even daily meeting with your team is a great way to keep everyone up to speed. During this meeting, you can review your processes, make announcements, and even practice some role play about how to interact with customers. It doesn’t have to be long; even just a 5 minute meeting every day will keep everyone on the same page about how to handle tough situations, customer interactions and changing scenarios.
A few months ago, our team at Creative Works started a daily morning meeting. It keeps everyone up to speed with what’s happening in the business, and creates a platform for everyone to have a voice.
In the video below, Armando Lanuti talks about how certain interview question can help you find the right people for your company.
Training
Training during the pandemic has changed drastically. Likely, a lot of your staff has been furloughed for months. When these employees are brought back, they should also go through training to get them up to speed about your facility’s new policies and procedures. If you’re hiring brand new staff, they could even be trained together with the returning employees.
Managing Your Employees
Keeping communication open is a key to maintaining a healthy relationship between yourself and your employees. Allow them to voice concerns and opinions on things, and be accepting of their ideas for improvement.
As we all know, health and safety is the priority. During this time, it’s extremely important to encourage your employees to stay home if they aren’t’ feeling 100%, even if it means you’ll be short-staffed. This will allow employees to be honest about their health, and eliminate their fear of consequences for missing shifts.
Following these employee management suggestions can help your staff stay informed, productive and healthy during this difficult time.
Are you interested in additional tips and information about managing your employees right now? We conducted a survey of FECs around the globe to find out how operators are managing their facilities and employees right now. Find the results in our free resource below!
