The COVID-19 crisis continues to challenge us, social unrest rages in Portland and elsewhere, and a national election and economic crisis loom in the distance. Though we’ve been making strides as organizational leaders to support our teams through WFH initiatives and policy adjustments, we now realize the challenges are here to stay, at least in the near term.
Many long for a return to the “old” normal by forcing re-openings and workarounds for their people to continue on as usual. However, my fear is that this may cause us to lose sight of a central issue: Our people are still hurting at a very fundamental level.
The stress on your employees today is unrelenting. That’s why many experts warn of a rise in mental health struggles. In responding to these trends, we need to remember that though our patience to fight COVID-19 wanes, our commitment to relieve the mental and emotional toll on our people cannot.
We’re implementing many different approaches to encourage and engage our employees, but we absolutely need to demonstrate our commitments of support by creating stronger relationships with our people.
But therein lies the rub
Relationships like these have been difficult to foster. Why? Because we struggled for years to build cultures of engagement and trust. Yet COVID-19 has reminded us of something more important: That what we have been working so hard to build actually lies in showing our people a true commitment to care and support. In fact, it has shown how we need to make the care of our people the very heart of our cultures.
Many leaders have shown this kind of commitment to care during the crisis. New work-life programs have been created, policies have been adjusted, and people have truly received support for the most basic necessities of life. The challenge now is to remember that a “heart for care” must remain at the core of everything your company does for its employees. It’s not just that this is the right thing to do. Science has proven that it’s the smart thing to do.
A heart of care supported by a foundation of science
COVID-19 has taught us that it’s critical to rely on science and evidence. When we locked down, we saw the infection curve flatten. When we tried to return to our normal lives too quickly, we watched cases surge again. Many have learned the hard way that science matters. This is also true of the science of care. That science gives us a clear road map for employee support and care.
Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a road map for nourishing the three basic psychological needs that you need to support to create greater well-being in your employees and help them thrive during a time of great stress and for the road ahead. By understanding these needs, training people to support them, and monitoring how well they’re being met, you can help create stronger relationships, better mental health, and more resiliency among your people. And out of that, naturally, comes higher engagement and greater performance.
How you can help your teams by supporting three needs
Here are the three critical core needs SDT has established:
- Autonomy — This is our need to feel that we can endorse our own actions and have authorship over our lives. You can support your people at work by providing clear rationales for tasks as well as room to be heard about how they feel about their roles and how they can accomplish those tasks. By contrast, when your people feel a lack of control or sense they’re not being heard, their autonomy wanes.
- Mastery — This is our need to feel successful and effective. Your people attain this sense of mastery when they have the tools and capacity to not just get by, but to skillfully perform at their best. Feeling that they are ill-equipped or too overwhelmed to be successful severely diminishes fulfillment of their sense of mastery.
- Relatedness — This is our need to have meaningful connections with others — connections in which we feel that we matter and are respected and supported. In the workplace, this often translates into feeling that others are genuinely committed to supporting our autonomy and mastery.
Reflecting on these three needs illustrates why employees feel stressed and burned out today. The crisis has put severe strain on each of these needs, as employees feel overwhelmed by life’s demands and leaders feel uncertain about the future.
I’m arguing that HR and benefits leaders should infuse this psychological framework — proven by science — into a well-being program to begin nourishing the health and vitality of their people. Overwhelming evidence shows that if we focus on supporting these needs, we will be taking the single most important action we can to build a true culture of care.
That’s how we can prepare ourselves and our employees to dig deep for the next phase of this crisis — and continue that heart of care going forward, for everyone’s good and the good of your business.
Latest posts by Scott Rigby (see all)
- Support the Fundamental Human Needs of Your Employees — and Everyone Benefits - September 6, 2020
- How COVID-19 Reveals The Flaws In Underperforming HR Tech - May 26, 2020
