How COVID-19 Has Affected Small Business Owners

COVID-19 has been a heavy load for small business owners, especially considering that employees are a company’s most important asset. In addition to increased administrative tasks with furloughs, layoffs, restructuring of job descriptions, and rehires, small business owners are also looked upon to boost employee morale.

The following are 4 ways COVID-19 has affected small business owners and brought new challenges to companies:

Conveying Empathy from Company.

Humans have a real need to be heard, with empathy, during times of crisis. With COVID-19 being an ongoing pandemic, small business owners have found that consistently communicating with empathy is a much more critical skill to practice and sustain than ever before. This includes keeping focused on the company mission while also effectively taking the pulse of the workforce and tweaking management style, as needed.

Upskilling via E-Learning.

Staying in business during COVID-19 requires additional training to cross-train and upskill remaining employees after layoffs occur. This is in addition to protocols recently put in place to prevent contraction or spread of the virus.

Interviewing via Video.

Small business owners are increasing their own ability to be cool and confident in conducting meetings virtually. While remote interviews may remove some ability to pick up on body language, they may pose opportunities to watch the interviewee’s ability to work through technical problems which can offer a great deal of insight into how someone handles a stressful situation.

Increased Mental Health Benefits.

The hardship employees faced during shelter-in-place measures when work could not be performed remotely has had a lasting impact. Other employees working from home while isolated from family and friends, or who were dealing with the challenges of children schooling remotely have also felt an impact on their mental well-being. Offering additional resources for remote mental health care can go a long way to keeping staff healthy and actively engaged at work.

Small business owners everywhere are recognizing their employees’ changing needs. They are rising to the occasion while managing their businesses in a way to allow them to survive in this new normal.

At benefEx, our mission is to bring freedom of choice back to employee benefits and healthcare. Contact benefEx today to discuss how your employees can get more out of their healthcare coverage benefit.