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Supporting your staff as you emerge from Covid-19
Rainy Day Trust’s CEO Bryan Clover advises on how you can support your staff as you emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic
anyone you know, is talking about a re-structure or job losses, please engage with us right from the start. You may be aware that there are over 167,000 charities out there in the UK, giving help and advice across a huge spectrum of problems. There are niche local charities, to large nationals that we have all heard of. We are ideally placed to tap into that network. The virus has shone a spotlight on a lot of issues, making people very aware of their problems. Intra-family tensions, money worries, stress over returning to work, all combine to form a toxic mix. If one of your staff has a specific issue like a child with ADHD, a parent that is suffering from cancer or perhaps has serious mental health problems, the drain on your management or HR teams can be considerable.
familiar operating practices and staff that have been furloughed are returning to work. For many, they will have been off work for many weeks, while for others they may have been working throughout the crisis. Some unfortunately will not have a role to come back to and may be at risk of redundancy. However, your teams have spent the last few months, you may encounter a number of difficulties with some of them from stress and anxiety, to financial difficulties that may continue into the future. Getting 100 per cent out of your staff is important to help your business thrive and grow. You can only achieve that if they remain committed. The Rainy Day Trust recognised this some time ago and began to build its support programme, that can be implemented in companies of all sizes. No matter how good your HR or senior management teams are, we can offer help to them
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and affected staff that sits outside the remit of a standard HR team. If you, your company or
July/August 2020
s government restrictions loosen following months of Covid-19 isolation, more businesses are returning to more
The staff at the Rainy Day Trust are experienced in providing tailored support and we know where to go looking for the support that your people need. We believe that you don’t need your HR managers or team leaders bogged down searching for help for a child with ADHD and learning difficulties. Leave that to us, it is what we are here for.
Qualifying for Rainy Day Trust Financial Support We can help people that have been involved in the manufacture, import, export, wholesale, retail of any home improvement products or those tradespeople that use them to make their living. At this point it is worth clarifying who can benefit from direct financial assistance from the Rainy Day Trust. Some of our services are free to all and these include:
a. Free Debt Advice. b. Free Legal Advice for one hour. c. Free online welfare benefits checker. d. Free telephone counselling sessions. We are able to offer these services free to
everyone because they are either free to us because we work in partnership with another charity, or the cost is minimal.
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If; however, someone requires direct financial assistance, the winter fuel support package, training and education or anything that carries a large cost to us, then they must meet all of the criteria below:
a. Have worked in the home improvement industry for one company for an unbroken period of 12 months.
b. Have less than £10,000 in accessible savings (this is the limit used by DWP to assess welfare benefits).
c. Earn less than about £22,000 a year. We say ‘about’ because we compare income against essential outgoings such as rent, food and utilities and the first of these can vary enormously across the country. This means that there is no one figure that we can quote.
In addition, we will take into account elements such as dependants and relatives living with the applicant and then compare the whole answer to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Minimum Income Standard.
Helping Your Staff Return to Work Many staff will be worried about their future employment, and others will be concerned that their work environment is safe and that the government’s social distancing guidelines have been adhered to. Problems that you might encounter include:
1. Stress, anxiety and fear. 2. ‘Us and Them’ groups forming amongst those that remained at work, and those that were furloughed. 3. Changed financial circumstances.
Stress, Anxiety and Fear The topic of mental health has been in the headlines for many months now, but men’s mental health in particular still remains a critical problem, yet to be solved. Societal norms predicate that men do not discuss their worries and fears. This in turn can lead to more serious problems like depression or even suicide. Covid-19 will have made these problems worse for many because even if someone has recognised the mental problems that they have,
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