comment


the virus will have taken away their coping strategies. At the beginning of the crisis, the work tap was turned off, and now suddenly, it is turned back on again. Even though we could have predicted this phased return to work as long ago as the beginning of April, most people won’t have given it any thought. Many of your people will have been living in


a pressure cooker of unspoken emotion, and returning to work will be a strange sensation on top of that. To help them, you can do the following:


a. Get in contact with staff returning to work explaining the process that you will be following


b. Communicate very clearly what measures you have put in place to ensure a covid- safe environment.


c. Certain age or ethnic groups have a higher susceptibility to the virus and its effects. Make sure that you pay particular attention to keeping these groups safe and communicate that to them directly.


d. Appoint a Covid-19 point of contact within your team that staff can approach with concerns.


e. Have regular updates, ideally electronically, to keep staff in the loop on what measures you are taking to keep people safe.


f. Be open and talk about how some people may find the whole situation stressful and worrying. At this point you can start to mention the Rainy Day Trust and our free telephone counselling service.


Financial Difficulties This is the one problem that most people have trouble tackling. If someone has cancer, they don’t think twice about talking to Macmillan Cancer Care, but if they are in debt, the usual reaction is to pretend it isn’t happening. People that have been surviving on 80 per cent salaries for three months may have debt problems, or have immediate needs that they cannot meet. Whether or not you are aware of any


particular financial problem that a staff member may have, by putting up our posters they will be able to contact us themselves without anyone else knowing, not even other family members. It is quite likely that some staff members will be experiencing significant strain on their finances due to the virus. They may have adult children living at home once again, who themselves may be furloughed or are now unemployed. They may have taken on additional caring responsibilities or have run up arrears of rent and mortgage, or even utility bills and council tax. You should be aware that the


18 | housewareslive.net


non-payment of council tax can lead to a custodial sentence, and now that council tax payments have restarted once again for those that deferred them, this could be a major problem. By helping early, we can stop these problems escalating. We have two levels of support available. If the issues have been caused by Covid-19 then we can help with our C19 Support Package that will be delivered very quickly, via a shortened application process. Finally, we are able to help navigate the complex world of charities and their assistance. Specialist health problems, educational needs or just advice. Because the Charity Sector is our business, we know where to go looking for help and can refer applicants directly.


Support for People at Risk of Redundancy Should your business need to make people redundant then we can help from the beginning of your planning and consultation process. Communication to the whole workforce is absolutely crucial if you need to make people


redundant. The virus has heightened fears across the whole nation and everyone is aware that finding another job will be challenging. We cannot offer you specific advice on the process, but we can help affected staff, both during the consultation process and afterwards.


Longer Term Support Covid-19 doesn’t look like it is going to go away any time soon, and will almost certainly reappear again this coming winter. As with all things, prevention is better than cure, so the


• HousewaresLive.net


For more information: uhttps://www.rainydaytrust.org.uk/get-help uinfo@rainydaytrust.org.uk


earlier that we can get involved in a problem the better it is for everyone. If you can work alongside us now, and make


your staff aware that we are here for them, then together we can minimise the impact of the virus, and hopefully reduce the stresses and strains that everyone is currently feeling as they return to work. Even a reduction in stress can improve productivity and from there, your bottom line.


The closer that you work with us, the better for everyone concerned.


• twitter.com/Housewaresnews


July/August 2020


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44