Manufacturing Industry Responses to COVID 19

Paul Ritter Counseling & Training, LLC

Pandemic Impact

• The coronavirus pandemic has forced about a third of U.S. workers to do their jobs from home.

•Pandemic is negatively impacting mental health dynamics

•Companies are ramping up the use of software to monitor what their employees do all day.

The National Association of Manufacturers Survey

78.3% of manufacturers anticipate a financial impact

53.1% of manufacturers anticipate a change in operations

35.5% of manufacturers are facing supply chain disruptions

https://www.nam.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID-19-Policy-Action-Plan-Recommendations.pdf

COVID-19 Intensifies on Mental Health Issues

Common mental health diagnoses in the workplace (% of employees with disorder):

•Depression Disorders (6%)

•Anxiety Disorders (6%)

•Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder/ADD (3.5%)

•Bipolar Disorders (1%)

• Substance Disorders (9%)

Comorbidity

• 1+ diseases/conditions that occur along with another condition-same person at the same time.

• Does not mean 2 diseases will follow their usual trajectories.

• Presence of 2+ diseases will worsen the prognosis of all the diseases that are present,

• Mental illnesses which are frequently comorbid with physical illnesses.

Working from Home: Challenges

• Lack of face-to-face supervision: feel out of touch/difficult to get work done.

• Misinterpreting emails not seeing the person to understand cause of stress

• Social isolation:

• missing the social interaction of an office setting.

• harder on extroverts

• less belonging and increase intention to leave company

• Distractions at home:

• a parent holding a child and typing on a laptop

• sitting on a sofa or living-room floor.

Work at Home: Accountability

• SOFTWARE/Apps: • Hubstaff: tracks mouse

movements and keyboard strokes, records webpages

• Tsheets: phones to keep tabs on their whereabouts during work hours.

• Time Doctor: downloads videos of employees’ screens while they work and webcam every 10 mins

Working from Home: Best Practices

Establish structured daily check-ins:

• One-on-one calls, if employees work more independently

• Team call, if work is collaborative.

• Keep calls regular and predictable

• Make sure they can voice concerns and questions.

• For quick collaboration: Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams (secure?)

Working from Home: Best Practices

• Establish “rules of engagement”:

• Set expectations for the frequency, means, and ideal timing of communication for their teams.

• Use videoconferencing for daily check-in meetings, but we use IM when something is urgent.”

• Let employees know the best way and time to reach each other during the workday.

• Keep an eye on communication among team members to ensure that they are sharing information as needed.

• For quick collaboration: Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams.

Working from Home: Best Practices

• Provide remote social interaction:

• Leave time at the beginning of team calls for non-work items

• Virtual pizzas parties: delivered to team members at time of a videoconference

• Virtual office parties: “care packages” opened simultaneously.

References

• https://www.nam.org/manufacturers-survey-reveals-current-industry-impact-of-covid-19-7411/?stream=s

• https://www.npr.org/2020/05/13/854014403/your-boss-is-watching-you-work-from-home-boom-leads-t

• https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-SP132-FullTime-2014/NSDUH-SP132-FullTime-2014.htm

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4054544/