Bruno Gérard (EDHEC Master 1985), founder of Digital Impact Consulting and co-ambassador of the HR EDHEC Alumni Club, posted last week on our official EDHEC Alumni group on LinkedIn to share his ideas on companies' job security and transparency in the time of coronavirus.

The ceaseless changes brought about by the digital transformation already pointed to one of the key roles that business owners must play: ensuring and maintaining a secure environment for their staff.

The health crisis and its many consequences are a cruel illustration of how volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous the world in which we live has become.

The current crisis, which has been both sudden and anxiety-inducing, generates unprecedented levels of stress and has direct consequences in terms of destabilisation, severing links and economic uncertainty.

This crisis makes it more necessary than ever before to ensure the security and protection of staff members.

So how can businesses provide that security while they themselves are threatened?

In the prevailing context of fragility, business owners must see their employees as responsible adults and not give in to the initial temptation to adopt a paternalistic stance and infantilise them. Treating them as responsible adults is a way to guarantee transparency and loyalty.

Transparency is underpinned by the belief that everything needs to be said up front, bad and good news alike. It requires substantial efforts on the way information is presented and a commitment to regular communication, several times a week.

Loyalty means setting out the new organizational methods on a coherent and ethical basis. It is therefore regrettable that some companies – and not only the smallest – are tempted to switch to part-time work to ensure that payroll costs are borne collectively, even though their activities may justify the presence of all or some employees either in situ or working from home.

With the widespread rollout of remote work practices, business owners must see this change as an opportunity rather than a risk.

Given the (mostly free) communication tools that are now available, the “trust on principle” that business owners must have in their staff is a way to maintain and even develop productivity: the home can now be seen as a safe space compared to the workplace.

The distance imposed is paradoxically a call on business owners to increase their affective proximity with staff working from home. This qualitative relationship is built up through regular exchanges by phone or, even better, videoconference.

A time of crisis is also an opportunity for business owners to promote attitudes of reassuring benevolence, allowing each individual to take initiatives with complete autonomy.

Lastly, the different exposures to health risks are also an opportunity to value those who have no choice but to continue coming to work. Such recognition is a core value and, beyond the crisis, will remain rooted in the behaviour of those concerned.

When the boat is rocked, the challenges of cohesion, motivation and commitment require business owners to concentrate above all on the second level of Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs: safety, with only physiological needs being of greater importance for human beings.

Like Bruno Gérard, you too can share your advice and expertise via our official EDHEC Alumni group on LinkedIn!