{"id":6337,"date":"2020-03-09T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T14:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthadvocate.com\/site\/?p=6337"},"modified":"2020-03-11T11:08:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T15:08:40","slug":"keep-calm-and-wash-your-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthadvocate.com\/site\/article\/keep-calm-and-wash-your-hands","title":{"rendered":"Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Theresa Agovino | SHRM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to manage workers\u2019\nanxiety during coronavirus outbreak<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone knows the drill:\nWash your hands. Sneeze into your elbow. Sanitize doorknobs, phones and other\nfrequently touched surfaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies have inundated\ntheir employees with advice about how to avoid contracting and spreading\ncoronavirus, though the disease continues to infect people and the death toll\nis rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other\nrecommendations companies may want to share with employees: Take a walk. Read a\nbook. Watch a movie. (Skip “Contagion,” the 2011 film about a deadly\nvirus epidemic that’s become exceptionally popular on streaming sites.) And,\nperhaps most important, don’t constantly search the news for the latest\ninformation on the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workplace experts insist\ncompanies must pay attention to employees’ mental as well as physical health\namid the virus outbreak. Unrelenting updates about the virus’s effects combined\nwith uncertainty about the future are leading to anxiety and depression. Human\nresource executives report that some employees have expressed an inability to\nconcentrate. They say they are getting calls from employees who are unnerved by\ncolleagues’ sneezes and alarmed by co-workers’ trips to Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calls to employee assistance\nprograms (EAPs) are up as much as 20 percent over the last few weeks, company\nexecutives said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“All the media exposure is causing a panic and a feeling of\nhopelessness,” said Bert Alicea, executive vice president of EAP+Work\/Life\nServices at Health Advocate, a Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based provider of\nintegrated benefits programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alicea said that the EAP is getting about 1,200 calls a day\u2014up from\nroughly 900 ordinarily. He said that about half those calling about the virus\nare calmed by phone conversations with a counselor, while the rest are given\nreferrals for additional sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alicea said counselors don’t tell callers not to be concerned. Instead,\nthey tell people to focus on what they can control. For example, they may\nrecommend individuals do something they enjoy like calling a friend or\nexercising or at least turning off the news for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s no point in telling\npeople not to stress. About 55 percent of Americans worry about contracting the\ncoronavirus this year, and 43 percent think that will happen in a few weeks.\nMore than a third of Americans are worried the virus will kill them, while 46\npercent are concerned a loved one will be a victim, according to Bospar, a San\nFrancisco-based public relations agency that commissioned the survey released\nearlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this tense atmosphere,\nemployers must walk a fine line between keeping employees informed and not\noverloading them with news, experts said. “Overcommunicating can instigate\npanic,” said Barbara Repandis, chief human resource officer of Kelley\nKronenberg, a law firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “But you don’t want to go\nradio silent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies can’t dictate what\nemployees read, though many are recommending checking only reputable sites like\nthose published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health\nOrganization (WHO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s critical for management\nand HR teams to remain calm and logical in their communications and\ninteractions. “They are the mirror for employees,” said Richard A.\nChaifetz, chairman and chief executive of ComPsych, a Chicago-based provider of\nEAPs. “People want a sense of support and leadership from their\norganizations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ComPsych has added webinars\nthat help employees deal with the stress they feel as a result of the virus.\nChaifetz adds that employers must not only give employees information about the\nvirus but also about how the company is responding to the outbreak. They should\ncommunicate what will happen if the company must close entirely or in some of\nits locations. Policies on sick leave and working from home should be\nreiterated and, if applicable, any changes noted. For example, some companies\nthat require a doctors’ note if employees are out more than three days are\neliminating that rule for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You must be\nproactive,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anxiety was high in January\nat Universal Bank, a private, Chinese-owned institution based in West Covina,\nCalif. Most of the bank’s employees are of Chinese descent, and many had been\nhome for the holidays, according to Pamela Goddard, vice president and human\nresource manager. The majority of the bank’s clients are also of Chinese\ndescent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Fear set in,”\nGoddard said. She received calls from workers concerned about sneezing\ncolleagues and had to remind them that numerous conditions\u2014not just the\nvirus\u2014can cause such a reaction. Some worried they might have the virus because\nthey’d been to China. Others feared the customers might be infected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goddard said the bank put out\nmasks for both employees and customers, even though executives knew they\nweren’t effective in halting the virus’ transmission. “It helped with\npeace of mind,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees’ nerves calmed\nafter the company sent them straightforward, easy-to-understand information\nabout the virus gleaned from places like the CDC and WHO. Meetings were held so\nemployees could ask questions.\n\n“We let them\nvent,” Goddard said. “I think they know we have their backs.\u201d\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Workplace experts insist companies must pay attention to employees’ mental as well as physical health amid the virus outbreak. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[93,206,52,51,202],"class_list":["post-6337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-bert-alicea","tag-coronavirus","tag-eap","tag-employee-assistance","tag-mental-health"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nKeep Calm and Wash Your Hands | Health Advocate<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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