'We keep things light-hearted and share funny memes'

The greatest HR challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic for ICD Property has been prioritising the health and wellbeing of employees.
 
ICD Property's people development manager, Hayley Randall, told HRD that the complete transition to remote working and social distancing creates a toll on wellbeing that they have never experienced before.
 
HR professionals in an office environment can gauge the vibes and are privy to stresses and challenges. They can lean in to provide support and guidance where they can.

“However, working remotely means we no longer have this luxury,” added Randall.

“We have to be on the front foot in making sure each and every one of our staff members are fully supported and informed during this pandemic.”
 
Consequently, ICD Property have limited their daily Covid-19 updates to come from one person. This has seen a shift in anxiety as people can read the updates at their leisure rather than “constantly being bombarded with negative news from multiple people a day at all corners”.
 
“Our HR team also does weekly check in calls to see how everyone is tracking and what their biggest challenges are and how we can support them,” said Randall.

“For the staff to know that we are here and that we care about how they are going gives them the comfort to reach out when they need to.

“We keep things light-hearted and share funny memes and Gifs all the time.”

ICD Property have also introduced Miss You Monday where they are encouraging everyone to make one call to someone they haven’t heard from in a while to check in and say “hey, how are you doing?”

“It is a team effort and we are all in this together,” said Randall.
 
Moreover, ICD have developed a clear communication strategy to replicate the office environment as much as virtually possible.

“At ICD we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we like to have fun. We have continued our daily quiz via zoom every lunchtime, celebrating milestone birthdays and anniversaries by sending gift packages to their doors and Friday night drinks and quiz time.”

They have also embraced a gaming app recommended by their resident gamers. It’s called Discord and they can create rooms and jump into people’s offices for quick chats and check in’s.

“We have even created a ‘ladies of ICD group chat’ where we can share light-hearted moments throughout the day.”

Randall’s final tip for fellow HR professionals is to be flexible and empathetic to individual situations, as everyone will be challenged by this pandemic in different ways.

“People’s core hours might ebb and flow and that is OK. As long as clear expectations are set on what our objectives are it doesn’t matter how we get there as long as we get there.”