How to take advantage of a PEO provider during a crisis
Crises are inevitable. They can happen unexpectedly on a global scale, within a nation’s borders or the boundaries of a business. Covid-19 proved this.
When a crisis hits an organisation, it can send even the most efficient business into distress with little warning.
Every business is susceptible to crises, so it’s critical to have reliable business advisors and efficient internal processes in place ahead of such critical moments. A PEO provider can give you both.
The PEO model is battle-tested and ideal for times of turmoil. A professional employer organisation’s HR services not only help you take care of your people during a crisis, it also supports your business through new and unfamiliar employer-related administrative and compliance burdens.
This article discusses six ways in which a PEO provider supports companies during crises.
How PEO Providers Support Companies During Crises
1. Promotes Business Continuity
The best PEO providers are strategically built to help businesses navigate tight situations, and a crisis is one of such situations.
Even in times of turbulent crisis, a reputable PEO has systems and processes to help its client organisations maintain business as usual.
For instance, if an organisation engaged with a dependable PEO service provider experiences a technology disruption, the organisation will immediately move into action to ensure that all HR functions that depend on technology keep running, e.g.:
- Well-timed payroll processing
- Timely help with employee relations issues
- Continuous benefits and leave administration
2. Proffer Advice on How Best to Keep Employees Safe
An organisation engaged with a reliable professional employer organisation automatically has a partner that shares the responsibilities of managing employees and keeping them safe. This is why PEO providers are called co-employers.
Since the primary assignment of a PEO is to ensure that your personnel are optimally maximised, they are deeply invested in helping you keep your workers safe. This is especially true in a crisis.
A good PEO can help you understand the Health, Safety and Environmental guidelines and help your business comply with all the safety procedures required to keep the workplace safe.
3. Facilitate Clear and Effective Communication With Employees
On the best of days, making quality decisions could be challenging. Those kinds of decisions become even tougher in times of turmoil.
The pressure further intensifies when business leaders are mindful that decisions made at crucial times will remain impressed in the minds of employees. At times like this, it is greatly rewarding to be connected to a seasoned PEO.
A PEO provider like Workforce Africa provides advice and written templates for their clients to suggest ways to communicate with their employees in various scenarios. When there’s no pressure, support like this may seem irrelevant, but in an urgent time, having well-polished talking points ready to borrow can be a huge relief.
Not only does this allow business leaders the time to attend to other more pressing demands, but it also helps ensure that they come across as collected and professional despite the strain they may feel in the moment.
4. Offer Guidance on Managing a Remote Workforce
Before the first lockdowns were announced in early 2020, remote work was a perk reserved for few. Today, it is almost the norm.
Yet, despite the increase in remote working arrangements, many companies still struggle to optimise their employees’ performance when everyone isn’t together in a physical office. However, with a solid plan and effective communication, businesses with remote workers can overcome these obstacles.
This is one service that Workforce Africa offers spectacularly well. Remote work specialists within Workforce Africa’s team ensure that clients organisations are well guided on how to manage their remote employees successfully and direct employees working flexible schedules.
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5. Provide Timely and Expert Support With Adjusting Policies and Procedures
When a crisis hits, most things are never the same. New legislation and new ways of working spring up and mandate new HR-related company policies or procedures.
The HR specialists at Workforce Africa help organisations:
- Determine whether policy changes should remain permanently or temporarily
- Craft policies correctly
- Ensure that their policy complies with applicable laws and regulations
- Announce the changes to their employees
- Update their employee handbook if needed
When it is possible to create your organisation’s HR policy internally, bear in mind that it requires hours of researching, writing, rewriting, and speculating about what you may have missed.
Crafting policies with a PEO service provider like Workforce Africa gives your organisation full access to the resources of their web of experts who will apply HR best practices to your organisation’s specific situation.
6. Fasttrack the Re-hiring of Employees
Most organisations are never thrilled to lay off their employees, but that unpleasant task always accompanies periods of crisis, as Covid-19 yet again proved.
However, when the worst is over, organisations that seek to re-hire their best hands need to have the right re-hiring strategy to be successful.
A good PEO provider can help you develop your re-hiring strategy, and you’ll have specialised advice on how to reinstate your employees and best practices for onboarding them a second time back into your organisation.
In summary,
Crisis management experts frequently say that the very essence of crisis management is to prevent a bad situation from getting worse. Partnering with a PEO service provider like Workforce Africa helps set your business up for long-term sustainability and success even in the face of the worst kind of crisis.
Reach out to Workforce Africa today to help shield your organisation in a time of crisis.
