In the current context of health crisis, companies have to rearrange their organisation to protect their staff, maintain their activity and deal with news regulatory constraints. If most part of the employees are conscious that it’s an exceptional situation, managers have to keep an eye on the consequences of those changes. If the change management is careless, this may have negative consequences on the company itself (negative social climate, productivity loss, high rate of turnover) because of its impact on the employees psychological (stress, burn-out, emotional disturbances) and physical health (sleep disorders, heart problems, muscle-skeletal disorders). To prevent this situation, managers have to put their interest on the psychosocial risks (PSR) involved in the organisation’s rearrangements. How to prevent psychosocial risks at work in the context of Covid-19 ?
One of the most famous tool to analyse the PSR is the Gollac and Bodier’s report, which includes six PSR factors (Gollac, 2011). The first one, work requirements, concerns the nature, the intensity and the time past at work. The second one, emotional demands, concerns employees who have to keep a sustained emotional control and deal with strong negative feelings such as frustration, sorrow, fear, anger, etc. This report also includes the level of autonomy, the quality of work relations and the moral conflicts (when people work against their values and opinions). Lastly, the last PSR factor is the socio-economic insecurity, that refers to the job-security, the security of the work environment and the way people live the change.
Recently, the french National Institute of Research and Security for the Prevention of Work accidents and Occupational illnesses (INRS) purposed many recomandations advices to prevent those factors. First, managers should organize meetings where employees can exchange about the rearrangements, their feelings and purpose their own solutions to improve their work conditions. Those meetings are really important to involve employees, give them more manoeuvring marges and reduce the lack of autonomy that the context brought. If people have the opportunity to talk about what they live and feel, it can possibly apease the tense between workers and give them a moment to decrease emotional demands too.
To reduce the PSR factors, the INRS stressed the need to have a transparent and coherent communication between the actors. Managers have to tell the truth to their employees and give them regular feedback of the company’s situation to calm their possible feeling of insecurity. By the way, even if the situation had negative consequences on the economy, managers must be careful and limit overwork which could foster work diseases, such as burnout.
Finally, to limit the PSR factors in this context, communication is the key. If people have the opportunity to talk about their feelings and to discuss the way their activity will be rearranged, it will reduce their anxiety and limit risks for their health. It could increase their autonomy, apease the social climate and reduce their work feeling of insecurity. If the direction consider their difficulties and adapt the organisation according to their comments, it can also have positive effects on their emotional demands and their work requirements.
https://www.lecese.fr/sites/default/files/travaux_multilingue/EN_002_prevention_risques_psycho.pdf
http://www.inrs.fr/risques/covid19-prevention-entreprise/reprise-activite-risques-psychosociaux.html