How EAPs help keep the workplace human

How EAPs help keep the workplace human

More than 400 staff at an electric bicycle firm in the US were made redundant in March via a two minute Zoom call. Anyone who missed the call had no idea why their logins suddenly failed to work. Uber has also reportedly used a three minute Zoom call to part company with 3,000 customer service and recruitment team members. Cineworld staff in one location in the UK first became aware they’d lost their jobs through Twitter, before an email was finally sent.

Most recently, staff at newly-launched streaming platform Quibi, backed by £1.5 billion in funding, were told about the closure of the business via group video call. The CEO, former Disney and DreamWorks chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, told staff they should listen to the song ‘Get Back Up Again’ from Trolls to make themselves “feel better”.

Legal implications

In the wake of the trend for digital lay-offs, employers have been warned by employment law firms that rapid decision-making, not following procedures and using these kinds of methods of communication open them up to more legal claims from employees. Staff are more likely to consider whether they have suffered constructive dismissal or look at the Equality Act 2010 and whether there might be a case for unlawful discrimination.

Law experts have stressed the need to ensure bad news is communicated in a “thoughtful and sensitive manner”, and that employers need to ensure there is the offer of “extensive wellbeing support”.

Stay human

“Digital comms are an essential part of doing business – their speed and efficiency, and in helping people stay connected,” said EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “But when it comes to employee relations, genuine engagement and trust, there is no replacement for personal contact and relationships.

“Modern employers want staff to be flexible and adaptable. The danger is that, with the dependence on digital forms of communications, they begin to de-humanise their staff as just an account at the other end of a laptop that can be switched on and off as needed.

“Under lockdown restrictions, human contact is at a premium. It means that EAPs and services that provide access to personal attention, the chance to speak to someone by phone or video, is an ever more important way for the best employers to demonstrate they care, the difference they offer.

Don’t alienate

“And if the organisation is going through a period of considering or making redundancies, EAPs are a much-valued source of support to help employees deal with the added stresses and come to terms with changing situations.

“When times are tough, people remember acutely how they have been treated, and for the long-term. For those businesses not being conscious of the importance of focusing on ‘being human’ that means the alienation of a mass of potential customers and people with useful skills and experience they will need the in years to come.”