Even in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, life goes on. In the case of your veterinary clinic, pets still need both routine and emergency medical care, and it’s up to you and your staff to provide it even in the face of the coronavirus. That’s why it’s so important to go the extra mile to keep staff morale high during these trying times.
1) Provide Flexibility & Empathy
If there’s one thing that’s consistent during COVID-19, it’s inconsistency. Schedules and routines have all been upended by things, such as working parents having to cope with children quarantined at home and unable to safely go to school or day care. It’s important to keep in mind that everyone is struggling to find a new normal, so providing opportunities to be flexible with scheduling and empathetic when COVID complications make it hard for your staff to conduct business as usual.
2) Communication
Following up on flexibility and empathy, communication is another key component of making sure your staff have some semblance of stability in their lives at work. Take steps to ensure that everyone understands any and all new policies you may have had to institute to provide better safety for everyone during the pandemic, such as changes in office hours, new social distancing procedures for checking in visitors safely, or new and more rigorous cleaning and sanitation policies for work areas.
3) Give Back To The Community
We’re all in this together, and taking steps to show how much your vet facility as a whole cares about your community as a whole can do wonders for staff morale. Whether it’s organizing contributions to food drives for local families that have lost resources due to the COVID-19 shutdown or even offering checkups, nail trimming, or similar services for free on certain days a week can have your workers feeling like they’re making even more of a difference during these chaotic times.
4) Offer Education
Education and knowledge about COVID-19, how it spreads, and how to control and avoid infection rates can create serious feelings of empowerment in staff that are already likely to be feeling supremely powerless and without any agency in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. This can include educational support as simple as a posted sanitation assessment to help direct keeping your facilities clean and virus-free.
5) Provide Sufficient Supplies
If you’re the head of a veterinary clinic or other similar vet facility, you’ve got a serious responsibility to keep your workers safe and healthy. This means providing staff with the right personal protective equipment (PPE) they need to not just examine and treat animals but also prevent the spread of COVID-19. Put your staff members’ minds at ease by ensuring that you have a sufficient number of face masks, face shields, and other PPE that can make a difference in a vet office environment. This includes veterinary hand sanitizer that can kill off germs safely and without risking harm to staff or pets.
The Final Word on Supporting Your Vet Clinic Employees
The novel coronavirus has upended just about everyone’s lives, including those of your own staff (and most likely your own life as well). It might be a strain to do so, but when we come out the other end of this and things get back to normal, you and your staff will be stronger for it.