by Staff reporter
PROACTIVE employee engagements can calm the uncertainty surrounding the information being disseminated on the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
After Namibia reported
its first two cases (now at four), the health ministry introduced and
implemented stringent measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
Capricorn
Group human capital group executive Stephanie Viljoen said the general
uncertainty as to the impact the pandemic will have on daily lives was
prevalent with many left with more questions than answers of how the new
normal will be.
“By its very nature, Covid-19 has created a
crisis for both the government and the private sector who immediately
had to activate their contingency action plans to start mitigating the
expected disruption such a pandemic may have on day-to-day business.
“From
a human capital perspective, employees are the core of our business,
and they had many questions and understandably fears and anxiety. Not
because they did not know what Covid-19 entails, but rather what the
impact will be on their personal and daily work lives,” she said.
The
human capital executive said one of the key success factors in dealing
with a crisis is proper and rapid communication to employees.
Viljoen
said Capricorn Group communicated to all its employees in Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa and Zambia that preventive measures be taken,
including travel advisories.
“Awareness of identifying symptoms
and general preventative techniques also formed part of the
communication. The magnitude of what the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic
will have on Namibia is still uncertain. But what is certain is that
proactive communication with employees plays a key role in how we will
deal with the pandemic and, most importantly, how we will deal with its
aftermath to mitigate negative impacts on our organisation,” Viljoen
said.
Meanwhile, FNB Namibia said it is closely monitoring
developments relating to the global Covid-19 outbreak and said that it
is dedicating significant resources to keeping the bank’s approach
up-to-date while prioritising customer and employee health and safety.
FNB’s
group communications manager, Elzita Beukes, said their ability to
continue uninterrupted service to clients would be maintained. She added
it is important for the bank to have a calm, reasoned approach to
managing business relationships.
“We have increased the frequency
of cleaning our premises and also ensured that where relevant, all our
respective environments undergo deep-cleaning, including regular ATM/ADT
cleaning. Our offices are equipped with hand sanitisers and we have
rolled out sanitisers, gloves and masks to our branches as a
precautionary measure, for customer and staff safety and to aid against
any contagion,” Beukes added.
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