It is not only students who may suffer from feelings of isolation, confusion and anxiety when finding themselves unable to access campus for a prolonged period of time. Staff will also be subject to the same stresses and concerns.
As well as having a duty of care to your staff, it is also worth remembering that you will not be able to fulfil your obligations to support your learners if you are not doing likewise with your staff.
Addressing staff concerns
You may well be able to use the same communication channels we considered for students, but clearly there will be times when the messages themselves will need to be different.
Similarly, consideration should be given to creating a similar, but separate, remote helpdesk for staff, providing the opportunity to pre-empt likely sources of concern around:
- Will I lose pay if I cannot access campus?
- Will we still get paid on time this month?
- What messages should I be giving to my students about this incident?
- I need to access campus because of the nature of my research, how can I do this?
- I’ve not used the VLE before, how do I start?
Virtual coffee breaks
Depending on the length of the enforced absence from campus, it may be worth instigating additional measures above and beyond regular online business meetings to provide opportunities for teams and staff to come together, albeit virtually, on a semi-social basis. For example, you could put time in people’s diaries for ‘virtual coffee breaks’ where available staff are encouraged to join a shared online space with a drink and a biscuit to just chat, share experiences and talk to friends and colleagues.
Platforms such as Slack and Yammer in the Office 365 suite lend themselves well to ‘informal’ communication between staff. You could consider setting up specific groups to encourage mutual support (eg a ‘new to working from home’ group, or ‘watercooler group’ for more general informal chat) while also empowering staff to create their own groups around the issues which are most important to them.
Promoting sources of support
Don’t forget to provide, and keep up to date, links to official sources of information in what is likely to be a fast-paced and constantly changing situation. It may also be a good idea to remind staff of any existing sources of internal support, eg counselling and wellbeing services that they are eligible for, but which might get overlooked.
Useful resources
Key messages
- Don’t forget that your staff will also have their own needs and anxieties which may on occasion overlap with those faced by your students, but which will also require separate consideration and treatment
- Consider using platforms such as Yammer to encourage informal communication between staff to encourage a continued sense of community and connectivity