Improving employees’ work conditions amid Covid -19 in a financing company

• Main Author: Aquino, Carissa Angela M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Employee health promotion; Finance companies—Employees—Health and hygiene; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; Human Resources Management
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_manorg/47; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdm_manorg/article/1052/viewcontent/aquino_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Employees are the most vital resource of a company. Their commitment and motivation in the organization determine the quality of products and services, profitability, and corporate culture. The issue in this action research is the employees’ health concerns in the Covid-19 pandemic. Our financing company operated in a face-to-face work set-up due to the inherent nature of our financing operations. The collaborative team investigated the main deterrents of a healthy work environment as our basis for implementing employee-related interventions. We used the three-dimensional theoretical framework of health –physical, mental, and social health --as a guide for providing holistic health well-being for our employees. We also used Kotter’s 8-step model to embed change management in our interventions. Our interventions in the first cycle focused on the physical safety of employees by providing lodging, transport logistics, and vaccination programs. In cycle two (2), our team found out deeper about employee concerns through an employee survey which revealed their mental anxieties due to Covid-19. Thus, in the second cycle, we increased awareness of mental health through a mental health video. We also encouraged fellowships or social interactions among managers and employees through workshops and assemblies. This series of interventions enabled our team to provide a holistic health well-being for our employees that responded to their physical, mental, and social health. Through the Lasallian Framework and meta-learning, I, as an insider action researcher, gained a deeper appreciation of the value of organizational workforce, collaboration, and empathy.