Sarah Mitchell, Heart of the City director, shares online resources to support sector leaders to deal with the several challenges COVID-19 poses.
How do we manage to furlough staff in a compassionate and supportive way?
How do we handle a return to work in a sensitive but practical way?
How do we ensure our teams’ wellbeing when working remotely?
How do we plan for the medium term when everything is so uncertain?
These are just some of the difficult questions facing us as charity leaders today as we try to ensure our organisations keep going, and at the same time also try to do so in a way that is in line with our values and treats our teams with respect.
In fact these are exactly the same questions that many small to medium-sized businesses are also asking themselves.
Heart of the City has a long and proud history of working with for-profit companies to support their community, their workforce and environment. Our way of working is unusual. We call on experts from well-resourced large companies to share their insights, advice and support with smaller companies. As COVID-19 hit, we answered the call from small businesses to start producing a suite of advice and support to help them manage the many challenges that the pandemic presents in running their businesses.
Last week we published a guide to managing staff wellbeing through furlough full of practical tips and clear advice, written by an HR director, a mental health trainer and lawyers Slaughter and May.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more of this work with anyone who would find it helpful. All our online resources are now available for free. These include practical advice on flexible working, managing stress amongst employees and workforce wellbeing. All our resources are relentlessly practical, designed to provide simple, low-cost and non-time-intensive ways to run any organisation in a values-led way
I have worked in business, government and in charities and I know that the differences between our sectors are sometimes exaggerated. There is much we can learn from one another and a great deal too that we can share.
We really hope that you, as charity leaders, will find these resources useful over the coming months.
