Boosting staff morale and wellbeing

For many company executives who care about their employees and how to engage them, the onset of COVID-19 and the huge increase in working remotely were especially exasperating. Afterall, how do you maintain staff morale when your employees don’t come into the office anymore?

Pre-COVID-19, the offices of ELMO software, provider of integrated HR, payroll and rostering technology, were pretty cool places. After your commute, there was a daily morning tea to look forward to. A little later, an on-site barista could make you a coffee. There was also a free, monthly team lunch. And let’s not forget the regular yoga and meditation sessions ELMO provided for staff. Coming to the office was so much fun!

But with the onset of COVID-19, executives like Monica Watt, ELMO’s Chief Human Resources Officer, had to totally rethink their approach to staff engagement and well-being.

“As businesses were forced to operate remotely, we had to rapidly rethink how we delivered our existing well-being initiatives and what other programs we should roll out to support our people,” she says.

The yoga and meditation went virtual but other team bonding activities required a complete change of format.

“For instance,” says Watt, “A company-wide pizza night was hosted using Uber Eats Vouchers and Zoom. That way people could keep in touch and share a meal with their team mates.”

ELMO had already used Uber’s ride sharing and Uber Eats delivery products for a number of years, so expanding this relationship to help deal with the new reality required no special training. For example, ELMO employees continue to use Uber for Business to attend meetings, travel to airports and for other travel and movement needs.

“Uber for Business has been a useful tool to manage the administrative elements when meals are ordered by employees after hours. Similarly, it has supported our people to manage travel expenses while on the road. With a lot of employees spread across Australia and overseas it's great to use a platform that employees from all states and countries are familiar with,” says Watt.

Of course, the way COVID-19 impacts on people continues to be different depending on location. For ELMO, with hundreds of employees in major cities across Australia, New Zealand and the UK, the approach to employee well-being needed to be adaptable.

“For example,” explains Watt, “While our Sydney-based employees were able to come into the office for catered lunches, our colleagues in Melbourne were still experiencing a lock-down. This is where Uber Eats was really useful as we could use team lunches as a means to keep Melbourne employees connected and engaged.”

She believes using Uber Eats helped mitigate the risk of creating a disparate and disconnected workforce.

“Even prior to the COVID-19 environment, our people were supportive of using Uber.”

Watt says ELMO plans to continue using Uber Eats as a resource to support employee engagement.

“This will be especially important as the hybrid model of working becomes prevalent,” she adds.

To learn more about how your business can benefit from using the Uber platform, contact the Uber for Business team.