Based on the identified stressors which may explain the potential negative effects of COVID-19

outbreak on employees’ mental health and moderating factors that may mitigate or aggravate
these effects, I have developed a list of considerations and recommendations for workplaces,
mainly for managers and for human resource management practitioners. In this context, I suggest
that organizations should develop a short- and long-term organizational plan, based on the
following recommendations:

Evaluate short-term liquidity

Companies will want to instill short-term cash flow monitoring discipline that allows them to
predict cash flow pressures and intervene in a timely manner. They’ll also want to maintain strict
discipline on working capital, particularly around collecting receivables and managing inventory
build-up. Additionally, it’s important to be creative and proactively intervene to lighten the
working capital cycle. Throughout the crisis, companies will want to maintain regular contact
with suppliers to identify any potential risks.

Assessing financial and operational risks and respond quickly.

Companies will need to monitor direct cost escalations and their impact on overall product
margins, intervening and renegotiating, where necessary. Companies that are slow to react or
unable to renegotiate new terms and conditions may be vulnerable to financial stress that could
carry long-term implications. 

Need to Consider alternative supply chain options

Companies that source parts or materials from suppliers in areas significantly impacted by
COVID-19 will want to look for alternatives. Companies that have arrangements with agile
manufacturing facilities to make spot buying decisions, or have loose contractual arrangements
with various service providers and logistics providers, should consider the initial disruption as
well as post-crisis scenarios given the potential for demand spikes.

Need to determine how the COVID-19 crisis affects budgets and business plans
Companies will want to stress-test financial plans for multiple scenarios to understand the
potential impact on financial performance and assess how long the impact may continue. If the
impact is material and former budget assumptions and business plans are no longer relevant,
companies should revise them to remain agile. Where the business is significantly impacted,
companies will need to consider minimum operating requirements, including key dependencies
of workforce, vendors, location and technology. 
Communicate with relevant stakeholders
Clear, transparent and timely communications are necessary when creating a platform to reshape
the business and to secure ongoing support from customers, employees, suppliers, creditors,
investors and regulatory authorities.
 Customers
Companies will want to keep customers apprised of any impacts to product or service delivery. If
contractual obligations cannot be met as a result of supplier or production disruption, it is
important to maintain open lines of communication to revisit timelines or invoke “force majeure”
or “act of God” clauses. Such proactive action will help to mitigate punitive damages or
liabilities associated with disrupted customer obligations.
 Employees
For employees, communications plans should try to find the balance between caution and
maintaining a business-as-usual mindset.
 Suppliers
Companies need maintain regular contact with suppliers regarding their capability to deliver
goods and services during the COVID-19 crisis and their recovery plans, so that the company
can consider alternative supply chain options in a timely manner.
 Creditors and investors
Companies will want to review terms and conditions on loan contracts to identify sensitive debts
and avoid vital technical debt breaches. These reviews will have the added benefit of giving
companies a chance to proactively manage the dialogue and communications with creditors
regarding any necessary amendments to existing terms or refinancing arrangements.
 Government and regulators
When communicating with relevant stakeholders, companies will want to consult with their legal
teams for advice on potential liabilities and with their business units regarding how to manage
communications around ongoing breaches and collection of proof, if any.

Optimize communication and transparency

Managers in collaboration with human resource management professionals need to develop a
communication plan, which clearly presents the decisions related to the business continuity plan
of the organization during the pandemic. Furthermore, managers should maintain continuous
communication with their employees whether they are physically present or not in the
workplace.
Prevention of stigma
Stigmatization can be minimized by providing accurate and timely COVID-19 information and
training to employees and managers during and after the pandemic outbreak. Furthermore,
organizations should develop or reinforce workplace policies that address stigma prevention. For
example, the development of a zero-tolerance policy (anti-discrimination) is a valuable tool to
protect employees, prevent stigma, and enhance health and wellbeing in the workplace.

Training
Training is also essential during and after the pandemic. It is considered as a protective factor
against mental health issues. It helps to educate employees about the necessary behaviors and
their importance in the prevention of viral spread. COVID-19 is an unexpected crisis, managers
need to be coached and trained on how to properly manage it, which may reduce their level of
stress. They also need to be trained on how they should manage virtual teams, considering the
context of teleworking, in order to be able to support their team members.

Management of teleworking and prevention of social isolation

In order to prevent the negative outcomes of teleworking on employees’ mental health during
COVID-19, organizations should develop proper strategies to support employees during
organizational changes. These strategies encompass continuous communication with co-workers
and supervisors, during teleworking, about expectations, work progress and availability. As well
as providing flexibility to the employee to organize his work schedule and priorities.

Social support
Social support at work is largely documented in the literature as a protective factor against
workplace mental health issues. The development and implementation of mental health support
and services are crucial to prevent mental health outcomes of COVID-19. In order to mitigate the
potential negative impact of quarantine, social isolation, fear of contagion and uncertainty on
employees, managers should foster a supportive environment in the workplace.

Development of return-to-work plan

Employers should also develop a return-to-work plan for employees who have been quarantined
or was in a teleworking mode, during COVID-19. This type of plan may reduce the employees’
level of stress and the risk of mental health issues. In this case, the employer should discuss
expectations and the company’s future plans with the employee prior to his return to work.

Need for a Considerable Amount of Funds

Above all, Bangladesh must source a decent emergency support fund to help its workers,
employers, parents, marginal people, and hosted refugees. It has already received fast-track
support of USD 100 million from the World Bank; however, this is far from the actual amount
needed for this country of 180 million people.
Organizational change is the movement of an organization from one state of affairs to another. A
change in the environment often requires change within the organization operating within that
environment. To better facilitate necessary changes, several steps can be taken that have been
proved to lower the anxiety of employees and ease the transformation process.
Organizational change can take many forms. It may involve a change in a company’s structure,
strategy, policies, procedures, technology, or culture. The change may be planned years in
advance or may be forced on an organization because of a shift in the environment.
Organizational change can be radical and swiftly alter the way an organization operates, or it
may be incremental and slow. In any case, regardless of the type, change involves letting go of
the old ways in which work is done and adjusting to new ways.
Organizations change for a number of different reasons, so they can either react to these reasons
or be ahead of them. These reasons include:

Continuous improvement:
Companies that engage in organizational development commit to continually improving their
business and offerings. The OD process creates a continuous cycle of improvement whereby
strategies are planned, implemented, evaluated, improved and monitored. Organizational
development is a proactive approach that embraces change (internal and external) and leverages
it for renewal.

Increased communication:
One of the key advantages to OD is increased communication, feedback and interaction within
the organization. The goal of improving communication is to align all employees to shared
company goals and values. Candid communication also leads to increased understanding of the
need for change within the organization. Communication is open across all levels of the
organization and relevant feedback is recurrently shared for improvement.

Employee development:
Organizational development focuses on increased communication to influence employees to
bring about desired changes. The need for employee development stems from constant industry
and market changes. This causes an organization to regularly enhance employee skills to meet
evolving market requirements. This is achieved through a program of learning, training,
skills/competency enhancement and work process improvements.

Product & service enhancement

A major benefit of OD is innovation, which leads to product and service enhancement.
Innovation is achieved through employee development, which focuses on rewarding successes
and boosting motivation and morale. In this scenario, employee engagement is high leading to
increased creativity and innovation. Organizational development also increases product
innovation by using competitive analysis, market research and consumer expectations and
preferences.

Increased profit
Organizational development affects the bottom line in a variety of ways. Through raised
innovation and productivity, efficiency and profits are increased. Costs are also reduced by
minimizing employee turnover and absenteeism. As OD aligns objectives and focuses on
development, product/service quality and employee satisfaction are increased. The culture shift
to one of continuous improvement gives the company a distinct advantage in the competitive
marketplace.

Crisis
The recent financial crisis obviously created many changes in the financial services industry as
organizations attempted to survive.

Performance Gaps
The organization's goals and objectives are not being met or other organizational needs are not
being satisfied. Changes are required to close these gaps.

New Technology
Identification of new technology and more efficient and economical methods to perform work.

Identification of Opportunities
Opportunities are identified in the market place that the organization needs to pursue in order to
increase its competitiveness.

Reaction to Internal & External Pressure

Management and employees, particularly those in organized unions often exert pressure for
change. External pressures come from many areas, including customers, competition, changing
government regulations, shareholders, financial markets, and other factors in the organization's
external environment.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions create change in a number of areas often negatively impacting
employees when two organizations are merged and employees in duel functions are made
redundant.

Change for the Sake of Change

Often times an organization will appoint a new CEO. In order to prove to the board, he is doing
something, he will make changes just for their own sake.

Sounds Good
Another reason organization may institute certain changes is that other organizations are doing
so (such as the old quality circles and re-engineering fads). It sounds good, so the organization
tries it.

Planned Abandonment
Changes as a result of abandoning declining products, markets, or subsidiaries and allocating
resources to innovation and new opportunities.

Driving more successful change 

Data and experience show that effective change management drives greater benefit realization
and achievement of results and outcomes. Building change management capabilities means
greater success on critical projects and initiatives.

Handling the amount of change occurring 

Given the amount of and frequency of change occurring in organizations today, becoming better
at implementing change is essential.

Addressing the costs of poorly managed change 

Many organizations have examples, or even a legacy, of changes that were poorly managed, did
not deliver results and created stress and confusion in the organization. Under-delivering on
change is not tolerable going forward.

Aligning organizational practice with organizational values 

This case is particularly relevant for organizations that espouse the importance and value of their
people.

Preparing the organization for the future 

The horizon for many organizations, and even industries, includes significant changes that are
necessary to remain competitive and successful.

Creating consistency and efficiencies in approach 

Change management practices across an organization can be more effective when there is a
standard approach in place.

Building needed internal capabilities 

Change management is viewed as an essential organizational capability and individual
competency for employees.

Successful change of any magnitude will go through all eight stages, usually in the sequence
shown, although it should be clearly understood that the steps can significantly overlap, and in
most cases recycling through the steps will occur. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that
all of the necessary resources are in place to ensure the completion of each stage. Much more is
involved than a) gathering data, b) identifying options, c) analyzing, and d) choosing – the
watchwords of management. Instead, leadership must be shown. Rather than focusing
exclusively on planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem-solving,
leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to
significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns
people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite obstacles.
Organization Development is an effort (1) planned, (2) organization- wide, and (3) managed
from the top, to (4) increase organization effectiveness and health through (5) planned
interventions in the organizations "processes,” using behavioral-science knowledge.
PAST TRENDS OF OD
 People used to learn in classrooms
 Laboratory training
 Leaders were identified on the basis of experience, tenure and business Performance
 Increase Focus on Productivity
 Employees were not treated as assets
 One Person One job
 Low Performance was tolerated
 Employees were given negative motivation like fears and punishments
 Little acknowledgement Focuses on short term results

Contextual trends and their effect on OD’s Future

 ECONOMY
 WORKFORCE
 TECHNOLOGY
 ORGANISATION

 THE ECONOMY
Cultural diversity – Governments face the difficult choice of preserving their culture ant the
risk of being left out of the global economy.
Income distribution – globalization of the economy is closely related to an increasing
concentration of wealth in relatively few individuals, corporation and nations.
Ecological sustainability – there are increasingly clear warnings that the ecosystem no longer
can be treated as a factor of production and that success cannot be defined as the accumulation of
wealth and material goods at the expense of the environment.

 THE WORKFORCE
Diverse – organizations, whether they operate primarily in their home country or abroad, will
need to develop policies and operating styles that embrace the changing cultural, ethnic, gender
and age diversity of the workforce.
Educated – the workforce is becoming more educated. A more educated workforce demands
higher wages, more involvement in decision making and continued investment of knowledge and
skills.
Contingent – the continued high rate of downsizings, re-engineering efforts, and mergers and
acquisitions are forcing the workforce to become more contingent and less loyal.

 TECHNOLOGY
Internet – the backbone of global economy.
E-commerce – an economy that knows no boundaries. It involves buying and selling products
and services over the internet.
Two types of E-commerce relevant to OD’s Future
Business-to-consumer – garners much attention and awareness because it is how the public
participates in E-commerce.
Business-to-business – more complex

 ORGANISATION
Organization involves increasingly networked and knowledge-based nature of organizations. The
interventions help organizations become more streamlined and flexible, more capable of
improving themselves continuously in response to economic and other trends and more effective.
Networks – are highly adaptable and can disband and reform along different task or market lines
as the circumstances demand.

 ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WILL BE: -

➢More embedded in the organization's operations

➢More technologically enabled

➢Shorter OD cycle times

➢More interdisciplinary

➢More diverse in client

➢More cross –culture

➢More concerned with organization

 PRINCIPLES OF THE FUTURE EMPLOYEE
1- Has a flexible Environment
2- Can customize own work
3- Shares information
4- Uses New ways to communicate and collaborate
5- Can Become a leader
6- Shifts from Knowledge worker to learning worker
7- Learns and teaches at well