Employee-First Practices Are Not Just for Times of Crisis

B The Change Weekly: March 20, 2020

Delivered on Fridays, B the Change Weekly delivers the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B the Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B the Change Weekly today. Now on to the good stuff:

Challenges — big and small — are an everyday experience for business owners. But during especially tough times like the world is experiencing now, it can be even more important to have colleagues to turn to for suggestions, conversations, and even just a listening ear.

As we move through the coming days amid uncertainty, B The Change Weekly shares examples of how the Certified B Corporation community provides support to employees through sharing, learning, and listening — a strength that will be even more important as new challenges arise for businesses, their employees and families, and the global community.

Supporting Employees Through Life’s Challenges

While working remotely or offering flexible schedules may be new to some businesses, these practices have been the norm at many B Corps that have the ability to provide more flexible structures.

This B The Change article shares how B Corps aim to provide workers with supportive policies and practices that help them bring their best effort on the job and lead more fulfilling lives away from work — amid a health crisis or during other times.

Sticking Together While Staying Apart

The COVID-19 pandemic will bring change in the coming months for all of us, on many levels — as parents, as business owners, as foundation and nonprofit executives, and as individuals who need to keep work going even when everything else feels like it’s come to a screeching halt.

On B The Change, Carrie Fox of B Corp Mission Partners shares a few helpful tools on how to work remotely, communicate effectively, and assist others during challenging times.

How to Employ Economic Empathy

Financial concerns are nothing new for most U.S. workers. Even in strong economic times, more than half of employees report feeling stressed about money issues — and many are reluctant to discuss financial troubles.

This article from B Corp HoneyBee on B The Change offers tips on how companies can create trust and help workers build financial stability.

Stay in the Know

Here’s your chance to catch up on recent articles:

• How B Corps Choose to B: Supporting Employees Through Tough Times: Helping Employees Be Their Full Selves at Work (Even When Working From Home)
• 5 Personal Finance Tips in Uncertain Times: Assess Your Current Situation — And Remember the Long-Term View
• Sticking Together While Staying Apart: 5 Tools for B Corps and Other Businesses Facing New Challenges
• 5 Purposeful Habits to Stay Calm in Challenging Times: The Benefits of Connecting Our Purpose with Our Actions
• Sharing the Success: Two Decades of Developing Worker Cooperatives: Arizmendi Association Replicates Bakery Model for Additional Industries
• Visual Storytelling As a Force for Good: Nonprofit Uses Visual Arts to Combat the Global Refugee Crisis
• Broadening Business Focus to Create Economic, Social and Environmental Value: Companies Face Calls to Consider Stakeholders Beyond Shareholders

B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.

Employee-First Practices Are Not Just for Times of Crisis was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.