As organization leaders around the world come to grips with the COVID-19 pandemic, the heightened adversity is forcing many to manage their people far differently. A sweeping and threatening disruption like COVID-19 dampens employees' outlook on their livelihoods and their lives, as well as the lives of their loved ones. It can create extreme anxiety that reduces their sense of control and ability to process information.

Greater anxiety, in turn, has a cascading effect on job performance. Specifically, it can compromise safety, quality and productivity. Believing their organization is operating under tremendous uncertainty and financial pressure, employees realize they must change their work habits – e.g., make decisions faster, complete tasks faster, help colleagues struggling in their jobs, and so on. Helping employees navigate through these dark times will be critical to many organizations' short and long-term survival. Leaders who step up to the challenge will shorten and reduce the pandemic's negative impact on their businesses.

But doing so requires a talent engagement strategy, a plan that guides leaders on how to interact with their people in the right way, at the right time, and with the right information. Such a strategy can also help employees shift from seeing themselves as being helpless to deal with the crisis, to people who can play a beneficial role in helping their companies to reduce its impact.

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