Ukraine – HR guidance

With the ongoing situation in Ukraine, it is understandable employees may be concerned, particularly if you have Ukrainian or Russian staff within your offices and sites. It is important organisations show compassion, sensitivity and support to all employees who are affected by these events, but particularly Ukraine and Russian nationals.

Supporting your people

As well as communicating to all employees about the situation and what your business is doing, especially if you have offices, sites and colleagues that are directly affected, employees should be allowed to talk about what’s going on. Don’t pretend it isn’t happening!

There are also practical steps that you can take to support employees who are finding it challenging at this time, such as:

• signposting your people to any employee assistance programmes (EAP) in place;
• if you don’t have an EAP look into charities or local services within your community that may be able to help and direct people to these;
• if your organisation has trained mental health first aiders, allowing them additional time to talk to colleagues who are finding it difficult;
• offering counselling or bereavement services to those directly affected;
• allowing practical steps such as fund raising, collections or partnering with local charities to help people to feel they are contributing. The feeling of helplessness can otherwise be overwhelming to some.

Employees with links to Ukraine

If you have UK-based employees with family in Ukraine, there are additional measures you can put in place to support. These range from:

• relaxing policies on mobile phone usage and personal calls so employees do not feel they are missing out on possible contact with their families whilst at work;
• providing flexibility over hours or location of work, again for communication reasons but also adjust deadlines and workload if possible for those that are under personal stress;
• enabling different leave arrangements for those that feel they are just not able to work, such as last minute annual leave requests, compassionate leave, unpaid leave, etc.

UK nationals working in Ukraine

If you have UK employees working in Ukraine, you will hopefully have made efforts to repatriate wherever possible when the Foreign Office issued their initial guidance. However, if you still have UK citizens working for you in this area, there are some practical steps you should be taking, including:

• conducting daily check-ins to establish their welfare;
• set-up communication channels for both you and them to be able to make contact in an emergency;
• arranging to send practical supplies if needed, such as food, medicines and money;
• checking their wages/salary is still getting through to them – and consider whether you could pay weekly rather than monthly as an interim measure if this would help them.

If these employees now want to leave the area, help them with the administration of leaving by booking and paying for flights and transportation where possible. This might be to an interim place of safety before onward travel to the UK. Also keep in mind any family members/dependents who may have also travelled with them for their work. And don’t forget these employees may also need support and counselling both during and after this difficult time.

UK nationals working in Russia

If you have UK employees who are working in Russia and are not being repatriated, they should be advised to stay away from protests and any areas where public demonstrations are taking place. It has been announced by the Russian government they will be issuing prison sentences for anyone found to have organised or participated in a protest.

Ukrainian offices with local employees

For UK businesses with Ukrainian offices employing local staff, offering as much help and support will be critical, including:

• maintaining contact wherever possible and opening up emergency contact channels – but bear in mind there may be periods of time when they are unable to contact you;
• checking wages are still getting through and consider paying weekly if helpful;
• supporting where necessary with supplies, medicine, etc.

For women and their dependents who are able to leave Ukraine, you should follow the advice as for UK citizens, although these individuals will probably not be travelling to the UK but to a neighbouring country where they feel safer. Any help that your organisation can provide with facilitating travel, visas (if required), admin support will undoubtedly be appreciated. Some of these individuals (mainly men) are not currently allowed to leave Ukraine and have been asked by their government to stay and help the war effort. As an employer you should not encourage or facilitate them to go against this advice.

A website has been set up, HR for Ukraine, specifically to collate resources for those within the people function, on how to support any employees who are based in the East European nation.