The smaller your business is, the closer the professional and even personal bonds and connections between your employees. In the tragic event that a long-serving employee passes away, the reverberations will be felt across the business and many people will have lost a valued and trusted friend, as well as a colleague, and it is only right that you should honor them.
So, if you are in this unfortunate and highly emotional position, then you have come to the right place. Continue reading to learn of four respectful and meaningful ways to honor a colleague who has passed away.
1. Appreciate Your Team Will be Grieving
Even though your business is, of course, your top priority, you need to recognize the fact that your employees will be experiencing the various stages of grief and to both validate their emotions and properly respect the deceased employee, and it is important to give everyone space to grieve.
Your company needs to keep up with the day-to-day operations but ignoring both your own and your team members’ grief will only serve to not only dishonor your employee but also cause you larger problems in the future.
2. Arrange a Tribute Evening
There are, of course, a myriad of ways you can arrange a tribute to your loyal employee, and this can range from a section dedicated to them in a newsletter or a company-wide email featuring the memories of them by existing employees, or a larger tribute evening.
The type of tribute you choose is entirely dependent on your feelings, your employees’ feelings, and the feelings of the family members, but with smaller companies where the bonds were more intimate, a tribute evening may well give everyone the closure they need and serve to honor the employee properly.
3. Raise Money for a Memorial
If your company is on the smaller side and your employees would, for the most part, consider each other to be friends as well, then you may well want to do something more poignant and meaningful, and having your employees donate money for a memorial may be the way to go.
A reputable and established company that uses laser engraving bricks to write any message you would like. It would be pertinent to point out, should you choose this option, that you should respectfully contact the family of your ex-employee to check if they support the idea.
4. Offer Optional Counseling
Finally, as important as it is to honor your employee who has passed away, your duty is, of course, to your employees and to ensure they are emotionally coping with the loss.
By far the best decision you could make should you find this situation as an employer is to offer everyone affected the option to have counselling to deal with the bereavement. Whether you choose counseling services held by your trained HR department, or else external employee assistance programs, you will be helping yourself, your team, and your company as a whole.