When the pandemic hit, employers everywhere were thrown off as businesses shut down to protect their workforce from contracting and spreading the virus. This called for emergency restructuring of business models to accommodate remote working and keep business running.
Now that the vaccine is here and most of the population is fully vaccinated, businesses are picking up the pieces and trying to restore normalcy. Sadly, the disease still abounds, and the risk of infection is not entirely absent. This creates a catch 22 situation for employers who, on one hand, desire to get their employees back to the office and, on the other hand, have to contend with the numerous challenges returning to work poses.
For instance, remote working offered employees great flexibility as they weren’t bound by in-person office hours or daily commutes. Requiring them to return to the inflexible office schedule strips them of a benefit they have gotten used to.
Also, some workers are hesitant about returning to the confined office spaces for fear of their safety.. It goes without saying that your return to work plan needs to be intelligent and compassionate to ensure both the wellbeing and success of your team.
What Is Your Plan for Bringing Employees Back to the Office?
Though most people might look forward to getting back to the office and reestablishing in-person social connections with colleagues, there’s still the fear that resuming work might increase disease exposure. As a matter of fact, some employees would rather continue to work remotely.
It’s each employer’s responsibility to provide a safe working environment and reassure employees of their safety. For many, this may mean recalling the employees back to work gradually, as requiring everyone to show up at once could be counterproductive.
Depending on your business setup, you may explore options such as:
- Implementing a hybrid model (flexible option allowing employees to work remote part of the time and in-person part of the time)
- Offering full-time remote work opportunities
Key Considerations for the Return to Work
A recent McKinsey survey showed that COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation in businesses by several years when everything moved to virtual so they could continue operating during the lockdowns. Now what was once a temporary solution may be a long-term arrangement, as the survey predicted that most companies are considering to keep business as they did during the lockdown, including allowing employees to work from home. For this reason, you may need to reevaluate if what you have in place is working.
Nonetheless, as you roll out your post-COVID return to office plans, there are key considerations you should keep in mind to comply with return to work guidelines and guarantee employees’ safety. These include:
Complying With Health Guidelines
Generally, the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act mandates employers to provide employees with a safe and healthy working environment. In this regard, you should adhere to CDC return to work guidelines relating to COVID-19. These include health safety measures such as:
- Providing workers with face masks and requiring both fully vaccinated and unvaccinated workers to wear the masks in public indoor settings.
- Facilitating employees to get vaccinated and establishing supportive policies to increase vaccine uptake. For instance, you can organize for on-site workforce vaccination if you have a big on-site team who have not been vaccinated yet. Build confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine among your team by communicating transparently, providing resources and hosting Q&A sessions, and offering incentives such as cash bonuses and gift cards for vaccine uptake.
- Keeping the work environment safe. Coronavirus spreads rapidly indoors; therefore, improving ventilation is essential to controlling viral particles and their transmission. Also, performing regular cleaning and disinfection, especially if an infected person is suspected of having been in the facility within 24 hours, is crucial.
- Requiring workers who are either infected or have had close contact with an infected person to stay at home.
- Implementing physical distancing in communal areas.
- Requiring unvaccinated customers and visitors to wear face masks in public-facing workplaces and indoor settings.
- Training workers on basic facts about COVID-19, procedures, and any relevant information to enhance their safety. For instance, you may inform them about the different vaccines available (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen) and their administration; information about testing for SARS-CoV-2 (including self-tests), the different variants (Omicron, Delta, etc.) and their treatment; and general safety protocols to protect themselves and others.
Revising Your Policies in Line With Legal Requirements
As you get your employees back in the office, you should revise your policy to incorporate the compliance requirements. For instance, OSHA rules require you to;
- Implement all OSHA standards to protect workers from infection.
- Report and record COVID-19 infections and deaths.
- Set up an anonymous system for employees to report exposure to COVID-19 or speak out about unsafe working conditions.
Maximizing Technology to Streamline Your Return to Work Plan
No matter which policies you adopt, a well-coordinated team is crucial to your success. At the same time, both remote and hybrid work arrangements will continue to present a heightened security risk compared to on-site working, which should be mitigated without compromising productivity.
In essence, you can maximize technology to enhance productivity while keeping your systems secure by:
- Implementing policies that close security and control gaps in remote work setups
- Adopting long-term security standards and solutions, and
- Utilizing available software to stay in touch with employees
With a platform like Refresh, you can streamline communication, revamp your return to work plan, and encourage employee wellness all in one place. Accessible on any setting (mobile/desktop site, Android/iOS app, Slack, or Teams integration), Refresh is a robust end-to-end HR solution that keeps you connected and is customizable to your team or office needs.
Designing a Return to Work Policy
Your return to work policy should be focused on mitigating potential risks to protect employees and clients, boost productivity, and comply with any stated safety and health guidelines. Some of the steps you may consider when designing your policy include:
- Preparing the workplace for employees – Before you bring your workers back, it’s essential to prepare the workplace to guarantee the health of your employees and customers. Among other things, you will need to implement basic COVID-19 prevention measures, controls, and response procedures as per CDC guidelines.
- Constituting a return to work team – It’s expected return to work will be characterized by many challenges, which you must navigate to avoid compromising productivity or burning out your employees. You should consider forming a team comprising key department leaders and employee representatives to design the return to work plan and deal with emerging issues. Alternatively, you may outsource the services of a consultant to help you roll out the return to work plan.
- Implementing a gradual/phased return to work approach – Your team might have changed, including new members who may not have worked from the office before. Others may be hesitant, fearing working away from home and the potential risk of infection. In this case, calling everyone back at once might not be in your team’s best interest. Instead, you may need to gradually bring back the workforce and plan for the in-person onboarding of the new staff.
- Rebuilding employee engagement – Nearly two years of working from home has seen most people settle into a routine, which they may struggle to break to get back to the motions of pre-COVID work environments. The disruption is likely to affect employee engagement and productivity. For this reason, you should look for ways to rebuild employee engagement, as this is crucial to your overall performance.
Do You Need to Return to the Office At All?
It depends. The benefits of remote and hybrid working arrangements go beyond curbing the spread of the virus. Improved work-life balance, cost savings, and reduced commute stress all help to boost employee productivity, which is a plus for employers.
If remote working does not slow down your business performance, then you may not require full-time in-person office attendance after all. More companies are settling into remote and hybrid work models, allowing them to continue to enjoy the newly discovered benefits.
However, if you must return to the office, then a well-thought return to work policy should help you ease the employees back gradually and get your business back to its pre-COVID state.
Return to Work Intelligently and Compassionately
As you get your employees back to work, you should prioritize promoting their physical and mental wellbeing by adopting strict return to work standards to reassure them about their safety. Moreover, you should consider how a call to return to work affects them individually and address their fears accordingly. The key here is to be more flexible, including exploring other options such as implementing a hybrid model whereby you allow them to work remotely part of the time or offering some full-time remote opportunities where possible.
At the end of the day, your employees’ safety and well-being are what counts most as a happy team is a productive workforce. Offering flexible return to work options, preparing your workplace to enhance employee safety, and revising your policies are crucial measures that can foster your employees’ wellbeing and enable you to comply with any return to work guidelines.
Not sure how to roll this out? Not to worry! Refresh makes it easy to manage your employees’ comeback. Our return to work solution is designed to help streamline the process and get your employees settled into the new normal smoothly. Head over here to schedule a free demo or contact us for more information.