After an elongated period of shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, most countries are now announcing numerous relaxations. This clearly means that sooner or later, the businesses following the work from home mandate shall be allowed to resume their operations from their office premises.
Although exciting, it can also be a daunting task for most organizations to return to work in these testing times of Covid-19. There are a few things that must be taken care of to ensure smooth operations without health risks and monetary losses to the business.
Let us discuss a few key considerations that businesses must include in their return to work plan:
- Compliance Requirements – Employers must make a note of all regulations that apply to them. Ensure to check for federal regulations and guidelines announced by the Centre for Disease Control. Businesses must also ensure to check for general as well as industry-specific rules of operations announced by their state.
All businesses must begin to build their return to work plan only after taking into consideration all compliance requirements and incorporating them into the plan from the start itself.
- Phased Approach – Depending upon the structure of your organization and the number of employees, it is a good idea to commence your operations in a phased approach. Instead of starting all operations at once, it will be wiser and easier to take small steps towards returning to full capacity.
The most important advantage of the phased approach is that organizations can implement all activities in a planned, thoughtful, and measurable manner. It is definitely easier to monitor, adjust, and improve the workplace before everyone is back to the office.
- Employee Needs – Every organization returning to work must ensure to address the needs of their employees by answering the following questions in their return to work plan:
- Which employees may return to work?
- Which employees must return to work?
- Which employees are at a higher risk of illness?
- Which employees can continue to work from home?
It is also essential for all businesses to guide their employees around the ongoing issues, difficulties that they are likely to encounter during work, and easy workaround for these issues.
Certain important questions such as how will the employees exposed to Covid-19 inform the company, is it necessary for them to be quarantined, for how long can they still continue to work from home, must be mentioned in the return to work plan and communicated to all employees clearly.
- Office Accommodations – Businesses resuming their operations must take proper measures to restructure the office layout so as to facilitate social distancing, adjust office hours to enable work shifts and avoid crowding, and promote regular sanitization activities in the premises.
It is also advised for organizations to take steps to limit client meetings and site visits, change occupancy limits for conference halls, and promote healthy practices. These all activities must be clearly defined in the return to work plan.
- Conditions of Employment – Businesses might have to revise their conditions of employment. This is because certain employees who are required to travel for their jobs may not be able to do so and the sales team may also find it difficult to meet their targets due to various work and travel restrictions. Similarly, other employees may also need their goals and targets adjusted to better reflect the reality of the current business environment and trends.
Being the employer, you have to ensure that policies are flexible to accommodate individual employee needs, but they must be applied in a standardized manner so as to protect the company against claims of partiality or unfair treatment.
- Be Empathetic – Needless to say, this has been a difficult phase for everyone. The return to work plan of a business must be made by being considerate about this fact.
It is also vital for businesses to speak to their employees about the reasons for policy changes. It is good for businesses to be flexible and responsive to changing employee needs, concerns, and expectations.
There is no denying the fact that coronavirus has led to unforeseen challenges for businesses in all varied industries. In this unpredictable environment, it is tedious for organizations both big and small to decide upon the next steps to be taken.
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