As many states begin to open, there is a growing concern about what that looks like for the workplace and how safety issues will be addressed once we return to this new normal. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, announced this week that his employees will be allowed to work from home indefinitely — even after concerns of coronavirus are over. That is unlikely to be the norm. If your business requires at least some employees to be present, you’ll need to give careful consideration to safety measures that benefit both the business and the well-being of your employees.
Evaluate the Current Situation.
Analyze your business now that your employees have been home for two months. What has worked? What has yielded less than promising results? Do you still work together as a team or is the process marked by friction? Is communication better or worse than when all staff were in the office?
You might be surprised that business, for the most part, is business as usual. There might be one or two areas that have large gaps. If so, can you address those directly without changing the current structure?
Understand the New Normal.
There is a desire to return to normal and go back to work, but the new normal will be different from how we previously operated. While the office will be populated, people will not be able to interact, unless properly distanced. Employees will not be giving handshakes, there will be not in person meetings, and the coffee machine and cafeteria will be closed. Carefully weigh the benefits of bringing your employees back to the office under these new circumstances.
Returning to the Office.
For those businesses that must return to the office, be sure that you have procedures in place that offer a safe environment to your staff. Consider the following:
Create a clean and safe space.
Evaluate your cleaning procedures and adjust those to fit our new environment. Equip your staff with the necessary personal safety items they will need to be in the office. Be sure you are providing masks, gloves and face shields, as necessary, to each employee. Set up hand sanitizer stations around the office. For high touch areas, such as doors and elevators, provide tissues and trashcans so staff do not have direct contact in these areas. If possible, consider opening doors and windows to promote air circulation.
Establish distancing measures in the office.
Large, in-person meetings must be ruled out for now, but what about other encounters? Will you allow staff to stop at another colleague’s door to talk? Will you let employees meet in large conference rooms if they are six feet apart? Consider other measures to make the environment safer. Reconfigure the office so that work stations are 6 feet apart. Create one way traffic patterns to avoid employees accidentally passing too near to each other. Have fewer people in the office. Consider staggering work shifts or alternating weeks of in person and remote working. For example, parts of the Pentagon are operating “blue” and “red” teams, alternating each week to ensure essential duties are covered while creating enough social distance.
Set up a medical screening process.
Before coming into the office, consider requiring no-contact temperature checks for all your employees. Employers should be prepared to send staff home if their temperature is over 100.4 F or have symptoms, such as shortness of breath. Put into place stay-at-home requirements for infected employees.
Be flexible and willing to work with individual employees.
Some of your employees might be in high-risk categories and others might face challenges with schools being closed/ lack of childcare. Be sure to reach out to each staff member to make sure needs are being met. Keep an open mind about ways you can work with such employees in these unique circumstances.
Communicate often and keep staff informed of the changing situation.
Evaluate your communication and make sure you are communicating regularly about safety around COVID-19. Before returning to the office, let your staff know about additional cleaning measures you have put into place, new medical screening processes, how you will deal with infected employees, and new social distancing protocols. Continue to monitor the situation both in the office and in the news to make sure your employees are still safe. Your employees will have concerns and suggestions, so make sure the communication is two ways and you have a pulse on sentiment in the office.
Every business is different and returning to the physical office space will vary from company to company; however, all businesses should take a thoughtful and slow return back while monitoring the situation daily. If you would like more information or advice on returning back to work, feel free to reach out to me.
Maple Grove HR Consulting 