How to Make it Easier for Staff to Return to Work After COVID-19

While many across the world will be happy to get back to working alongside their colleagues, many others will be dreading it, perhaps because of concerns about the safety of themselves or their loved ones. When re-opening, following government or state guidelines will only take businesses so far. If employers want to successfully bring staff back to work, they’ll need to think carefully about the necessary steps they need to take to assuage their fears. Here are three ways employers can make it easier for staff to return to work.

Making the workplace physically safe

Above all, employers will need to ensure the physical health of their staff is secure in the workplace. This means:

• Establishing workplace control measures, such as health and body temperature screening, sanitization procedures, and limiting the number of visitors to work premises.
• Having an exposure-response plan, including measures for reporting COVID-19 contact or symptoms via an online HR system or mobile app, and processes for isolation, contact tracing and issuing stay-at-home orders.
• Accounting for physical distancing, for instance by re-organising the worksite, staggering shifts and breaks, establishing one-way traffic systems, and using partitions to separate workstations.

Beyond these initiatives, businesses should plan for a range of scenarios that could arise in their own unique circumstances. Carrying out risk assessments, identifying company practices that could be dangerous, and taking the necessary steps to avoid them, could be the difference between a safe and unsafe environment for employees.

Employers can make use of several online resources, including SHRM’s COVID-19 return-to-work checklist, and guidelines issued by the CDC, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), to help them ensure the workplace is physically safe to return to.

Making the workplace psychologically safe

Businesses should be aware that reopening could threaten the mental wellbeing of their staff, which will make the return to work more difficult. Some have been living in prolonged isolation and will find it difficult to readjust to working with others again. Some will have challenging domestic circumstances, juggling work with caring for children or vulnerable people. Some are dealing with bereavement - the list goes on.

To assuage these concerns, HR leaders must recognize that the pandemic has affected each employee differently. Reaching out to staff one-to-one and explaining clearly the plans that have been made to keep them safe will help to settle them back into work more quickly. Beyond this, there are other things employers can do to help their staff with the transition such as:

• Leading with compassion and understanding.
• Offering support where it’s available, whether it’s from an Employee Assistance Program, or otherwise.
• Assuring the workforce that sensitive information such as health and body screening results remain private and that there are measures to prevent discrimination.
• Gaging employee sentiment to organizational changes, for instance by using surveys to get feedback, and acting on these findings.

Communicating clearly that the company has acted on all preventable risks and engaging regularly with staff will make all the difference, inspiring their confidence to return to work.

Rebuilding a sense of community

Businesses that have faced hardship in the last few months will need to recover in more ways than just financially. Company cultures have been put to the test and organizations that have faced redundancies, furloughing, or remote working might have suffered a sense of loss of community. Many employees might be anxious about their positions or their place in the company, or that the culture to which they’ll be returning will have fundamentally changed, making it more difficult for them to readjust.

Re-capturing the human element to work will be vital to repairing company culture and making employees feel welcome. There are many steps businesses can take to realise this. For instance, celebrating achievements, cross-functional collaboration, and team-building events where regulations permit will be highly effective in rebuilding workplace camaraderie.

HR leaders should also aim to support any new hires as well. Giving them a great onboarding experience that involves the whole team can be an excellent opportunity to strengthen workplace relationships and solidarity.

In the midst of the pandemic, employees want to return to a workplace where their colleagues are supportive and acting to keep one another safe. Promoting culture is an excellent avenue through which to achieve this.

To reopen for business amid this pandemic is no easy feat. It’s a move that requires employers to do everything they can to make the workplace physically and psychologically safe. It will take effective communication, compassion, and care, to instil in the workforce the confidence that their employer has done everything to keep their health secure and to reacclimate them to their jobs. Succeeding in these challenges will make it that much easier for staff to return to work.