No matter in what part of the UK you are living, and at what stage in the easing of lockdown you find yourself, all employers and their employees are having to consider the return of staff to workplaces. This may involve negotiating many sensitive issues, not the least of which is that if some or all of your employees have been furloughed they may, on their return, feel somewhat out of touch. Time and attention may need to be paid to helping employees to reconnect with their roles and, in some cases, extra effort may be needed to deal with hurt feelings about the decision to furlough in the first place.
But there is more to the process than that. One unintended consequence of the lockdown is that in many cases it has forced employers to rethink the entire way in which they run their business. The possibility of remote or flexible working may have been, up to now, the can that always got kicked down the road. Back in March, however, thousands of employers nationwide suddenly found themselves with no choice but immediately to change to a new way of working, whether they were prepared for it or not. Although this came about through circumstances that no one would have wanted there is no denying now that a new reality has been created and many employers will not elect to go back to their old ways of doing things.
Rethinking work patterns
A number of workplace myths have been well and truly debunked in this process. Principal amongst these is the idea that employees are less productive when they work from home. The evidence of recent months is actually to the contrary, and as employers are faced with having to be vastly more vigilant in safeguarding the health of their employees it will make no sense to many to bring staff back into an office environment when they are clearly working more effectively from home.
Leading on from this is the question of working hours. Of course it stands to reason that, living as we do in a society where the concept of working hours is ingrained, the idea of the working day or the working week is not about to disappear overnight. Certain activity will likely still need to be carried out within certain hours, so core business hours may need to be retained within individual organisations to reflect this. However, huge quantities of more process-led work can be done at any time. All that matters is that it gets done, and the evidence of recent months has once again revealed the idea that people work best between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday to be a fallacy.
Everyone is different. Some people work best in the early mornings, some hit their stride in the afternoons, and still more find evenings to be a natural time to focus and concentrate. The businesses that acknowledge and accept this, and look to turn it to their advantage, will be the more successful businesses of the future. Technology will certainly play a huge part in this. Many thousands of workers who, until comparatively recently, would never have imagined themselves using platforms such as Zoom to conduct ‘face-to-face’ meetings online, now find such technology to be an integral and normal part of their work time.
Employee health
A lot will have to change in workplaces in the immediate term, pending the availability of any COVID-19 vaccine, to make them safe environments. Cleaning may need to be done with greater frequency and in greater depth, employees may need to have their temperatures checked as they enter a workplace, desks and other working areas will need to be redesigned to ensure safe distancing and any time spent in more enclosed spaces with other employees will need to be approached with all necessary care. As an employer you may feel that you need to ask staff members to share certain personal information regarding their health with you that you would not expect to know at other times. Research suggests that employees do not feel uncomfortable doing this, provided that they understand and are satisfied that their employer’s having that information is necessary for safety and that it will be both held securely and not misused.
This leads on to the issue of how to make employees actually feel safe. Communication is key here. Businesses will need to ensure that staff are aware of what measures have been put in place, why they are necessary and how they safeguard health. Wherever possible a consultative approach will work best, with employers and employees working together to identify, assess and solve potential problems. Phasing the return of employees may be as well. Get it right and the first returners on your staff will be your most powerful and effective communicating tool for reassuring others.
Whilst all of this is being done to manage the return of staff members to a workplace, it is necessary that businesses take a very clear-eyed approach to how to get them out again quickly should anything go wrong. Until such time as vaccines or highly effective treatments for COVID-19 are readily available employers cannot afford to overlook the possibility of a member of staff testing positive for the disease. The evidence shows that workers feel more confident and safe knowing that such a strategy exists, so employers should not shy away from communicating it to staff.
Effective communication throughout this process is the key to success.
