As COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease, we all must determine the best way to return back to the office, and there are many considerations that need to be weighed. Some employees are eager to get back to work in an office environment, while others are immunocompromised, live with at-risk people, or have been being more productive working from home.
Coming Back to the Office
In general, the best idea for coming back to the office is to first start with the staff that need to work in your physical location the most. Staggering things allows you to adjust rapidly to any problems that are identified and establish streamlined systems for cleaning, screening and working. When you prepare to return, make sure that you establish new rules and talk about them with employees. This might include things like new hand sanitizing rules, new desk locations, social distancing, and wearing masks in the office. It’s critical that everyone gets on the same page to protect one another.
Continuing to Work from Home
Many employees will not feel comfortable returning to the office just yet, and, providing that their work has not been impacted and the remote work resources exist, there is no reason to force them to return. In many cases, it is also a good idea to encourage the employees who want to stay home for now to do so, as it allows you to slowly ease back into working in the office in a smoother way. Instead of a big flood of people returning, you can practice the return to a new normal with a smaller group. When you have some people at home and others at the office, make sure that you have methods in place (video chats, conference calls, etc.) to keep everyone connected. Managers and team members will need to continue touching base with each other frequently regardless of their location, and these communication habits will have to stay in place for the duration of this adjustment period.
Reevaluate What’s Working
Just because you were forced to quickly adapt to a WFH (work-from-home) model does not necessarily mean you have to go back to the way things were. Conduct a SWOT analysis with your team to identify what strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats the WFH model provides to your organization. Send a short survey to see how employees are feeling about the WFH model. Meet individually with employees to get their feedback on working from home.
Make Things Easier Heading Back to the Office with Zenith Performance Solutions
Zenith Performance Solutions wants to transform the ways that you and your employees work and learn. We offer a comprehensive range of training courses and instructional design services, including converting existing courses from instructor led format to virtual Instructor Led and eLearning.
We work with companies of every size to create innovative and instructionally sound courses that boost employee performance and satisfy your objectives. To learn more, please contact us by calling (970) 409-4013 or emailing [email protected].