As the Covid-19 cases go down and more people are vaccinated, we can all start to think about moving towards life as we know it. Not only can we see our friends and family again, but we can also think about starting to return to our everyday working life too.
Whilst many people will be looking forward to going back to work, gathering around the office coffee machine and having a chat about their weekends, some won’t feel that way. Some staff members will be feeling nervous about the future and how they may feel returning to work.
What can you as an employer do in this situation? If you have employees heading back into the office, then here are the 4 things that you need to consider before staff return to the office.
Health and Safety
It probably comes as little surprise that one of the main things you should be doing as an employer is to make sure that your employees feel safe as they return to work. You are going to need to think about several health and safety aspects before you welcome staff members back to the workplace.
This could be whether or not you need to have PPE for staff members or how you will conduct any relevant health screenings on them as they enter the premises.
You are also going to need to think about the cleaning processes within your business. It doesn’t matter whether you plan on having a high number of staff back into the office or just a few. The cleaning process always needs to be the same.
Physical changes
As well as providing key features to keep your employees, you also need to consider how you can prepare the physical space. You may find that to make sure that you are Covid safe, you will need to make significant changes, such as to the layout of the office.
You will also need to think about what is currently in the office for staff members, such as vending machines and coffee machines. These may not be suitable for staff members to use at present due to the touch screen approach. However, if you speak to a vending company about your coffee machine lease, you may be able to find an alternative.
Staff changes
You may also need to think about how you may need to approach staffing and working hours in your business. There will be some staff who have worked from home for a considerable amount of time over the past year, which means that they are likely to want to continue with flexible working.
Being able to allow them to work remotely at some point of their week or to work flexi-time as appropriate is excellent for you both. It gives your employees the chance to achieve a better work-life balance. Not only this, but it also means that you are limiting how many people are in your office premises at one time.
Welcome back
One of the most important things that you need to make sure you do is find a way to welcome staff back. Think about how you can make everyone feel safe and secure in their workspace and allow them to relax and focus on their critical tasks rather than the current pandemic.
It is down to you to ensure that everyone in your workplace is safe and have everything they need to keep themselves secure whilst returning to work.
