Getting back to work - How to thrive in a post-COVID-19 world

Successful businesses thrive on motivated workforces. It’s important that leaders invest efforts to rebuild workplace morale. Communication with your people is key. Listen to their needs.

Keeping staff informed of what your business is doing – whether it is good or bad news for individuals – will help them to plan and make their own decisions, giving them some degree of security in very uncertain times. Explore ways to enhance your team’s wellbeing and performance.

Knowing they are valued and supported by you, their employer – and that you continue to prioritise their health and safety – will be pivotal to their wellbeing.

Take a Snapshot or Pulse survey to find out what the key concerns and challenges are for your staff regarding returning to work and ensure you consider these in your planning.

There are many ways you can improve workplace culture on return to work. Allow new ways of working to flourish, if they are better than old ways, by encouraging cross-functional collaboration and painting a clear vision of the future.

What can be done on site, from the office or from home? If you’re a service-based business that may well mean operating working from home as a longer-term model. If you’re a product-based business or manufacturer, you’ll need to make your workplace COVID-19 secure as much as possible.

Increased flexibility and new working practices are going to be essential in ensuring a successful return to work.

We can support your company to consider its workforce planning, for example:

• What teams are essential?
• How do they interact with each other?
• How can jobs be redesigned to be multiskilled thus reducing the number of different roles in the workplace at any one time?
• What flexibility do staff need to support their return to work? 

New working patterns will also be crucial, for example, increased use of shift working, staggered start/finish times, etc.

It seems highly likely that there will be a requirement for some form of social distancing for some time to come. Lockdown restrictions will likely be lifted in stages, and all staff who can work from home will be expected to carry on doing so.  

Where certain groups of employees or businesses are part of an industry sector return to the workplace, employers will need to consider detailed risk management approaches to safeguard their health and minimise the risk of infection.  

Communicate the practical measures you’re taking to staff on a regular basis to help reassure them that their health, wellbeing and safety is your top priority.

Engage partners such as Trade Unions to understand any concerns they may have and ensure everyone is working together for the benefit of the business and staff alike. 

Make sure employees are clear about what procedure they should follow if they begin to feel unwell, both in the workplace and at home, and managers know their role in managing any such scenario. 

You’ll need to review your workplace and consider: 

• Can staff maintain a 2-metre physical distance between each other? 
• How will you manage meetings, interviews and other interactions?  
• What about communal areas such as canteens or kitchen areas?  
• How can you implement resourcing strategies to support physical distancing, such as keeping teams of workers working together in smaller groups, or staggering working hours so that not all staff are in at the same time? 

All key protection and hygiene measures will continue to apply to minimise the spread of infection, such as reminding staff about regular and effective handwashing, and providing hand sanitiser.  

Depending on your working environment, you may need to consider providing additional PPE, including gloves, masks or anti-viral hand gel.   

Staff who travel or visit other company premises may also need additional equipment or briefing. Remote meeting facilities and video conferencing should be encouraged wherever possible to minimise the need for staff to travel and/or use public transport.  

Tips for making the most of remote working on the CIPD website

The risks to people’s health from this pandemic are psychological as well as physical. These include anxiety about the ongoing health crisis and fear of infection, as well social isolation due to the lockdown. Some staff may take more time than others to adjust, and it’s likely that most people will need a period of readjustment for work-life balance. 

Some members of staff may have concerns about travelling to work on public transport – or it may not be as readily available.  

If your business has an Employee Assistance Programme or access to occupational health advisers, make staff aware of the services they can provide. This is where flexibility around start/finish times and working patterns will be essential. 

It will be vital to have a re-orientation or re-induction process for returning staff. Encourage and support every manager to have a one to one return meetings with every employee, where a key focus is on health, safety, wellbeing and addressing any concerns they may have.  

Managers need to have a sensitive and open discussion with every individual and discuss any adjustments and/or ongoing support they may need to facilitate an effective return to the workplace. This is especially important for those who have been furloughed.  

Support should cover topics such as: 

• Changes in company services or procedures 
• How specific customer queries or issues are being addressed 
• Changes in supply arrangements 
• Any changes to their work duties or tasks 

It could be that some staff require a phased return to their full role, or want to discuss a new working arrangement, especially if their domestic situation has changed because of the pandemic. 

Along with our partners at Skills Development Scotland we can help you fill any skills or training gaps including support to embed new staff into your organisation while maintaining social distancing. 

It will be important for every employer to ensure that the organisation culture is inclusive, and that every employee feels they are returning to a supportive and caring environment.  

The pandemic has had an unequal impact across the workforce in many ways, as different groups of employees, and individuals, will have been affected in diverse ways according to their job role and individual circumstances.  

It’s important that the organisation fosters an inclusive and fair working environment, and managers are sensitive to any underlying tensions and confident about nipping potential conflict in the bud.  

We’ve also seen a real appetite from Scottish companies to consider different, more progressive business models. The impact of the pandemic has led businesses to appreciate that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

Indeed, wearing my other hat, as Head of Cooperative Development Scotland , I can see an increasing number of businesses considering alternative business models. Collaboration and consortium working provides opportunities for businesses feeling the economic impacts of COVID-19. Working together allows you to streamline processes, reduce costs and carbon footprint, share risks and create new platforms for growth in the UK and internationally. 

From a location or place perspective, COVID-19 has brought into sharp focus the importance of community assets such as the local shop and how these can be a vital resource to communities. This business model gives people the tools they need to preserve essential public services. It can also bring exciting new business opportunities with wider social and environmental advantages.