The 3 Ways To Prepare Your Workers For A Return To The Office

The world got used to remote working and working from home during the pandemic. Now that there are signs that the virus is subsiding and people are vaccinated, many offices are preparing for their employees to make their return to the office. It’s not without controversy, of course, as there are many people who don’t want to come back. 

In fact, many managers are scrambling to find couriers for remote employee equipment returns for those that have said they are not going to return. All the rest will need to be prepared to get back to the office in the smoothest way possible. In this article, we will go over some of the steps to take to prepare for a return to the office. 

1 – Reorientation events

If your company ever had a mass hiring event then you likely had a big orientation meeting. This is where things are explained to everybody so they know what to expect once they punch the clock for the first time. Policies are laid out and questions answered. 

You may end up having to do the same thing again but this time for reorientation since you’re not dealing with new hires. The pandemic changed everything so there won’t be a going back to a normal type of scenario when everybody goes back to the office. 

Let people know what the initial plan is to bring them back. You could opt for a hybrid strategy in which people come back for a day or two a week and then work from home the rest of the week. Or, you could do things in a staggered fashion where some people come back and then over time the rest of the staff follows. 

Discuss the new policies in place and allow employees to ask as many questions as they need to be able to get everybody on the same page. 

2 – Consider “non-meetings”

One of the downsides of working from home is the lack of connection to other people. One of the biggest downsides to working in the office is endless meetings that could have been an email. 

To make people excited to work in an office again you should look to implement nonmeeting times when there is a half-hour or so per day set aside for workers to go to the meeting room and just chat and catch up with each other. Talking about nonwork issues is a good way to foster connections and lessen the stress of coming back to the office after two years. 

3 – Give mental health support

There is going to be a lot of anxiety among your employees about coming back to work. Some people likely went through a traumatic experience during the last couple of years due to the nature of the global pandemic. Some may even have lost loved ones during that time to the virus. 

It’s important to have some support for mental health to ensure that they have the resources to work with a good peace of mind and not under duress.