Workplaces across the world are embracing normalcy after being hit by the severe waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, most employers face the daunting task of decoding what the work culture will look like in the post-pandemic world.
According to a survey, many shifts that were introduced during the course of the pandemic are here to stay. One of these crucial shifts includes having a large number of employees who want to work remotely.
The million-dollar question is, how can employers and business leaders help employees return to office safely? As a business leader, you may also be searching for an answer to this question. If yes, we are breaking down some factors that will help you bring your workers back to the workplace seamlessly.
Contents
Ensuring safety at the workplace
Here is your number one priority — you should ensure your workforce remains safe and healthy. Many employers are opting for a hybrid work model, where some employees operate remotely while others may come to office on fixed days. Some employees are picking split schedules that allow for maximizing social distancing at office premises.
You will have to establish social-distancing norms and carry out regular temperature checks for whoever is coming to the office. In addition, you will have to make sure that all your employees are either vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19 before appearing at work. If some of your workers were recently infected from COVID-19, then you should give them time to recover. Last but not least, you must comply with the restrictions and guidelines issued by your national or state government.
Getting your workforce back in a phased manner
Most companies believe that it will be almost impossible to bring back their workforce at once. Besides, if all people come to work at once, it will only add up to the overall confusion. Moreover, you will have to give your employees time to get reaccelerated to the new working culture. A top professional services firm reveals that the employees, spending an extended amount of time away from their office that has major changes to the workspace layout, will take time to readjust.
You have to consider the fact that your workforce may look different than what it used to look before the pandemic. On top of that, you are likely to have new remote workers who may have never visited your office even once. One pro tip is to re-engage these new employees with a buddy once your office becomes operational. This way, the new people will have an easy time adapting to the new workspace. Besides, you will also have to modify some of your business processes, work policies and communication channels once your office becomes functional in the post-pandemic world.
Taking employee engagement initiatives
The most dramatic impact of the pandemic was stress. In fact, it is still a major issue in most parts of the world. Most workers had to embrace these brand-new work environments successfully overnight. Besides, most workers had to share their workspace with other family members. Additionally, almost every family member had their remote commitments related to school or work. These elements made the work-from-home dynamics even more complicated than before. Most workers found themselves working extra hours and getting burnt out. That is when most workers experienced a health phenomenon known as COVID fatigue.
One of the prime symptoms of this fatigue is related to sustaining employee engagement at the workspace. This symptom is quite understandable given the fact that it is too difficult to feel engaged when your employees are not physically present at the workplace. Moreover, working for too long from home will have adverse effects on the work-life balance of your employees. The fact is, social events including happy hours, birthday celebrations, coffee breaks and watercooler chats bring people together. Now is the best time to come up with creative initiatives that will help people bond well after such a long duration of working alone. Come up with some well-tried ways to keep the enthusiasm of the employees high.
Summing it up
When all is said and done, you should do your best to help your employees embrace the new normal of the post-COVID world. The bottom line is that you have to consider multiple factors to make sure many workers are returning to work as seamlessly as possible. Moreover, you have to think about determining whether your employees have the right skill set required to do their jobs in a hybrid, in-person or remote work ecosystem.
When you do these assessments effectively, you will be able to measure mission-critical skill gaps existing in your workforce. Once these gaps are successfully analyzed, you will be able to take concrete steps to plug these gaps. And, finally, when these gaps are bridged, your employees will work more productively while you will deliver the right work opportunities to the right workers.
