5 tips for bringing your employees back to the office

No matter what kind of small business you have, you may be in a position these days where you are trying to decide the right course of action related to bringing your employees back to work. It's hard to know what the appropriate steps are, especially with the understanding that there's almost no way to fully insulate yourself or your employees from risk – even as more states move into later phases of their coronavirus responses.

For that reason, it's a good idea to make sure you follow all necessary precautions and ensure your workers know what's required of them as you open your office once again:

1) Know what you need to do and prepare everyone to comply

First and foremost, make sure any reopening plans you have follow local or state rules, which have been so important these last few months, according to Work Design. Likewise, it's vital to impart the right information to any workers who will be coming back to your office so there is no confusion about what's expected of anyone. Of course, those guidelines aren't necessarily what might be appropriate for your specific work environment, so you might need to do even more to ensure your employees' health and safety.

Give your workers a bit of leeway as you reopen.

2) Set the rules in writing

When you're putting together the steps you will take to prepare your workplace for return-to-work efforts, it's critical to make sure you're codifying all those efforts and changes, Work Design advised. That way, you won't run into any confusion when you need to readjust once again or otherwise pivot as needed. After all, the rules that apply today might change next week or next month, and you need to be ready for those eventualities.

3) Empower employees

It is more or less inevitable that at least a few of your workers will have reservations about returning to work given that the pandemic is still ongoing, and this should not be seen as a negative, according to Business 2 Community. If they can do their jobs effectively from home – or have done so these last few months – they should be allowed to do so, or additional accommodations could be made to protect them on site.

4) Shift your existing policies as necessary

In a lot of cases, you likely have many existing office policies that overlap with the changes you might need to make in this new environment, Business 2 Community noted. For instance, if you only allow two work-from-home days per week, you might want to consider expanding that – perhaps to as many as five – or relax rules around accumulating paid time off and sick time.

5) Remember that everyone needs time to adjust

These haven't been easy times for anyone, and many of your workers may need some extra time to get back into the swing of things as they return to in-person work, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Giving them a little bit of a longer leash to get their tasks done and deal with on-site meetings, among other things, is likely a good idea.

Categorised in: Starting a Business in Arizona

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