Working from home took some getting used to for many people, but returning to the office will be an even bigger step for some.
The need is still great, people want to meet each other. Business travel came to a halt after the 9/11 attacks. This would be the end of personal business meetings. But we again considered the personal interaction indispensable. Offices filled and business trips returned and even boomed. The current technology and acceptance for remote working and meeting is of course much further than then, but still has the necessary limitations.
Yet 9/11 has changed our sense of safety forever, and Covid-19 has a similar impact. We now even have a term for it: The New Normal. Our work environment is changing, and probably forever. Also post-pandemic and post-vaccine.
The question now is: When will we come back? How do we get back?
Keep in mind that your team may be nervous about returning to the workplace. If you prepare well, you can allay many concerns and - more importantly - reduce the risks of contamination. This gives peace of mind and ensures that everyone can concentrate on their work.
In this blog we provide a number of tools for your approach.
1. Form a 'Back To Office' Team
The impact of The New Normal on the work environment and the responsibilities of employers is broad. To make, roll out and monitor a thorough plan, you therefore need all disciplines, such as HR, legal, IT, facility, operations, security and the works council or other representatives of your employees.
If the impact is very large or if you lack important in-house expertise, you can call in external advisers, for example for health, hygiene and office furnishings.
The composition and approach of this team are important, because there is a real chance that it will be 'here to stay', that it will have to solve serious problems and play an important role in the continuity of your company.
2. Develop your own flexible 'Back to the office' plan
The Back To Office plan will be unique for every organization. Some even require different plans depending on their locations, number of employees, local requirements and functions. Important factors are the location of the workplace, the number of employees per location, the possibility of social distancing in the workplace and the dependence on public transport.
You must also take into account that the recommendations and guidelines of the government and relevant institutions change regularly. Your plan and your team must therefore follow these developments and must be sufficiently flexible.
Some important parts that should at least be included in your plan:
- Prevention measures: inform your employees about preventive measures to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.
- Support for good hygiene, for example with sufficient places for washing or disinfecting hands.
- Approach for regular cleaning and disinfection.
- Offering personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and eye protection, and instruction on their proper use.
- Social distancing policy and implementation including instructions for dealing with visitors, facilities for visitors.
- Carrying out health examinations such as temperature measurement as a condition of entering the workplace;
- Encourage self-monitoring for symptoms of COVID-19;
- Rules for the maximum number of simultaneous employees and visitors.
- Workplace controls: extra ventilation in the workplace, application of high-quality air filters
- Redesign of the office spaces, barriers and partitions between work areas
- Policies and procedures for employees to report when they are sick or suspect symptoms of COVID-19 Procedures for prompt identification and isolation of potentially Covid-19 infected employees.
3. Collect structured information
Reliable information is required in order to keep all parties involved properly informed and to support decision-making.
That starts with your employees. You want to understand their requirements and wishes, and their concerns. Their well-being depends in large part on your plan for returning to the office or continuing to work from home.
Regular questionnaires and polls provide you with an unambiguous picture of needs, sentiment and trends.
It is important to get a picture of the entire 'journey' of your employee. They may find it fine to work in the office, but they dread traveling by public transport. With such insights you can properly focus the attention of your plans and the actions of your Back To Office Team.
You may already have relevant data from your existing systems. Think of IT, WiFi, building management and access control systems. They tell you a lot about the use of your spaces and the possible need to redesign busy spaces or routes.
4. Phase the return of your employees
It is not realistic to have everyone come back to the office on day one. Your employees have been through a lot, have questions and concerns and it is impossible to pretend nothing happened.
For example, you can start with the critical roles for your organization, followed by healthy employees who are not affected by Covid-19 and those with children who are not attending school.
With a step-by-step return, your Back To Office Team has more room to protect their health and safety and to give them confidence that it is indeed safe to return to work. In this way you keep a close eye on the consequences for health and morale.
Your multi-disciplinary team is also valuable for such a phasing, because choosing and selecting can entail sensitivities and even affect regulations.
5. Consider rotation and working hours
As an alternative or in addition to a phased return, you can enter staggered working hours and rotating teams, where certain teams are in the office while other teams work remotely.
To further limit the risk of the COVID-19 virus spreading within an organization, you can also physically separate the teams within your office.
An additional benefit is the lower pressure for the cleaning crew to manage and perform routine or enhanced office cleaning and disinfection.
When your workforce is highly dependent on public transport, you should keep in mind that travel times, especially during rush hours, are longer and the risks of contamination higher. Whenever possible, more flexible start and end times help reduce that pressure and risk.
Many employees will want to avoid public transport and will need a parking space for car, bicycle or scooter. So also plan any additional parking and charging facilities.
6. Take into account higher absences
The New Normal can mean a significant increase in the number of absentees, due to illness, care for a family member, concerns about safety or closure of workplaces due to new COVID-19 outbreaks in the work environment. So prepare to run with less staff.
If that was not already the case, you can do this via remote working, but also by combining functions, training existing employees to perform critical business functions and recruiting additional employees on a part-time or flexible basis.
In any case, be prepared that you can close workplaces quickly in case of new Covid-19 outbreaks. Your Back To Office plan should therefore also have a chapter 'Going Home Again'.
7. Evaluate your office space and workplaces
The office is part of the way we communicate and collaborate. We cannot do without it for the time being, but as mentioned, the role of your office and with it the shape will change significantly in the coming years.
Your space needs are changing, so keep a close eye on those trends. Start with monitoring, analysis and evaluation. Where is space a waste, where does space offer value and how do you subsequently optimize those spaces?
For this, making a space plan is an ideal step to gain insight into the impact of social distancing measures. Be sure to use feedback from everyone involved, including your landlord, to know what is and what is not possible in planning and building safe communal areas. Keep in mind that the guidelines can change quickly and you can adjust the spaces accordingly.
The agile office is getting more attention than ever and the time to start shaping it is now.
8. Communicate your plan
Develop an approach to your communication to inform everyone about the process and goals, the team guiding this process, and how everyone is contributing with ideas and practical support.
This is a crucial part of your overall approach. You need the support, involvement and support of all employees, while the circumstances are constantly changing and your plans and implementation have to be adjusted accordingly. Those lines of communication must therefore be continuously open, in two directions.
