Getting the gang back together

Kris Sinclair - HR Professional

​With so many people working from home in 2020, the grey area between professional and personal lives and activities has been blurred like never before. As Covid-19 restrictions begin to lift for Victoria and further adjustments occur nationally, businesses and organisations need to prepare to bring employees back to the workplace. For example, in Victoria, effective 23 November  there is a phased return to the office and employers can now have 25% of their workers back to offices (or 10 people for businesses with less than 40 staff, if space allows for 4 sqm per person) with numbers increasing over the coming weeks and months. .  Each business will have its own unique challenges to face from physical distancing workstations in an office, purchasing of items such as sneezeguards, to adapting procedures to ensure the business is working in line with their COVIDSafe plan. Business leaders will also need to be cognisant of the potential psychological impact that lockdowns have had with heightened numbers of employees feeling anxious about their return.  

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Everyone has a role to play in helping create a mentally healthy workplace and this is the ideal time to make sure your business has some levels of awareness of workplace mental health to ensure a smooth transition back to the workplace. This will in turn assist with increasing job satisfaction and minimising uncertainty and disengagement and ensure productivity levels are achieved. 

Questions.  So many questions...
When it comes time to returning, employees may have questions.  For some, returning will not be an issue.  But for others, there may be hesitancy to return as they are still fearful of the virus, they may be feeling disconnected socially, they may have become too accustomed to the work from home routine – there are any number of reasons for feeling unsettled or anxious.  So you need to be prepared.  It will be unnerving or frustrating for them if you do not have answers as to how things will proceed.  Being on the front foot and providing as much information as possible prior to the return to work will give your employees confidence, rather than leaving them to guess or predict what will happen.

Working from home had pros and cons
Let’s be honest, while many thought working from home would be an absolute nightmare, we all soon discovered that it worked extremely well for many businesses.  And there have been a few perks associated with working from home such as working in our track suits, and zero commuting to the office, interstate or overseas, , But we’ve also lost a lot too including things most employees probably took for granted, such as morning coffee runs with colleagues or staff drinks (that aren’t over Zoom) at the end of a long week. Even just being able to quickly ask a co-worker a question has been missed, not to mention the benefits of spontaneous collaboration and brainstorming as well as basic and regular human connection!

Checklist for a successful return to work
So, as you plan to transition your team back to the office or the worksite,  there are a number of things you really need to cover off to minimise the anxiety and to make the process a positive experience.

1. COMMUNICATE – we know that we bang on about effective communication all the time but it is the very foundation of anything you do in business.  Get this right and you can mitigate any concerns in advance.  You need to let your team know what the plan is to return, when it will happen, whether or not there will be a partial or full return, your COVIDSafe plan and what the expectations of the business will be during the process.  If you lay out your plans in advance, you provide everyone with the opportunity to digest the information and any potential anxiety induced by uncertainty can be vastly reduced.
2. CONSIDER – 2020 turned out to be a huge work from home experiment and many businesses didn’t miss a beat as employees showed they could still be productive and effective remotely.  So something to consider as we move back on site is how you can incorporate the learnings from 2020 as your business moves forward.  Many businesses are considering a hybrid approach with a combination of onsite and work from homes days as employees have shown that this flexibility can produce positive outcomes.  There are business savings to made here too as you might be able to consider moving to smaller premises or smaller satellite offices as you allow a set ratio of your team to work remotely at any given time.  There is no doubt that it will be requested so work out what your business needs now and how you want to proceed. Starting to survey your employees about their preferred working arrangements and listening to them, is a great first step…. Development of an appropriate workplace flexibility policy comes next…
3. BE PATIENT – we all know it has been a tough year, but patience will be required with some employees as they manage their own anxieties about their return.  We are not suggesting that you allow your workforce to dictate terms – a return to work directive given lawfully is your prerogative and employees that don’t want to come back without good cause are problematic, so ensure you follow the appropriate process when dealing with this behaviour.  Some business are already finding it difficult to get people back to work – if you experience issues, reach out to us for help.. essentially though, your employees are required to follow your instructions. But for those with legitimate concerns, be patient and go back to step one and keep communicating.
4. ALLOW THE CONNECTIONS -make sure your employees have space to enjoy the little things that have been absent during the remote working period.  Encourage them to take the time to have that one-on-one conversation with a colleague, grab a sandwich and coffee from the local café and enjoy the lunchbreak, allow  some room for conversation at the coffee machine and so on, as long as all activities are conducted within the guidelines established by your Covid safe plan.  This might seem small, but these actions can help with establishing some normality back into your employee’s routine, lower social anxiety, improve mental health and most importantly reengage productivity in the workplace as we edge closer and closer to a COVID-19 normal. There will be a time and place to start worrying about people taking slighter longer breaks, and chatting too much around the office, but the initial weeks of returning to the workplace is not that time….

In the meantime, if you are in anyway unsure as to the directives you can give, the COVIDSafe plan requirements or you simply need support planning for a return to the workplace, please contact the HR Staff n’ Stuff team for help.

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