For the past month, my Facebook feed has been filled with pictures of people’s COVID-19 vaccine cards or their Band-Aid-bedecked arms. And this week, different pictures started to appear: People with their arms around their elderly relatives.
COVID-19 ripped in-person interactions away from all of us, and we’re happy to get back to hugging and handshakes slowly. And while we know that our family members are waiting for us with open arms, what about our coworkers?
Employees who have been working remotely for over a year now are starting to trickle back to their offices. Meanwhile, essential employees who worked in-person through the worst of the pandemic might even feel brave enough to revive a handshake here and there.
Still, interactions at work can be awkward. The CDC recommends masking and social distancing unless everyone in the room is fully vaccinated—are you really going to pry into someone’s vaccination status when you schedule a meeting? How do we return to normal at work? Do we keep elbow bumps forever?
Provide Clear Directions Around Reopening
When people come back to work, make the rules clear. Don’t leave anyone guessing.
For instance, if your state doesn’t have a mask mandate and people aren’t typically wearing masks at their desks, have a sign on the conference room door that says: "Masks required in the conference room." And place a box of disposable masks and some hand sanitizer on the table outside the room.
There should be similar signage in all other shared spaces—bathrooms, elevators, etc. This signage avoids confusion and enables you to discipline rule breakers.
Don’t Depend on Employees to Social Distance at Work—Create the Space for Them
Some people are vaccinated and ready to hug. Others are ready to embrace, even if they’re not vaccinated. In any case, space is the name of the game for the time being—and all of your workers are going to have to respect your social distancing rules.
If your employees are typically tightly packed in cubicles, you’re going to have to rethink your setup. Push desks apart at least six feet or put up plastic barriers—the kind you’ve likely seen at your local outdoor dining venue. Limit the capacity of large meeting rooms to ensure that employees can keep six feet of distance between them. Set up markers between chairs so that there’s no doubt about what six feet looks like.
Today, Not Sharing is Caring
You’re working with adults who can decide on their own if they want to share food, but if your team is the type to bake a batch of cookies for the whole office, you may want to send a memo to discourage this temporarily. That way, no one feels obligated to eat something that makes them feel unsafe—and no one is left offended that their colleagues didn’t touch their famous chocolate chip cookies.
Bagel Fridays may have to wait, too, because that communal container of cream cheese may as well be a jar of germs. You can, of course, offer to comp your employees’ breakfast once a week if you’d like to keep the perk going without the risk.
A Safe Return to Work Calls for Respect
The most critical aspect of a return-to-work plan is concrete communication. Whatever your company rules are, make them explicit. Don’t leave anything up in the air.
And one other note: Depending on your state or local regulations, your management team may choose to take a more relaxed approach to certain rules, like mask requirements. Nevertheless, make clear to your team that anyone who wants to follow a higher standard of social distancing and masking than your company or state rules require will be respected. Emphasize that you want everyone to have a safe and comfortable return to the office.
To learn more about how Cornerstone can help prepare your employees to return to the office, check out our Content Anytime Professional Skills subscription, featuring the "Returning to Work with COVID-19" courses. These courses provide information and guidelines for protecting yourself and others in the workplace. Interested in learning more about Content Anytime Professional Skills and its benefit to your organization? Contact us!
Related Resources
Want to keep learning? Explore our products, customer stories, and the latest industry insights.
Blog Post
Steering towards agility: How organisations navigate change
The change in the world of work has recently brought with it a number of challenges. Innovations such as artificial intelligence are creating faster, completely new cycles of talent development, and this transformation sometimes creates completely new structures and hierarchies within the workforce.
Blog Post
Decoding talent's blueprint: Key takeaways and stories from the THI roundtable
Amidst the bustling energy of London's St Pancras Station, where throngs of commuters rush through, an extraordinary event unfolded on November 30th. Cornerstone, together with Perry Timms, Founder and Chief Energy Officer at People & Transformational HR Ltd, and Dominic Holmes, Principal, Strategy and Value at Cornerstone, organised a captivating roundtable that transcended the station's hectic ambiance to delve deep into the essential flow of talent within businesses.
Blog Post
TXP: 5 ways to transforming employee experience
We live in the era of infinite digital experience, one in which the customer’s last best digital experience becomes the minimum standard they will accept. The customer’s experience delivered via mobile, tablet and desktop translate to the workplace; employees expect a customer-centric experience that is designed around their needs, one that is intuitive, simplified, personalised and available on any device. The shift to hybrid / remote working has raised and amplified employee expectations for their enterprise applications to mirror the best experiences available in the consumer realm.