With the surge of the COVID Delta variant, the plans that many companies had put into place to bring workers back to the office and get back to “normal” have once again been delayed. Is your business one of them? Since it is certainly true that the only constant is change, businesses are rethinking their approach to reopening fully. No matter where you are in the process of reopening your business, here are items to consider and put into a plan.
Many things will continue to be unknown in managing your business, your employees and your customers. Plus your industry, state, and local government may have guidelines that must be followed. Since circumstances are likely to continue to change, businesses will need to be flexible and ready to adapt quickly. Still, it’s best to have a plan with the goal that everyone is comfortable and that the plan is communicated thoroughly to everyone.
Include these areas in your plan:
Testing – Will you require it before employees return to work? Will you provide testing?
In-person meetings – Will you allow them in the office, and under what conditions or circumstances? May visitors attend meetings?
Safety – What’s the policy on masks and other PPE? What should employees do if they feel sick? How will these policies be enforced?
Attendance – What are the guidelines for taking leave or personal time off? How should employees handle circumstances out of their control? (for example, last minute child care challenges, school closings, etc.)? Can you adjust work shifts to minimize the number of employees in close contact? Will you use flextime or a work-at-home option?
With all of these items, you’ll want to maximize your business’s productivity as you manage your workforce. Tools and solutions may make it easier to establish and automate best practices. For example, time tracking and scheduling solutions help collect data and streamline approval processes. Managing schedules online keeps everything visible and can immediately highlight issues and notify workers about changes. Record keeping is more thorough and can easily show you potential attendance or overtime trends so you can make better decisions. Touchless and mobile solutions for collecting time data helps prevent contamination. Direct deposit and debit cards for your worker’s payroll eliminates the need for check delivery and distribution.
If you’d like more information on solutions to manage your workforce or would like to discuss the workforce items that are unique to your business, please contact us.