Post-Pandemic Working from home – What HR and Leaders Should Be Thinking About
Post-Pandemic Working from home in this piece – we will discuss:
- Safety measures to be considered when going back to work.
- Employee well being when working from home
- Agile working when being remote
As COVID-19 government restrictions start to relax in the UK, many work forces have started to make the post-pandemic transition back to office space, hospitality and retail environments.
Many businesses have made the conscious decision to work from home for the feasible future. Remote working has proven great benefits over the course of the last four months, which we will discuss in another blog post.
Despite your working environment now is a critical time for HR and leaders to consider safety, wellbeing and agile working to maintain a healthy company culture for all employees.
Safety Measures To Consider
Is your workspace hygeinic to start with? To be safe and minimise risk, contract a professional cleaning company to deep clean your workspace.
Encourage your team to wear PPE. It would be helpful if you could provide masks, gloves and hand washing facilities for all employees. We have noticed more and more businesses have started to provide hand sanitiser for employees and customers which is fantastic!
Does your workspace follow government guidelines? Ensure your workspace is set up enabling individuals to work at the advised distance apart. Some employees may be feeling anxious going back to work, therefore it is important you put their safety first. Make them aware of all the safety measures you have implemented so everyone can follow the changes effectively and make them trust you have created a safe working space.
Agile Working
Agile working also known as Activity Based Working (ABW), empowers individuals to work when, where and how they please. The flexible approach is adopted by organisations to enhance employee productivity and motivation as it provides independence and allows people to work at the best of their ability. For many organisations it requires a change in company culture and the mindset of HR and leaders.
It is important to communicate with all employees before the transition back to work and find out where/how/when they feel comfortable working. For example, you may find some employees don’t want to return to work and can not commit to the traditional 9am-5pm week. Therefore, they want to continue remote working and work at times best for them- this is how they work best. Others may be itching to come back to work as they miss human interaction and need 9-5 structure. And, there may be some individuals who decide they want to return to work two days a week (9am- 5pm) and for the rest of the week work from home (11am-7pm).
Obviously, for some organisations due to the nature of the industry, this level of agility is not compatible. But, always consider every individual is going to have different work preferences. Agile working can add value to your business and support for your employees so it is definitely something to think about.
Mental Wellbeing
Now, more than ever, we should be supporting our teams mental wellbeing and focusing more on mental health when building company culture. COVID-19 has affected us all in different ways and consequently our mental wellbeing has suffered. It can be difficult to talk about but extremely important to address. There are many online resources you can encourage your team to utilise. Why not schedule some self-care time for all your employees.
Before transitioning back to work, it would be helpful to re-build relationships with your team. Get to know them again and find out if they do need additional support. How do they really feel about returning to work?
FLOCK
If you want get to know what values most to your team, why not try our new beta Your Value Survey. We help people, business owners and HR managers support individuals to create more productive teams whilst working from home.
Finally, if you do decide to take the survey you will receive 10 FREE Value Profiles for your team. So, make sure you share your results and invite 10 individuals to also complete the survey. It only takes 5 minutes!
Follow this link to get started https://yourflock.co.uk/app/pick-survey/9570b68f8cbbf6bedc2e32f26585d184
Find out more at www.yourflock.co.uk.
