With the Government announcing that people who can’t work from home are now able to travel to their workplace, employers across the country are starting to consider how they manage their employee’s return to work successfully whilst complying with the social distancing rules and ensuring the safety of their employees.

If your employees are able to continue working from home then they should do unless they fall into one of the 2 exceptions of being either:

A worker in a role which is critical for business and operational continuity, safe facility management, or regulatory requirements and which cannot be performed remotely or;

A worker in a critical role which might be performed remotely, but who is unable to work remotely due to home circumstances or the unavailability of safe enabling equipment.

Regardless of which employees you have returning to your sites in the short term, eventually you will want to re-open your business premises to a wider employee base and you should be considering how this will work in practice now. Make sure you’re ahead of the game when it comes to planning for the future so that your employees feel confident in your decisions when this becomes a reality. Read more about what you should be considering here.

The Government has released new guidance on how to work safely during the Coronavirus pandemic, but is this enough? Every business is unique and office locations, layouts, functions and many more nuances need to be taken into consideration to ensure that your employees remain safe and protected.

So how can you make sure your employees feel safe enough to return to the workplace? It’s fairly simple really… Ask them!

It doesn’t have to be complicated and conducting an employee survey is the best way to identify what worries and concerns your team have about returning to work and gives them a chance to share ideas they have on how to make it a success. A team whose opinions and suggestions are heard and valued by their employer will be much more engaged and supportive of the final outcome.

Online surveys are easy to set up, but the questions asked need to be considered to ensure that you get meaningful information from your results. Studies also show that employees give more truthful answers when the survey is anonymised and managed by a third party and this is where we can help! 

At Clear Bridge HR we have been supporting our clients by managing bespoke Return to the Workplace Safely surveys and providing full analysis and recommendations on how to manage a return to work for employees whilst mitigating any risks.

The data gathered from these surveys is the best starting point when it comes to formulating a plan that is unique and specific to your business and employees.

If you would like to run a Return to the Workplace Safely survey for your business, please contact us today. Engage your team – you’re all in this together!