As coronavirus restrictions ease around the globe, employees are looking forward to returning to work. For many businesses that struggled to stay afloat during this pandemic, this is certainly welcome news. However, reopening your business without proper planning can result in a fragile, fitful, and rudimentary transition.
In fact, a survey done by the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) shows that only 10% of businesses in the process of reopening have performed extensive planning. So if you're looking to resume normal business operations, you should have a plan for maintaining safety, rebuilding employee morale, and effectively managing resources. Here are some things you need to consider when reopening your business amidst COVID-19.
#1 Manage the number of workers coming back to work
If your business has many employees, having them all return to work at the same time is a huge risk for spreading and contracting COVID-19. To protect your employees' health, come up with a plan that reintroduces them back to work in a staggered manner. For example, you can implement a policy that will allow your employees to work in rotating groups during the week.
#2 Provide an option to continue working from home
While many regions are easing their COVID-19 restrictions and allowing businesses to reopen, some people might be hesitant to return to work just yet. This is why you should provide your staff with the option to continue working from home even if you’re resuming regular business operations.
#3 Rearrange your office setup
When reopening your business, you still need to take into account certain restrictions implemented during the pandemic. You and your employees have to observe strict regulations regarding hygiene, social distancing, and mass gatherings. To address social distancing, you can reconfigure office spaces so employees are at least six feet away from each other. You can do this by using plastic or fiberglass shields to divide desks and seats in break rooms and meeting rooms. You can also use floor markers to direct foot traffic, and provide hand sanitizers and alcohol to ensure your employees maintain good hygiene at all times.
#4 Motivate your workforce
With all the drastic changes that took place during the pandemic, returning to the office after weeks or months of staying at home can be unsettling for your employees. This can cause low workforce morale and poor productivity. A highly motivated workforce is crucial to the success of your business, which is why you need to boost their morale. You can achieve this by:
- Painting a clear and positive vision for the future of the business
- Recognizing employee achievements
- Encouraging collaboration among different teams
Eventually, when things start returning to normal and regulations permit it, you can organize a team-building event to boost employee morale.
#5 Reevaluate your IT needs
It will take some time to return to how you managed your business before the COVID-19 pandemic. There's even a possibility it might not return to normal at all. This means your business's IT and infrastructure needs will most likely change. You can partner with a managed IT services provider (MSP) like Complete Document Solutions to help you identify the specific equipment your employees need to work efficiently under the new normal. Your MSP can also handle the setup process to ensure it's done quickly and correctly.
#6 Maintain constant communication
If your business adopted a work from home setup during the pandemic, then you understand the role communication platforms played in ensuring the productivity of your employees. You probably communicated with your staff more during the past few months than under normal conditions. Constantly communicating with your employees should continue even upon returning to the office. This is to ensure that any progress that was made on various projects while working from home will not be disrupted.
Reopening your business during this pandemic will not be easy, but if you take these considerations and add them to your plans, it will ensure an easy and fruitful transition.
To make your return to work easier, partner with a trusted MSP like Complete Document Solutions. Our team of experts will provide 24/7 proactive support to ensure your business gets back on its feet as quickly as possible. To learn more about what we can do for you, download this free eBook today.
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