Research has indicated many employees have concerns about returning to the workplace after a long period either working remotely or not working at all, and these individuals will be looking to HR leaders for advice and reassurance.
A YouGov survey for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) - the UK’s professional body for HR - found that 44% of people felt anxious about going back to work. The CIPD urged businesses to consider these three questions before bringing people back into the workplace:
- Is it essential? - If people are able to work from home, they should continue to do so.
- Is it safe? - Protective measures (such as those listed above) should be put in place to reduce the risk of the virus spreading in workplaces.
- Is it mutually agreed? - There must be an open dialogue in the workplace between employers and workers so individual concerns and requirements are taken into account.
2. determine manpower gaps
COVID-19 has had a devastating financial impact on businesses around the world, with many seeing their revenue streams dry up in an extremely short space of time. One of the unfortunate but inevitable consequences of this is an increase in staff layoffs as struggling companies look to cut costs in an effort to stay afloat leading to talent and skills shortage.
The repercussions of the pandemic for workers have been visible all over the world. The International Labor Organization has estimated that, worldwide, more than 436 million enterprises face a high risk of serious workforce disruption, many of which are in hard-hit sectors like manufacturing and food services.
As your business gradually transitions to the new normal in the wake of COVID-19, one of the HR challenges you may encounter is needing to fill gaps in the workforce and secure the workforce capacity you need to restart operations. The HR department will be tasked with rehiring laid-off employees, and if that isn’t possible, sourcing new hires and onboarding them as quickly and efficiently as possible.
This is exactly the sort of situation where the benefits of a flexible staffing solution become clear to close in the workforce gaps. Putting flexibility at the heart of your workforce planning will help you meet short-term, unforeseen challenges and scale your labour capacity up and down as you see fit.
3. reluctance to return to the workplace
Owing to the physical distancing restrictions enforced by the pandemic, one of the most significant changes has been a large-scale shift to remote working.
A report produced by Slack showed that an estimated 16 million knowledge workers in the US had started working remotely due to COVID-19 by March 27. A survey of 6,000 office workers across Europe by Okta found that, in the UK, only one in four respondents were eager to make a full return to the workplace, with many showing a preference for a flexible model based on part-time remote working.
So what can the HR department do when you’re faced with large portions of your workforce who are quite happy working at home and reluctant to return to the workplace?
The first step is to evaluate how necessary it is for people to make a physical return to work. If your employees have shown they’re able to do their jobs effectively from home and it doesn’t disadvantage the business in any way, it might be worth sticking with these arrangements for the time being. Your staff will appreciate your demonstration of trust in them and you’ll also reduce the risk of the virus spreading in the workplace by allowing people to stay at home.
However, in some industries - manufacturing and construction, for example - remote working simply isn’t possible or sustainable. If you need people to return to the workplace but they’re reluctant to do so, take the time to engage with them one-on-one and listen to their concerns.