This blog post is the first in our series of articles that aim to help employers navigate the decisions involved in returning to the office.

While many companies rushed through their transitions to remote work or operational shutdowns, business leaders have more time to thoughtfully plan how employees will safely return to the office environment or possibly just continue to work from home.

As you learn about how companies are implementing staggered scheduling and how others are implementing new desk arrangements to allow for social distancing, it’s likely you have a lot of questions. Because many answers will be specific to your employees and your company’s operational needs, here are six questions to consider, if you haven’t already.

1: How do My Employees Feel about Returning to the Office?

To better understand what you need to do and what needs to change, you should start by surveying your employees to understand their sentiment.

If your business requires employees to be on-site or if they are eager to get back to the office, your plans will be different than if your team is happy and productive working from home.

To find out how they’re faring and to get a sense of their desire to return to the office, asking direct questions about their home office set-ups and their immediate needs. You can do this by setting up a simple survey through a free online tool, like Google Forms or Survey Monkey.

2: How Do I Create a Return to Work Plan?

There’s plenty of information out there, but that’s also part of the problem. If you’re not sure where to begin, HR consultants / service providers, employment law attorneys, and commercial real estate firms are all good sources of information.

You should also connect with your peers to discuss and compare their situations to your own. Keep in mind that each company will have its own unique considerations based on its workforce and their operational responsibilities. If you’re looking for more direct guidance, here's a solid resource guide from law firm Foley Lardner for planning your return.

Generally, it's been recommended that employers re-open in separate phases and gradually return to full operations in accordance with federal and local and state guidance.

Your plan should include:

A planned, phased approach
Any policy updates
The logistics required to enact and enforce those policies
A communications plan to share these changes with your company
At the end of this article you’ll find list of resources they may be helpful.

3: What Should My Return-to-Work Communications Plan Include?

Your communications plan must include a timeline for your team’s return to the workplace as well as the policies that will be enacted.

This transition will require more than a one-time email blast: you must prepare to clearly communicate expectations and send reminders on a regular basis. You should also let your employees know who to reach out to in the event that they have Covid-19 questions related to their employment. Your communications will continue weeks and months after your team returns to the office as people will regularly need to be reminded of new expectations, standard and protocols.

4: Should There Be New Rules Around Hygiene and Sanitation?

This is strongly recommended, but again, the extent to which these are required will vary by industry. To get a high-level sense of what these may look like at your company, check out OSHA’s Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for Covid-19.

With new rules comes the challenge of enforcement. However you proceed, it is recommended to keep records in the event that you are asked to supply them to OSHA in the future.

At a baseline, everyone must have a clear understanding of reporting procedures and how violations of policies will be handled. For example, if your company will begin to require masks and temperature checks, you must be able to explain how these will be enforced. If masks are required, will they be provided?

As part of your plan, educate managers so they know what to do if an employee comes to them with a question or possible illness. This should happen before everyone is back in a shared workspace.

5: Do We Need to Reconfigure or Rearrange Our Workspace?

In order to ensure employee safety, you may need to change the layout of your desks, put up barriers or change traffic patterns to limit physical contact and help enforce social distancing.

There are several things you can do to make your office space safer. Here’s a good article on the topic from the US Chamber of Commerce.

6: How Do I Ensure that the Office Is as Clean and as Sanitary as Possible?

You will likely need to step up your office cleaning schedule to ensure that common surfaces are not harbors for the virus or other germs. Again, this will depend on your operation, but you may want to consider asking employees to wipe down their work station on a daily basis.

You’ll also need to revisit your kitchen areas and food policy. It’s important to decide whether employees will be allowed to use dishware in the office at all, or if a disposable alternative will be provided.

If your office has a lactation room, a meditation room, or an in-building gym, these may require additional cleaning and updated procedures.

Additionally, you may need to create policies and processes for best practices around visitors, employee health, and new cleaning processes for common areas. You’ll also need to have a plan for when rules or procedures are breached to ensure that everyone’s safety needs are met.

Whatever Your Timeline, Communication Is Key

You may have noticed that we didn’t attempt to answer the question of when your employees should return to work. There’s no singular answer: it may depend on where you are located in the country, what local restrictions on leaving the house are, and the nature of your office environment.

Whatever the shape of your plans and whenever they begin to roll-out in earnest, your employees must be kept in the loop. Whether or not your city or state government has a “stay at home” order in place through the end of May, start talking to your employees about what this return may look like today, get their feedback, and make sure your plan fits your employees’ health and wellness needs as well as your company’s operational requirements.

For a more in depth discussion on this topic, you can view the slides and recording of our Return to Work Planning from May, 2020.

Return to Work, Part 1: 6 Questions Employers Should Consider