One of the biggest challenges organizations have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic has been maintaining communication and transparency between employees and leaders. Many businesses were forced to furlough their workers or abruptly adopt remote work procedures, resulting in various rifts regarding interaction. Now, as many regions begin to open back up, these companies face a new but related challenge: reopening in a manner that is safe, compliant, productive, and commensurate with the concerns of each and every employee.

Some of your employees may be chomping at the bit to get back to the office while others might still be hesitant, especially as case numbers continue to fluctuate and even rise in some regions. Additionally, returning to some sense of normalcy after several months of settling into a different lifestyle may pose logistical problems for some of your people, especially those with children who require their presence.

Simply put, successfully reopening your office won’t be as simple as flipping a switch. As you prepare to reopen, it’s crucial to account for your employee’s needs. Here we’ll discuss some ways to involve your people in the conversation of office reopening, and which questions and topics to include in these discussions.

Conduct One-on-One Meetings with Employees

Whether or not your company has been in the habit of having one-on-one conversations, now is a crucial time to conduct these meetings. These individual interactions are designed to uncover the unique emotions, struggles, opinions, and goals of each and every employee. This qualitative information can help inform your reopening strategy and process to facilitate maximum comfort and buy-in for your people. During these one-on-one meetings, ask questions along the lines of:

• Do you feel ready to come back, or would you prefer to continue working from home?
• What are your biggest concerns regarding returning to work?
• Is anything specific standing in the way of you feeling comfortable returning?
• What has and has not been working for you during this time?
• What can your team and/or leaders do to better support you at this time?

Some employees may be less open in their answers, so the more questions you ask, the better.

Distribute Surveys to Collect Broader Data

The personal meetings described above are key in discovering some of the finer points that require your attention, but they don’t always provide a clear, broad metric of your company’s pulse. This is where surveys come in handy. A well-written survey will give you quantitative information on your employees’ general feelings toward reopening and related matters.

These surveys might feature yes/no prompts and/or questions that require an answer on a rated scale (i.e. 1 through 5, “not at all” through “very much”, “strongly disagree” though “strongly agree,” etc.). Analyzing this data will help you make larger decisions and improve your operations as a whole as you open back up. Your survey(s) might feature prompts such as:

• When working from home, I felt:
  • In the loop/informed
  • Supported by the team/management
  • Connected with the team
  • Productive/able to meet personal goals
  • Etc.
• I enjoyed/didn’t enjoy working from home
• What practices would you like to see implemented/changed/ended upon returning to work?
• I trust the organization/leaders to take the right measures and precautions before reopening (i.e. hiring disinfection services, adjusting layout for social distancing, stocking up on PPE)
• I feel informed about reopening procedures and safety measures
• I feel comfortable/heard saying I don’t feel ready to return to work

Some, if not all, of these questions may also be asked during your one-on-one meetings, but the advantage of surveys is that they can be anonymous (and therefore often more honest) and easily analyzed/quantified.

Reopening the Right Way

There are many factors to consider when reopening during and after this pandemic, such as federal, state, and local regulations/guidelines, industry requirements, logistical circumstances, and business needs -- employee readiness, comfort, and sentiment cannot be left out of this equation. Make sure your people are well aware of why, when, and how you plan to reopen and incorporate their feedback into your reopening strategy.

And if during this transition you need in-person assistance regarding disinfection, deep cleaning, landscaping, maintenance, and all other kinds of facility support, The Budd Group can help. We offer a full range of commercial services that most other disinfecting cleaning services cannot.