For professionals all over Canada who have been working from home for the last year or so due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a change in working arrangements may be coming soon. As restrictions start to ease in some areas of the country, employers are thinking about opening their offices and getting back to in-person activities in the not-so-distant future. So, what should you consider before asking your employees to come back to the office?
In this blog post, we’ll look at the most important factors you should focus on before making a decision about your employees and their new work setup. Let’s get started!
Working from home vs the office vs hybrid model
First of all, you need to think about whether your employees want to return to the office or not. Leger Marketing, in partnership with Adecco, surveyed 1000 Canadians on employees' wants and needs in the post-pandemic workplace. The survey shows that while 27% of respondents would prefer to work mainly in the office, 57% of respondents would prefer a hybrid model that combines working from the office and home. The strong preference for a hybrid model means that making employees work exclusively from the office is likely a bad approach if you want to keep people happy and retain talent.
Most employers seem to be moving towards a remote-office hybrid model which allows employees to work from home most of the time and come into work for certain activities like team meetings and trainings that are better done in-person. Although this might seem like working from home would have a negative effect in the long-term, studies suggest that employees are equally or more productive when working from home. Hybrid work may increase job satisfaction and have an overall positive effect on your workers’ performance on the job.
Health and safety in the workplace
If you’re thinking of moving your employees back to the office soon, then health and safety will be at the top of their minds. Is your company able to provide and enforce health measures that ensure the safety and wellbeing of all employees? Do you have protocols in place in case there’s a COVID-19 outbreak at the office? How will you make sure your employees feel safe? These are all questions that you should be asking yourself before moving towards any kind of in-person office work scheme.
Following government regulations and recommendations should be your first port of call, but talking to your employees about what measures they’d like to see in place is also important. If your workers feel that they have a say in how they’ll be returning to work, then they’re much more likely to be supportive of your initiatives to kick start your office reopening.
Making it easy for your employees to have access to PPE equipment and giving them enough space to social distance will also be important in establishing a safe and comfortable work environment in the new normal. Plus, consider these top-ranked safety protocols preferred by survey respondents:
- Access to sanitization
- Frequent cleaning of all public areas
- Refusing entry to visitors with a fever
- Automatic door openers
- Requiring face masks for customer-facing staff
- Limiting the number of employees in an area at one time
- Physical distancing markers
- Installation of plexiglass dividers
- Daily temperature checks.
You should also look into how important it is for employees to be vaccinated. The Leger Marketing survey revealed that 51% of workers believe their employer should make vaccination mandatory for employees who return to work in the office.
Mental health
Mental health has become one of the most important topics that employers need to pay attention to. During the pandemic, employees faced immense pressure as they adapted to new ways of working. Now that offices are reopening again, employees must adapt once more to altering work schedules and a return to in-person workspaces.
If you put mental health support first, your company’s return to the office will be smoother and more pleasant for everyone involved. This can be done by offering upskilling and reskilling opportunities, providing therapy and other mental health support, as well as encouraging employees to prioritize a healthy work-life balance. One of the main things attracting people to the office is the social connection that they can develop with their co-workers. Fostering an environment of collaboration, socialization, and company culture is one of the best things you can do to ensure a mentally healthy return to the office.
Organizational culture and values
Organizations all over the world have placed great importance on company culture during the pandemic. It’s important that you continue to promote your business values and goals as your employees return to the office. Doing so can lead to a more productive workforce, a better public image, loyal employees, and more efficient collaboration between individuals and departments.
You can do this by setting goals for each department as they come back to the office. This will give employees a strong sense of purpose in a time when their work life is once again undergoing a series of changes. Your company leaders also play a key role in strengthening organizational culture, and they will be useful ambassadors for your brand once employees get back to the office.
Attracting and retaining talent
One of the biggest challenges for Canadian companies in 2021 attracting talented candidates and holding on to their best employees. As organizations struggle to fill their job vacancies, competition will increase, and companies will have to go above and beyond to hire top candidates. An effective approach to dealing with this is developing an attractive employer brand. This will make it easier to find the candidates that you’re looking for and will give you a competitive edge over other companies in your industry.
The Leger Marketing survey also found that employees ranked the following as some of the most important criteria for choosing a job after COVID-19:
- Separation between professional and personal life
- Career advancement opportunities
- Hybrid work solution
- Compensation and benefits.
By offering hybrid work models, attractive benefits, and a clear path to career development, you’ll show candidates and employees that your company is open to accommodate the changing expectations of the workforce. Companies that fail to offer hybrid or work-from-home options are unlikely to attract high-quality candidates or young job seekers.
Returning to the office with the help of Adecco’s workplace experts
At Adecco, we’re experts in all things work. That’s why we know exactly how companies like yours can approach new work models, hire new talent and retain existing employees. To learn more about how we can help you transition your employees back to the office while growing your company, visit our
employer portal and get in touch with us today!