Preparing to return to the office

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Preparing to return to the office

Katy Cracknell • May 13, 2020

What employers should be considering as employees begin to return to work.

As the government announce an extension to the Furlough scheme, the relaxation of some social distancing rules, that some children will return to school and, that some employees can return to work, we’re all about to adjust to a new normal (at least for the coming weeks)

But how will the changes work in reality? The Government have already released Guidance on Working Safely During Coronavirus but how do employers put this into practice?

As we adjust from hot-desking to home working to socially distanced working here’s what employers should be considering:

Complete a risk assessment. Make sure that before employees return to the workplace that you complete a risk assessment of your office space and record this as part of your Health & Safety responsibilities. This will help you identify what needs to be done in order to keep your employees safe.
Consult with your employees. Remember that as an employer you have a duty to consult with employees on Health & Safety so make sure that you are seeking employees input throughout the transition period. If you are able to show that you are adhering to the guidance, and have consulted with employees, there is less chance that individuals will be able to claim that they are not prepared to return to work for Health & Safety reasons.
Your office set up. Do you have banks of desks or employees sat facing one another in your office? If so, you will need to consider screens or barriers to separate employee where they are not able to sit 2 meters apart. If you have any activity where employees must work face-to-face for a sustained period, then you will need to assess whether the activity is safe to continue.
Think about how you are going to operate shared spaces such as kitchens. You may need to consider limiting the number of employees allowed in a shared space at one time or staggering break times.
Think about how you are going to clean your office space, the frequency of cleaning and how you will expect employees to contribute (for example, not leaving dirty cups in the sink for somebody else to wash up…….we’ve all done it, or asking employees to bring their own lunch where this would normally be provided) You’ll also need to think about providing hand sanitiser and signage to remind employees to regularly wash their hands.
If you have hot-desking facilities in your business these should now be allocated to an individual and not shared. If desks do have to be shared, they should be shared by the smallest possible number of people possible.
Consider your office hours and if you are able to stagger employees start and finish times to avoid large numbers of employees on site at any given time.
Offer support to employees as they return to the workplace. It’s been suggested that Mental Health will be the nation’s next pandemic and each employee will be feeling differently about returning to their place of work. The best way to get ahead of the curve is to send a short survey to your employees to understand how they are feeling or if they have any concerns and, to point them in them right direction of where they can find additional support and resources.
Ask employees their opinion by running a Return to the Workplace Safely Survey to understand what their personal circumstances are and, if they have any anxiety or concerns about returning to the workplace.

Remember that no one is obliged to work in an unsafe work environment and so it’s vital that you carefully consider how you will keep employees safe as the lock down measures continue to be eased, failure to do so could land you in hot water.

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