On Tuesday, I virtually addressed a group of CEOs on effective leadership during the pandemic. As expected, the conversation turned to reopening. A few states are taking steps towards a return to work, and one of the most challenging decisions for CEOs, Executive Directors, and Agency Chiefs will be when and how to reopen their businesses. Members of the board, management, and staff may all feel very differently about the answer, so we have created an ongoing blog series on the topic.
Readers, what do you want your senior leaders to know? What are your greatest concerns about reopening your workplace and most importantly, what solutions do you have to offer?
We will develop a list of considerations and possible solutions for the following topics, and others that may come up, and share them over the coming few weeks.
Perception — considering how others, inside and outside of your organization, will feel about opening in light of their concerns about COVID-19.
Employee Health — monitoring the health of individuals coming into your organization and planning for the possibility of how to handle an illness if it arises.
Employee Mental Health — supporting employees’ emotional needs and creating camaraderie when some must continue to work from home while others are sharing the bond of returning to work.
Facilities — making necessary adjustments to work environments so employees, clients, customers, vendors, and others in a shared facility all feel safe.
Interpersonal Contact — maintaining social distancing recommendations within the organization, as well as during interactions with visitors.
Caregiving — accommodating employees if their previous child care arrangements are no longer available, or if they are the caregiver of a vulnerable person.
Transportation — addressing the inherent risks of using public transportation, as well as possible new concerns associated with purchasing fuel and navigating parking options.
Communication — articulating often and well your organization’s plans, expectations, and benchmarks.
Personal Protective Equipment — deciding what to provide in terms of masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, etc.
Policies — revising company policies and procedure manuals to include updated standards and best practices resulting from enhanced knowledge of infectious diseases.
What categories are missing? What solutions do you have? Please let us know.
1. We have to consider how to distance in bathrooms, elevators and stairwells.
2. If your staff usually uses public transportation, you have to either wait for it to ramp back up, or do cohorts (1 week on, 2 weeks off) that allow everyone to have parking.
3. Do we REALLY need to be back in the office when the reason we used to go was for social interaction/meetings, and now we have to social distance and do virtual meetings even when in the office?
Tamara,
Thank you for taking the time to read the blog and write comments back. The first thing I am encouraging
organizations to do is to answer the question:
__________will be better when we return to the office. And to have as many of these as listed as possible.
Then do a risk benefits assessment. It helps keep everything in perspective. Let me know what you find out!
Karen
We have created a virtual meeting to take a disrupted team through to discuss what they’ve learned and done to develop a Post-COVID game plan. Rolling it out next Tuesday & Friday by Invitation Only. Would you like to join us?
Michele,
I would love to — please email me.
Karen