Social Distancing in the Workplace — Here’s What You Can Do
It’s time to get everyone on the same page.
For many business owners, having a remote workforce has been a very personal decision until now. Some owners prefer their team to collaborate face-to-face, while others prefer to use technology and give their team the opportunity to work from home or while on the road.
Unfortunately, with the recent coronavirus pandemic many business owners have been faced with some tough decisions regarding their businesses and their teams in terms of social distancing. Which has led to some very important discussions between you and your staff.
So where do we go from here? Maybe you want to start building up your systems and controls to give your team members the ability to work from home or adjust their work schedules during an emergency? Maybe the majority of your staff is already working remotely, and you want to get a better grasp on what they are doing and how best to serve them during this transition period.
Time Is of the Essence
The worst time to have a discussion about contingency planning is when the building is on fire. Ideally, you want to think and plan ahead to decide how your team will handle various emergencies.
Now, the specifics will of course vary from case to case, but having a system in place to allow employees to work from home is always a good starting point. If your employees must come into the office, consider creating an alternative scheduling option that can be put into place should the need for social distancing arise.
You might also take the opportunity to think about things like stock levels and supply chain interruptions when working on your contingency planning. Can you say “toilet paper shortage”?
