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While employees and employers alike have been eager (for months now) to get back to work as it used to be, the reality is that the workplace has changed — and possibly for the long term. Speculation abounds that this "new normal" will persist until there is a widely available and effective vaccine. This leaves employers in limbo — juggling the new day-to-day legal concerns and practical difficulties, such as enforcing proper social distancing and addressing refusals to return to work, while trying to maintain productivity and profitability to keep businesses afloat.
Advance planning for how to face potential challenges (some of which are described below) before they arise will allow companies to react thoughtfully, rather than impulsively, and provide the tools to remain vigilant and flexible.
10 potential challenges employers may want to prepare for
1. Ensuring employee health and safety. This is really the crux of the challenges surrounding return to work for most employers while the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise, largely based on spread by asymptomatic carriers. As a result, keeping the workplace safe once employees physically return (coupled with being transparent about precautions taken in order to alleviate employee concerns) is of utmost importance.
Employers need to be proactive about mitigating the risk of exposing employees to infection in order to slow the continued spread of COVID-19 and to prevent a second wave of cases once the first wave subsides. This includes engaging in the practices that have been discussed and written about ad nauseam for the past few months, such as making physical modifications in the workspace to reduce contact, changing work schedules to limit the number of employees physically present in the office at one time, encouraging social distancing, and continuing an enhanced cleaning regime while also providing employees with cleaning supplies (such as wipes and hand sanitizer) to allow for more frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces.
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