Aitch Are Gives You...
Hello friends!
I hope you, your family and your friends are all well under the circumstances. I know many of you have been touched by varying degrees, directly or indirectly, by Covid-19 and my best wishes go out to you all. Things do seem unrelenting at the moment, and the world continues to change with alarming speed. But at least it's still turning. And some of the changes may well be a force for good in the longer term (part of that "new normal" that people have been commenting on). In the world of work, much of the talk has is starting to shift from "things we need to do to cope with Covid-19" to "how will we emerge from Covid-19". After weeks of monitoring stats relating to infections, active cases and deaths as part of our decision-making at work, this shift does make for a more positive mindset even if it may be early days. So attention here at my company has started to focus on the conditions to work through before we will contemplate re-opening any of our global offices. Many thanks to all of you who responded to my tweet to provide your own thoughts on this subject, it informed the information I proposed to our Covid-19 Task Team. I promised to share the information once I had pulled it together, so (with advanced apologies for the long read) here it is... ---ooo--- Context The purpose of this document is to outline the considerations behind any recommendation to re-open any of our global offices as and when the impact of Covid-19 in any particular country eases. As each country has adopted its own approach to handling Covid-19, it is anticipated that the reopening of our offices will be determined on a case-by-case, country-by-country basis, or even state-by-state in some countries (e.g., Australia, the US). High level considerations These include:
Governance The Covid-19 Task Team will remain operational throughout and beyond the time at which all our offices have been reopened. The remit of the Task Team at this stage will move to:
Cultural considerations It is widely expected that there will be a “new normal” in the world of work after Covid-19 so we should anticipate shifts with regard to:
Compliance We can only consider re-opening an office when there is no mandated lockdown in place in that particular location. Local leadership recommendation Assuming the authorities have lifted restrictions, it is up to the local leader to make a recommendation to the Covid-19 Task Team to re-open the office. Phased return To address the potential impact that Covid-19 may have had on employees with regard to commuting to work via public transport, being back in an office environment, concerns regarding any potential secondary wave of infections, etc., any return to work to an office should be voluntary rather than mandatory, and built up progressively for an initial period of time (suggest a review after a month). Initial restrictions on numbers of employees in a re-opened office Certain countries or locations may have mandatory guidelines in place which may initially restrict how many employees can return to a re-opened office. For example, the Beijing authorities have mandated that a maximum of 50% of the normal capacity can be in the office at any one time. Even where there are no such guidelines, we should consider adopting such a policy. Roles that have more of a requirement to be performed from an office Following on from the above, consideration should be given to those roles that have more of a requirement to be performed from an office, as opposed to those which still can be performed remotely, as this will help inform decisions around prioritizing, phasing any return to work, etc. Maintaining remote working Consider circumstances under which requests to continue working from home can be considered. Examples could include:
Flexible hours There should be flexibility with regard to the working hours employees will initially spend in a re-opened office. For example, employees who commute by public transport should be able to flex the start and end to their time at the office for a period of time in order to avoid peak congestion on public transport. Such arrangements should initially be reviewed on a bi-monthly basis. Health and safety considerations Certain countries or locations may have mandatory guidelines in place aimed at ensuring the wellbeing of employees returning to a re-opened office, and minimizing the risk of a secondary wave of infections. Regardless of the existence of such guidelines, we need to:
Commuting The company needs to anticipate that some employees may be wary about commuting, particularly where they would ordinarily use public transport. Considerations include:
Business-related travel The company needs to take a position on what business-related travel will be approved going forward, if any. Considerations include:
Onsite meetings with external participants At what point would it be viewed as acceptable to have visitors at our offices? Considerations include:
Offsite meetings The company needs a consistent view on attendance at offsite meetings. Considerations include:
Engagement Particularly in the early days following the reopening of an office, it is important to track how employees feel about the return to work experience.
Making it special… Should we:
Useful guides and resources WHO criteria for lifting COVID-19 restrictions: https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/who-criteria-lifting-covid-19-restrictions CA Governor’s criteria for re-opening economy: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-s-coronavirus-reopening-Gov-Gavin-15200205.php Summary of feedback from the GC network: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18yVA32UkKdc-2J1dBl-0QDvThitbVmBV/edit# Crowd-sourced HR/GC guidelines: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11ShYhIqNiD1duCs_4OZoJ-j_r-RxbVCCcVblwoD6SpU/edit Considerations from HR team at one of the GC’s companies: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ptCE7E4CQQj0-onkdiau7MHCIj-nUIkl/edit Working RTO checklist that another company’s crisis team put together to make RTO decisions (note that this doesn’t reflect any decisions yet – just the topics being discussed for decision): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ennAsKk6LyQMTvkb7MbrkWUwAmdEp4bt/edit#gid=2111760412 Helpful guides from prominent law firms:
Stanford Law COVID-19 repository: http://covidmemo.law.stanford.edu/ CSHRP coronavirus HR comms and resources guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12tT0_5zGELxs7M-iCwf9enUJ0-Ibe0K8tkBSbbWhYFM/preview?fbclid=IwAR0n5HEzaKQtpA-cBD3JVDkjZDi5irqoybSTAYOA1e0MKO8uHYIvurplc0U Framework many US companies (including IBM) and governments are adopting for a path forward around coronavirus (from Scott Gottlieb, physician and former US FDA commissioner): https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/national-coronavirus-response-a-road-map-to-reopening/ Article from the AEI: https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/national-coronavirus-response-a-road-map-to-reopening/
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AuthorSenior HR executive who has seen it all. On a mission to simplify the world of work. Archives
May 2020
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