Returning to work – Implications for people managers

If your national government announced a return to work for your industry next week would you be ready for your people to return and prepared for the new normal? Here are some factors to consider in your planning.

As of April 2020, strict lockdown measures are now starting to be relaxed in a limited way in the countries that experienced early outbreaks. This trend will accelerate globally over the next months. People will be returning from compulsory working from home to a changed working environment.

We will need to be prepared for a further period of volatility and some unique challenges in restarting our activities. In many ways this will prove more difficult than the sudden but compulsory move to home working. We need to make nuanced choices and plans and find the right balance between the health of our people and the needs of our businesses and the economy.

Travel and social distancing restrictions will continue for the next 12 months or more, may change at short notice and vary in different locations.
Some individuals may be unable or unwilling to travel or attend offices or collective meetings.

We will need to prioritise and innovate within shrinking budgets as we enter a global recession.

As a training business and long term specialist in new ways of working (including developing the world’s first remote teams training program 26 years ago) we have been carefully studying the research and best practice, and looking at developments in countries who experienced the outbreak early for learning on what to do to help our own business and our clients adapt to this changing environment.

Whilst there is still a lot of uncertainty, some elements of the next 12 months are becoming clear. Those people who are waiting for a swift return to previous business conditions and ways of working are in for a disappointment.

Please download our free summary of the key challenges as they impact people management specifically, and some questions we need to be thinking about at this stage.

Download – Returning to work after COVID 19 – implications for managers

I hope this document will give some stimulus to your thinking and would love to hear any comments or suggestions for improvement as the return to work continues.

Good luck and please let us know if we can help in any way.