Three Key Questions to Ask While Creating Your Return-to-Work Strategy

Employers across the country are planning their strategy for returning employees to the worksite—whether that is an office building, a factory, a job site or another location. As employers develop and execute their strategic playbook, there are three key questions they should ask themselves.   

1. What challenges are we trying to solve? 

As a result of the crisis, some companies have seen revenue drop while other industries and businesses have seen positive or little impact on their revenue streams. The problems that each organization are working to solve are unique and that’s key to remember as you craft a return to work strategy.  

Consider the specific challenges your company is trying to solve by returning to the worksite and use that as the foundation for developing your return to worksite strategy and playbook. No two playbooks will look the same! 

2. What are our goals? 

In the same way that your challenges will be unique to your company, your goals will also be affected by factors like your industry, size and location.  

  • For some, reopening a physical office or worksite location is a crucial step to resuming business.  

  • For organizations who have laid off or furloughed staff members, a goal may be to return team members to their previous working hours.  

  • Many companies are concerned about meeting their 2020 budget as they feel the financial impact of COVID-19.  

  • Ultimately, protecting employee and client safety should be a top priority for any company.  

As you continue to navigate the new world of work with your return to worksite strategy, try implementing measurable goals that are in line with your organization’s values. One goal that is often shared is to “return to normal”—however this goal can be difficult to measure. Part of successfully restarting and rethinking the workplace may simply be “creating a sense of normalcy” and see how returning to the workplace fits into that reality.   

Related: Alera Group’s Reopening a Worksite Road Map can help you work through these steps and more. 

3. How will we define success? 

The “global” element of this pandemic means that every company has an opportunity to respond to the crisis. Ask yourself this question: In a best-case scenario, what would “successfully navigated COVID-19” look like for your company?  

You may find that innovative ideas or creative sales strategies can be key ways to measure your success. Additionally, employee health and retention are often a measure of company culture and wellbeing—and can be leveraged to evaluate the success of your return to worksite playbook. 

Through all of this, it is important to be rethinking the ways your company views and engages your employee population. If you would like help developing your return to worksite strategy and playbook, Alera Group’s HR Services team would love to assist. You can reach out by clicking here

Want to learn more about this topic? Check out our webinar recording from May 13th, “Rethinking and Restarting Your Workforce Amidst COVID-19.” 

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