MAR 29 For certain industries — manufacturing, food production, hospitality and health care, to name just a few — returning to work after extended COVID-19 seclusion hasn’t been a significant question. Those jobs, and many others that require in-person functions, simply can’t be performed in isolation. But for those in office and professional fields, the […]
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MAR 29
For certain industries — manufacturing, food production, hospitality and health care, to name just a few — returning to work after extended COVID-19 seclusion hasn’t been a significant question. Those jobs, and many others that require in-person functions, simply can’t be performed in isolation.
But for those in office and professional fields, the issue is becoming increasingly relevant as the pressure to return to some form of post-pandemic normalcy rises and employers and employees alike begin envisioning how their jobs will be performed when vaccinations become prevalent, with rising desires for teamwork, office infrastructure and group productivity.
“From an employer’s perspective, you really have to think about it based on what your workforce is going to be doing,” said Erin Nathan, an employment law attorney at Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman PLC, with offices in Cedar Rapids and Coralville. “Can you safely bring people back to work? What additional supports do you need to put in place, whether those be additional barricades or policies regarding masking and expectations on hygiene?
“You also want to think about what you’re going to do if you do end up with someone who has COVID, or a COVID outbreak,” Ms. Nathan continued. “How do you communicate all that effectively to your employees, to make them feel safe in returning, if we’re going to bring folks back? Are we going to bring everybody back all at the same time, or are we going to stagger returns? Are they just going to work from home?”
For a number of employers, decisions on bringing workers back to the office can be based on a number of non-health factors. According to a Remote Work Survey released in January by PwC (formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers), a majority of employers — 52% — believed in December 2020 that their company’s remote work productivity had improved since the onset of COVID-19, as compared to just 34% who felt productivity had improved as of June 2020.
The same survey indicated that executives expect to return to the office faster than employees. By July, 75% of executives anticipate at least half of the office workforce will be back on-site, and over 60% of executives expect to raise spending on virtual collaboration tools and manager training. Half plan to invest more in areas that support hybrid working models, including hoteling apps (50%) and communal space in the office (48%). And for many, the decision will hinge, as many business decisions do, on the bottom line.
“If an employer is considering whether or not to bring people back to work, the first thing they need to consider is whether it be done safely,” said Samantha Rogers, senior human resources manager with the Skywalk Group in Cedar Rapids.
For workers, the issues can vary even more widely. First, do employees want to return to an in-person office setting? A recent survey from the workplace platform Envoy found employee attitudes about work have changed, and in many cases, employees don’t want to return to the office on a regular basis. Nearly half of survey respondents (48%) said they would like to keep working remotely, at least part of the time. That desire for a hybrid work arrangement is popular even in industries that usually require on-site work, including 61% of health care workers, 41% of construction/manufacturing workers and 34% of retail and hospitality workers.
And when employees say they want to keep working from home, they mean it. According to the same survey, 41% of employees would be willing to take a job with a lower salary in exchange for a hybrid work model, and 47% say they would likely leave their job if it didn’t offer a hybrid work model once the pandemic ends. They are, however, willing to return to the office based on what they need to get done for work (39%), see their boss (18%) and catch up with their work friends (23%).
Many employee concerns are fueled by health and safety considerations. The Envoy survey indicated two-thirds of employees are worried about health issues in the workplace, and those concerns are even higher among people of color (78%) and members of Gen Z, those age 25 and under (78%). A majority of employees (62%) said they would feel safer if employers mandated workers get a COVID-19 vaccine before being allowed to return to the office.
But what if an employer mandates that all, or a certain portion, of the workforce return to the office? Do employees have any discretion in following that edict, based on either personal or practical considerations? The answer, like so many others in this realm is: It depends.
“Employees always reserve the right to express any concerns they have,” Ms. Rogers said. “If someone simply doesn’t feel comfortable (returning), even though there isn’t any religious exemption or underlying health conditions, employers should create an atmosphere where they are welcoming discussions and questions, and employers at that point can decide how to address those concerns based on that culture.
“Some employers may put together a program where it’s voluntary (to return), and if you’re comfortable, you can come into the office, if you are not, you can stay home,” she continued. “Some employers may decide if your productivity is below a certain standard, we need you to report to work so we can begin a retraining or performance improvement process. But for the rest, it’s a gray area. If someone comes forward and says, ‘I have this health condition, or I have this concern,’ then the human resources individual or the organization can go through an interactive process to see if there’s a reasonable accommodation that can be made.
Every employer should be taking strides towards that goal. Nobody should be retaliated against by bringing any concerns forth.”
Any decision regarding employees returning to a common workplace should begin with a policy that takes all federal policies into consideration, including both pre- and post-pandemic regulations, Ms. Nathan said.
“First, we have the Families First Coronavirus Act, the FFCRA, which has now been extended by the American Rescue Plan, and that allows an employer to allow a permissive extension (of leave),” she said. “There are a variety of reasons why people could use that type of leave for very specific situations related to COVID, where they would not be required to return to work within that leave period. Number two, does the person have an FMLA qualifying event related to COVID? That could be someone who’s a COVID long hauler and is still suffering, so they would have to go through that normal FMLA process, assuming the employer offers FMLA. And then third, is this a person with a disability, where a reasonable accommodation would be either work from home, or unpaid leave?
“Those are sort of the three reasons why I could see someone who legally would not be required to return to work,” she added. “And then there’s a fourth overall issue, not really a legal one but a practical one, and that’s morale. Bringing people back versus not, how does that impact morale?”
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website offers guidance on return-to-work considerations (www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/returning-to-work.html), and in Ms. Rogers’ view, that should be the starting point for any policy implementation.
NEWSMAKERS UPDATE
Hybrid work shows no signs of slowing
With the pandemic starting to loosen its grasp, will workers return to the office?
A poll from Gallup suggests a new normal is prevalent in the workforce with 45% of full-time employees in the U.S. working from home to some degree, including 67% of white-collar employees. Both figures are consistent with monthly trends since March 2021, suggesting employers and workers are comfortable with hybrid work.
Fifty-nine percent of employees are planning for a mainly hybrid workforce going into 2022, according to a poll from the PalmerGroup, in collaboration with the Greater Des Moines Partnership.
Geonetric, a digital marketing agency for the health care industry in Cedar Rapids, is one of these companies, as they feel a hybrid approach best suits their workforce.
“We set up hot desks at work, so you can reserve a station that has monitors, a keyboard and docking station but allows someone to work remotely the rest of the time,” said Vanessa Naber, HR director at Geonetric.
Seventeen percent of their workforce works in the office full-time and 14% works remotely full-time. The other 70% utilize hybrid work, and an internal survey found that 80% of employees plan to work remotely more than they did before the pandemic.
— Noah Tong
