Should Your Company Continue to Work From Home?
As states begin to open back up and relax regulations around stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus, many business owners are wondering what the right balance is for themselves and how to approach their own reopening plans.
There is a big chance that COVID-19 will change the future of work. Let’s face it, many people are used to working from home now that they’ve been forced to do it for the past two months — all the while finding how to remain productive, effective and communicative with their teams. There’s also a chance that people almost prefer it now.
It may be time to relax your work from home (WFH) policies. This pandemic is an uncertain, unfamiliar and anxiety-inducing situation — and many people are still weary about heading back into “normal life” too soon. These next few months will require important decisions around:
- How you distribute information, and what it says about what you’re doing to handle and consider the situation
- What new measures you’re implementing to ensure the health and safety of employees
- How you express empathy and understanding for those who are concerned or just not ready to return back to the office yet
As you consider all the options, take the time to evaluate how things are currently going as everyone is working from home. If your team continues this rhythm, are there systems or procedures you could revise? Could you collect everyone’s input on what has and hasn’t worked best for them throughout the past few months? Maybe think about “lessons learned” and apply them to implement a more flexible, but more productive WFH set up for the next few months or a year until things are stable.
Although it depends on your industry, your business will survive if you continue to work from home. There may be a few things to adjust and innovate around, but if you make the effort and make intentional decisions around what is best for your company and employees, everyone can remain safe and healthy.
