After six months of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses of all types are beginning to welcome employees back to the workplace. Given the stress and anxiety caused by the health crisis, as well as the continuing risk of infection, how can you help your employees return to work – safely and with minimal stress?

Coping with Fear and Anxiety

According to a poll by KRC Research, 45% of employees are afraid their companies will bring them back to the workplace before it is safe to do so. You need to assuage these fears.

Managing your employees’ mental and emotional health is every bit as important as protecting their physical health. It’s important that you regularly and openly communicate with your employees about the current situation and how it affects them. Transparency is key.

You should consider offering third-party in-person or online mental health programs to help your employees deal with this newfound anxiety and stress. The long quarantine period has exacerbated many mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, and the enforced social isolation has been particularly trying to individuals in alcohol or drug recovery. Your employees will be bringing these personal issues back into the workspace with them and you need to be prepared for that.

Keeping Employees Safe

You’ll also need to revisit your physical workplace to keep employees as protected as possible from the spread of the coronavirus. The best way to do this is to follow recently issued OHSA guidelines for returning to work during the COVID-19 crisis. This includes regularly cleaning and disinfecting the workplace, requiring the wearing of masks, enforcing social distancing, and identifying and isolating sick employees.

Your company should also consider continuing telework for those employees that can work from home – and for those that request it. You will need to be flexible and adjust your back-to-work policies if infection rates in your area increase.

Embracing Change

All of these physical and social changes can be upsetting to employees who’ve spent the last several months isolated at home. Your employees need to accept that the coronavirus crisis has imposed a new normal on the workplace. You should stress that all of these workplace changes are for your employees’ benefit. Yes, things have changed, but only because you’re trying to keep your employees – and your customers – as safe as possible.