Lots has been written about the physical, emotional and psychological changes that have occurred recently.
This is with the new behavioural norms being established whilst many colleagues have been furloughed or working from home.
The easing of the lockdown measures won’t see a stampede back to offices. Yet for those working in retail, hospitality and other sectors, there will be a huge ‘return to work’ effort.
For some, this will be the first time in 3-months they’ve donned their uniform and made the commute to the workplace.
Let’s just stop and think about that for a moment.
3-months doesn’t seem like a particularly long period of time. However, your people either won’t have been in work mode at all, or will have been working from home.
This means there’s a lot of readjusting, familiarisation and refreshing of knowledge that needs to take place when staff are returning to work. And that’s just to do the job in the way it was being carried out before the pandemic.
There will be a huge range of new policies, procedures and processes to understand, too. Lots of this will be part of the employer’s approach to risk assessment such as social distancing, hygiene procedures etc.
All critically important stuff!
So, how will you ensure that everyone understands and is comfortable with their ‘new normal’ when returning to work?
In a way, returning to work is like starting a new job, so why not approach it like that and complete a (re)induction?
Some of your standard induction won’t be relevant, but lots will. And you’ll also want the assurance of knowing that everyone has the information and knowledge they need.
Our friends at Training-Progress run a unique team and quality management solution. Businesses can track their team members’ training, to ensure all are consistently trained according to the business’ own processes.
The format is also ideal for disseminating information such as an induction or employee handbook. Team members will be kept up to date with any changes which are made this way.
After such an unusual period of time for so many of our colleagues, there are so many changes to communicate.
Training-Progress could be the ideal tool to provide the structure and tracking capability to ensure everyone is provided with all the information they need.
This is not only to keep everyone safe and healthy, but also to ensure they can provide excellent service to your customers.