During the COVID-19 pandemic, workers in the United States and beyond moved away from their traditional worksites and started embracing remote work. While some employers may have concerns about remote work, due to perceived distractions at home, there’s an ever-growing body of evidence to suggest that remote work is actually more productive than working in an office. There are several possible reasons for this, but one of the most likely is that employees are able to save time by eliminating their commute, and a quiet home office can actually be less distracting than a traditional workplace.
Because of the increased productivity and other benefits of working remotely, many employees are stating that they’d prefer to continue working remotely, at least a few days a week. This isn’t possible for every job, but it’s clear that supervisors have some work to do to make employees feel at ease about returning to the office. Here are a few things you can do to help out.
Invest in employee wellness programs.
Following the coronavirus outbreak, employees are understandably concerned about health risks and protecting themselves. A traditional office can easily spread sickness, and this may encourage absenteeism if some incentives aren’t provided. One thing you can do to put everyone’s mind at ease is to introduce workplace wellness programs.
A wellness program is a workplace initiative that seeks to promote healthy behaviors and educate employees on the best ways to look out for their wellness. Such programs may reinforce useful behaviors for slowing the spread of contagious viruses, educate employees on how to handle health care costs and choose the best health plans, or even encourage physical activity challenges around the office.
It’s not all about physical health behaviors, either. A complete wellness program should also protect employee health by offering mental health resources. You can even help your employees improve their finances by providing financial health education, such as tips on how to start investing or saving for retirement. All of these are great incentives to encourage employees to return to the office.
Make sure your office building is secure.
In a world where attacks in public locations have become commonplace, it’s more important than ever to make sure your employees are safe and that your building is secure. You no doubt have a security camera system running as a way to help deter criminals and ensure they get caught by law enforcement, but what if you could react to threats before they actually present themselves? That’s exactly what you’ll get with the LifeRaft solution.
This is a security solution that’s able to comb through open internet sources like any social media network, online forum, chan board, and even the deep web and dark web. Chan boards are similar to social media in that they can spread information and trends quickly, but the difference is that these boards have essentially no rules and completely anonymous users. Popular sites like 4chan and 8chan have become problematic as ways to spread threatening messages with limited liability. With a security solution that can comb these boards, you’ll be able to uncover and react to threats to your business before they turn into actions.
Provide employees with the best technology.
The tools your employees use can have a big impact on their job satisfaction. For example, consider a call center for a medical office. With the right cloud contact center technology, they may have been able to work remotely in a limited capacity. Now, they need to return to the office, largely to ensure HIPAA compliance. Call centers have notoriously high turnover rates, and one of the most common complaints is outdated technology that makes the job more difficult.
Equipping your staff with call center software that offers intelligent call routing, easy integrations with customer relationship management, and ensures HIPAA compliance will have a significant effect on employee productivity and make them more eager to return to work.
