Getting back to business: Is your workplace health and safety fit? 

Designing the workplace of the future requires leaders to adopt a new mindset about employee needs, as well as new strategies and tools to keep the team focused, engaged and energised. Now more than ever, organisations need to reflect on the ways in which they can support their employees to be able to work and feel their best and keep teams engaged and productive - but what does this actually mean?

As employees at one manufacturing plant returned to work after lockdowns, they started reporting more accidents than they used to. When managers investigated, they came to a surprising conclusion: during the enforced time away, many employees had simply forgotten how to use their equipment safely.

“Do not rush. Take time to prepare,” says Ivan Ivanov, Head of Occupational and Workplace Health at the World Health Organization. “The virus may be with us for some time yet, so consider hybrid arrangements with some workers returning sooner than others.”

A slower, phased approach will also mean encouraging physical distancing, and recognizing that some working days are likely to be lost as people catch the virus or have contact with someone who has the virus and must isolate. Taking visible precautions and managing risk with consideration will encourage employees to return to work when they are asked to do so.

In fact, our global research into health and safety at work finds that more than half (55%) of all employees have concerns regarding their health and safety in the workplace or when they return to work.[1] And among workers in manual jobs, more than 40% are eager to receive a lot more information from their employer on the hygiene and cleanliness of the workplace (44%) and measures being taken to ensure employee health and safety (43%).[2]

The process by which workplace decisions are reached during this time will be crucial to their effectiveness. Most of the ways to stay safe as we return to work really depend on human factors. In other words, it depends on cooperation from the workforce, so policies and safety regulations to support safe working will only be effective if employees are comfortable with them.

The best way to achieve that is by involving employees in the process from the start.

Asking for the team's suggestions, clarity of communication around new procedures and training to reinforce new practices will improve safety. Additionally setting clear expectations on roles and responsibilities is key to ensure a safe working environment that the team will want to work in.

“If you involve workers in the decision-making, the payoff in terms of trust will be enormous,” says Ivanov. “But if you make decisions behind closed doors, and base them on business or logistical factors that employees don’t know about, the policies will probably lack legitimacy and be ineffective.” And bringing employees into the process means enabling them to raise concerns without being blamed.

The manufacturing plant that reported more accidents was not an isolated case. “Some collaborators lost their safety reflexes during the pandemic as operations stopped or slowed down,” says Philippe Casgrain, Global SVP for FM and HSE at Sodexo. “That’s why accidents may rise. So, we need to put much more emphasis on re-briefing people and giving them the right reminders and tools so they can operate safely.”

As employees return to work, each person will have their own ideas about what is appropriate in terms of physical distancing, masks and disinfecting hands and surfaces. This will inevitably lead to some discomfort and disagreement. This is where clear policies will be vital: not only will they reduce the kind of workplace frictions that make organizations less effective, but they will also help to preserve trust and maintain engagement.

The clearer you can be, the better. For example, if masks are mandatory, does the rule apply in single-person offices as well as shared spaces?

The manufacturing plant that reported more accidents was not an isolated case. “Some collaborators lost their safety reflexes during the pandemic as operations stopped or slowed down,” says Philippe Casgrain, Global SVP for FM and HSE at Sodexo. “That’s why accidents may rise. So, we need to put much more emphasis on re-briefing people and giving them the right reminders and tools so they can operate safely.”

As employees return to work, each person will have their own ideas about what is appropriate in terms of physical distancing, masks and disinfecting hands and surfaces. This will inevitably lead to some discomfort and disagreement. This is where clear policies will be vital: not only will they reduce the kind of workplace frictions that make organizations less effective, but they will also help to preserve trust and maintain engagement.

The clearer you can be, the better. For example, if masks are mandatory, does the rule apply in single-person offices as well as shared spaces?

Before the pandemic, it was clear what occupational health meant. But what does it mean now, when a growing proportion of employees no longer work in the same place? What is the remit of ‘occupational health’? Does it only apply in the location where employees work together, or in any location where work is carried out?