Guidance for Businesses Returning to Work After Lockdown

We can all remember how quickly we went into lockdown back in March and compared to returning to the workplace and starting businesses up again, it was a fairly simple process.  Businesses are gradually opening up again and employees are returning to work, however, there are many points to consider and the following guidance may help.

• Health and safety measures

When your employees return to the workplace it is important to carry out a risk assessment of your premises.  Where possible, arrange the workplace to ensure social distancing.  Where that isn’t possible you will need to manage the transmission risk by asking employees to wear PPE as appropriate.

Reinforce your cleaning processes.  Provide antibacterial spray, hand gel, gloves, wipes.  Put up signs around social distancing.

Create a policy on social distancing, handwashing, use of communal areas, how meetings will be held etc. Provide training regarding the newly set out workplace and how you see it working. Give employees the opportunity to suggest ideas to improve or maintain safety in relation to the virus. It is important to reassure your workers to avoid issues with returning to the workplace.

• Communicating with employees

If you are bringing workers back to work whilst also making some redundant you need to manage both simultaneously. Leaving employees wondering about what is happening will probably cause trust issues and could damage the relationship you have with your team.

For those who you are not planning to bring back from furlough at present, continue to communicate with them regularly.

Why not survey your team before bringing them back to work?  You can then find out what challenges they face in doing so and try to solve them if you can.

Poor communication can hinder business recovery.  Communicating regularly is a must to aid the business in getting back up and running both with those working at home, those coming back to work and those still furloughed.

• Supporting mental health

Perhaps consider offering some managing mental wellbeing courses online.  Many people have suffered with their mental health whilst in lockdown and there are numerous ways to help.  This may assist in getting your employees back into the workplace particularly those who are anxious about doing so.

• Continuing to use the furlough scheme

The Government’s Job Retention Scheme will be continuing until 31 October 2020, however, the contribution you as an employer will have to make will increase over the next few months. From the 1 July you can bring back your staff part time with the rest of their pay being furlough pay.  From 1 August you will have to pay the national insurance and employer’s pension contributions for your furloughed employees. 

Currently, the Government is paying 80% of salary under the furlough scheme but from 1 September this will drop to 70% and from 1 October to 60%.  Employers will have to make up the difference to 80% of salary.

From 1 November you have to consider whether you are bringing back your furloughed employees or if you are in a redundancy situation.  If you are still employing your staff in January 2021 then from February 2021 you can claim a £1,000 job retention bonus from the government (if your employees’ average pay is £520 per month+). More details on this scheme and how to claim will be released in September 2020.

• Managing leave on return from furlough

Employees continue to accrue holiday whilst they are furloughed.  You can require your employees to take their holiday if necessary.  This will avoid them returning to work with a number of weeks holiday still to take which could affect your business recovery.  You must give your employees double the length notice for the amount of holiday you are asking them to take. It is best to engage with your employees if you are going to require them to take leave to explain why you feel it is necessary.

Employees can request holiday as normal during furlough using the notice period outlined in their contract of employment. Contractual holiday pay should be paid when your employees are taking their annual leave.

There is new legislation to ensure that employees do not lose leave going into a new holiday year where it can be shown that they were unable to take it due to coronavirus. However, employers need to do everything possible to ensure staff take as much leave as possible during the normal holiday year even if the business has increased workload due to coronavirus. Employees have two years in which to take holiday carried over due to the pandemic and it cannot be replaced with pay in lieu (unless the employee leaves your employment).

• Return to the workplace

When asking your employees to return to work place consider the following; is it essential? Is it safe? Is it mutually agreed?

If your employees can realistically continue to work at home then can you give them the option?  Do they want to continue working at home? Could they work some days at your premises and some at home?

You have a duty of care to ensure your employees’ safety so you must manage the risks. Gradual return of employees may help you test the safety measures you have put in place.  In turn this will encourage others to return if they hear that safety in the workplace is well managed.

Ensure any dialogue you have with your team is clear and that you allow people to raise concerns they may have about returning to the workplace. Take into account their needs and concerns. You may need to be flexible in managing some of these issues such allowing a start time outside of rush hour to avoid busy public transport for example.

Some employees will be afraid of returning to the workplace and you should take time to listen to what is worrying them. If an employee ultimately refuses to return to work even if you try to arrange different hours or partial working from home and you try to reassure them about your safety measures then , with your agreement, they can take holiday or unpaid leave. Ultimately you can consider disciplinary action if you are sure that you have all the facts but you could consider extending furlough if you feel the employee has reasonable grounds for refusing to return to work.