Amid the ongoing pandemic, the changing role of the HR professional and tips for managing workforce safety, security, and duty of care responsibilities have assumed a renewed significance.
COVID-19 has accelerated change, disrupting the way we work, live, and behave. As a result, HR professionals are evolving in their role to meet the growing and changing needs of their employees. According to the 2020 Return-to-Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic StudOpens a new window y, 87% of employers reported that employee health and safety risks are the top concern when it comes to bringing their employees back to the workplace amid the global pandemic. With this new lens on safety, as Forrester predictsOpens a new window , there will be a drastic change in the role of HR managers. These include new challenges around on-premise security as they take on a key role in office reopening strategies. Additionally, there is a new “duty of care†that HR leaders, security, facilities professionals, and other business leaders need to uphold to keep all employees safe and maintain their mental well-being.
What is HR’s ‘Duty of Care’?
There is a responsibility for organizations to uphold their “duty of care,†which isOpens a new window the legal obligation to take all steps which are reasonably possible to ensure employees health, safety, and wellbeing. If businesses do not protect their staff and visitors, they can leave themselves open to a health crisis, among other risks.
The post-pandemic workplace has put HR leaders in a unique position when it comes to duty of care. Although duty of care has long been a shared organizational responsibility across departments, prior to the pandemic, it was often siloed within specific departments or not prioritized. Now, duty of care will be a shared responsibility. Meeting these requirements will be a collaborative effort spanning departments to ensure employee wellnessOpens a new window and safety programs are aligned and properly executed.
Best Practices for Re-Opening Safely and Effectively
1. Put precautions in place now to prepare for the future
Any type of business disruption can be costly and significantly affect a company’s bottom line. Unfortunately, many organizations are just focused on getting back to work. Meanwhile, one slip could affect employee retention and impact the company’s reputation, specifically for those observing how soon companies chose to bring people back to the office.
In the 2020 Return-to-Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic Study, business leaders report they expect to have 51% or more of their employees back in the physical workplace by January 2021. In addition, over half (56.4%) of HR managers felt moderately confident or not confident about bringing employees back to the workforce amid COVID-19. The research also found that nearly a third of employees say they would explore new employment opportunities or resign if their employer failed to create a safe in-office work environment amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and over half (66.3%) of employees would address these concerns with management. If someone with COVID enters the workplace, it could potentially trigger a mass shutdown. This means a risk to employee health, decreased trust in the company, and a hit to business revenue and reputation.
One hundred percent of HR leaders said controlling the total number of staff returning to work on a given day and limiting staff to specific shifts/time were precautions that would make employers feel more confident about bringing employees back to their workplace. Screening daily for COVID-19 symptoms for employees before they arrive onsite at a workplace location (50%) and frequent/routine COVID-19 testing for all employees and having an emergency communications plan in place for quick outbreak responses (50%) were also among HR leaders’ top precautions.
Learn More: The Return to Work: Which Employees Should You Bring Back to the Office?
2. Implement technology to ensure safety and meet compliance requirements
Bringing people safely and securely back into the workplace is not a ‘point solution’ problem. It is an opportunity to establish enterprise solutions across an entire ecosystem to address complex challenges in a connected way. The right technologies can help HR professionals assure employees and visitors that their health and wellness are a priority. These include employee check-in and check out systems, invitation and scheduling tools, and security access control systems:
Employee safety solutions
Employee safety solutions, like check-in and check-out systems, enable businesses to manage health screenings and attestations, validate identity and enforce data collection, monitor and manage site access, and receive real-time actionable information for contact tracing if necessary. They also are useful in analyzing and communicating the effectiveness of the reopening processes. This further enables businesses to meet the new regulatory requirements and fulfill the duty of care responsibilities.
Invitation/Scheduling tools
Invitation and scheduling tools can help businesses implement a more granular approach to site access and capacity planning. Whether they prefer to actively manage the onsite invitation process or assert strict scheduling controls over the time and location of employee access, these tools can help streamline the process, monitor each person’s access, and give teams the ability to automatically withhold entry for unacceptable or incomplete responses during a screening or health attestation process. Organizations can also use these tools to preset limits for the total number of employees onsite to enforce social distancing protocols.
Security access control systems
Security access control systems such as door lock keypads or other security systems required upon entry are also an important tool. Only those with approved clearance should be able to access specific rooms and buildings on company property. Security access control systems can integrate with employee and visitor management systems. Together, the technologies can provide businesses with a centralized system of record covering all visitors, employees, and contractors who enter and exit a facility at any given time.
Learn More: Privacy as a Benefit: Why You Need to Implement It Now
3. Have an emergency communications plan in place
Whether it is general workplace protocols or ones specific for a virus like COVID-19, it is important to have an emergency communications plan in place and be able to execute it effectively. All employees need to be able to know exactly what is going on in a crisis situation, and what they need to be doing to keep themselves secure in the workplace –– even if they are working from home. The back-to-work process should prioritize making sure employees are safe and feeling good, and seeing to it that the right duty of care is in place.
HR leaders also have a responsibility to make sure employees have access to the right tools and information. Resources, FAQs and health guidelines need to be easy to access, readily available, and up-to-date. Extra training sessions and additional team meetings can also be beneficial.
Overall, navigating the reopening process during COVID-19 presents complex decisions and challenges for enterprise leaders. The increased emphasis on duty of care means it is no longer optional for HR professionals to take on these responsibilities. As employers and HR teams execute on plans for bringing employees back to the physical workplace, they should look to create a safe environment that mitigates legal and compliance risk. At the same time, HR managers should ensure that the return to the physical workplace does not add undue burden to the employee.
Technologies used for shift management, employee-safe back-to-work solutions, access control, and emergency communications can help streamline and enable plans for getting people back into workplaces while enforcing workplace bubbles and assuring employees that their health and wellbeing are a top priority. Such technologies would actually enable HR professionals to succeed in their roles while meeting duty of care responsibilities.