With the announcement, yesterday that the lockdown may be easing we thought it would be useful to give you a few points to consider for a return or staged return to the workplace and offer you a free ‘Back To Work Consultation’ by the HR team at TC Group.
The key points you should be considering as you plan your return to the workplace are;
- Workplace assessment – can you maintain a 2m physical distance between employees?
- Limit any hot desk arrangements and sharing of stationery and equipment;
- Look at how you will manage meetings / other interactions ie communal areas;
- Consider a deep clean if you have been closed;
- Daily sanitisation of phones, computers, desks and door handles with an anti-viral cleaner;
- Consider staggering working hours so employees are not all in at the same time;
- Ensure there are adequate handwashing facilities and provide hand sanitiser at regular stations;
- Decide whether you need to provide additional PPE;
- Consider staff concerns re travelling to work on public transport.
You may find you have more requests for flexible working due to employees having children or elderly relatives at home to look after. Consider these carefully and in line with legislation.
At this stage, the furlough scheme is currently available until the end of June, although we are aware the Government are being pushed to consider making it more flexible and to also extend it. As soon as we know more about this we will let you know.
It may be that you need to consider short-time working, layoffs, redundancies or a temporary reduction in hours/salaries for your employees until your business is back up and running fully. Please remember that all of these are variations to contracts and need to be handled correctly.
To arrange your full free ‘Back To Work Consultation’ please contact our head of HR Wendy McGarvey or call 0330 088 7111.
Cyber Scam Warning
A few unfortunate clients have contacted us recently to make us aware that they have been victims of cyber scams. As TC clients we wanted to take this opportunity to remind you to be ultra-vigilant at this time to COVID-19-related fraud and cybercrime.
The Government has released guidance on how to protect yourself and your business from attacks, which they refer to as ‘Stop. Challenge. Protect’.
Full details of the guidance can be found here on the www.gov.uk website.