As many businesses across the US work to reopen, many employers have begun calling employees back into the workplace. With many states now at a stage of reopening where reduced capacity at nearly all businesses is permitted, employers are left with the task of resuming business without compromising the health of employees.

While a company may not be ready to commit to completely transitioning to remote business, it is still wise to keep the number of people in the workplace to a minimum on any given day. Some companies are attempting to stagger attendance by having some employees come into the office on certain days while the remainder work from home. It will be necessary to keep the practice of telecommuting alive as a means for easing employees back into the office before there is a vaccine for COVID-19.

De-Densify the workplace… whatever that means for you!
In its initial opening requirements entitled Opening Up America Again, the White House included the need to continue to offer and encourage telecommuting in two of the 3 outlined phases for employers. While the White House’s phases don’t directly say it, the main motive behind promoting telecommuting is to de-densify the workspace. States have been hesitant to lift social distancing requirements regardless of the stage in which they currently find themselves in the reopening process and companies are each going about maintaining space between workers in their own way. Continuing remote working procedures for the majority of employees has been the most popular way that employers are keeping the number of people in the office down. While many companies had issues in the early stages of the pandemic, many have found telecommuting to now be beneficial to their bottom line. According to an NBC news article, they predicted a typical business would save on average around $11,000 per year if they allowed workers to work from home even just half of the week. This number increases with company size but the reduction in overhead alone is enough to see a substantial reduction in costs.

Feasibility of Reopening
With so many things still up in the air, reopening the workplace might not be in the best interest of some companies. In order to safely resume business, some companies are toying with the idea of mandatory COVID-19 testing. While such a practice would in fact be legal under the American’s with Disabilities Act, it is very invasive and ultimately costly. The only solution until there is a COVID-19 vaccine is to maintain space between employees at all times. De-Densifying the workplace is currently the best option, however employers are all taking different approaches to de-densify.

Extending Telecommuting 
The main motive behind promoting telecommuting is to de-densify the workspace. States have been hesitant to lift social distancing requirements regardless of where they are in the reopening process. Continuing remote working procedures for the majority of employees has been the most popular way that employers are keeping the number of people in the office down. While many companies had issues in the early stages of the pandemic, many have found telecommuting to now be beneficial to their bottom line. According to a Fundera article, Employers offering at least part-time telecommuting flexibility collectively save $44 billion each year. Google has even decided to let their employees work from home until June 2021.

Who Comes In? 
While a company may not be ready to commit to completely transitioning to remote business, it is still wise to keep the number of people in the workplace to a minimum on any given day. Some companies are attempting to stagger attendance, with some employees coming in on Monday/Wednesday and others on Tuesday/Thursday while allowing all employees to work from home on Fridays.. How employers decide which employees are permitted to enter the office has greatly varied, with some choosing to allow only entry level employees who need to receive training to come in while more senior employees are asked to remain home. However, it is far more prevalent to see higher ranking employees being invited back in first.

The PharmaOut team remains committed to doing our part to fight COVID-19 and help keep our families safe. Our team of expert recruiters and consultants have years of experience to assist our clients in successfully continuing their business with our staffing, consulting, HR and investigator meeting services. Please contact us if you would like to discuss how PharmaOut can be your strategic partner.

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