How to make employees feel safe returning to work

Mark McCrindle and Ashley Fell have research-based advice for business owners looking to ensure their employees feel safe when returning to work.

Work plays an important role in the lives of human beings and is intrinsically linked to our wellbeing. Wellbeing is about more than positive physical and mental health, in its holistic definition wellbeing is about our ability as humans to flourish. Yet it is also the right of all workers to feel safe at work, and due to COVID-19, it has never been more important for workers to feel that the workplace is looking out for their health and wellbeing.

As many leaders begin to consider what work will look like in a post COVID-19 era, here are some ways business owners can ensure employees feel safe when returning to work.

Ensure workplace practices prioritise the health of employees

Thinking about their own lives after the COVID-19 pandemic, 47 percent of New Zealanders expect they will take better care of their health.

As many still feel uncertain about COVID-19, whether that be social distancing, increased hygiene measures and leaders who act and make work and workplace practises safe.

Today people see less differentiating between work-life and out-of-work-life, or one’s job and one’s personal values. In response, leaders who can regularly communicate the organisation’s purpose will help people to feel motivated and inspired to do their best work.

Be clear with communication

Leaders that regularly communicate with their people, are intentional about checking in and looking for opportunities to collaborate in new and more safe ways – which will help to overcome some of the challenges of people feeling unsafe as they return to work.

Much of what we had pre-COVID, we will never see again. We are not moving to the next but the new. It is not a continuation of how things were, but the start of a whole new reality. For leaders, the future is not an inevitable destination, but something they are shaping and to which they will take their team. Communication is an essential ingredient in creating a safe workplace.

Build a culture of prioritising wellbeing

Significant events often cause people to reflect and reassess what they value in life. Prior to COVID-19 being declared a pandemic, New Zealanders were most likely to value freedom (53%), travel (41%), health (40%), relationships (39%) and choice (30%). Since then, the value placed on health and wellbeing increased from 40% to 54%, to become the area that New Zealanders now value most. Other values which have also increased include kindness (by 14%), time for reflection (by 14%), relationships (by 10%) and spirituality/faith (by 5%). This greater focus on wellbeing is transferring to expectations of the workplace.

As work and life became increasingly integrated during the COVID-19 lockdown, it showed many New Zealanders that work and life are ideally not in competition, but that our ‘at work’ life and our ‘away from work’ life are both key to our contributions, relationships and fulfilment.

While COVID-19 posed many challenges, it also provided a unique opportunity to recalibrate a focus on wellbeing. Leaders who can take this focus on wellbeing and build it into the culture of their organisation will make a positive impact on their team.

While there have been many challenges from COVID-19, it has also provided business leaders with an opportunity to not just return to the old but to reimagine the possibilities for a more sustainable future. A future where a slower pace of life, greater work/life integration, time savings and a focus on balancing the competing priorities of our health and wellbeing is championed across workplaces nationally.

Mark McCrindle, along with Ashley Fell (pictured), is the author of “Work Wellbeing: Leading thriving teams in rapidly changing times” (Rockpool Publishing $29.99), available at all good bookstores and online at www.workwellbeing.com.au. Mark is a sought-after speaker, social researcher and the principal at McCrindle, which helps leading organisations gain a clearer picture on workplace wellbeing.