Returning to work after two months of working from home could be overwhelming. Nevertheless having to work everyday during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to keep life going. Today we share with you our strict protective measures to manage and maintain a safe return to work.
As well as everyone else, we started at the 31st of May 2020, it was challenging to take the step, but now every day is a challenge in light of the Corona pandemic and we have to deal with it. The necessity of continuing to work with greater productivity in order to avoid more economic repercussions is one thing, but the one explicit challenge is ensuring the safety and security of our employees.
“I discussed the decision to return to work with the directors of departments and our main concern was the security, safety, health and welfare of the employees and their families, and we did not support this decision until after we have taken all necessary measures and processes to achieve this.”
Nader Al-Batrawi, founder and CEO of Jobzella.
So what decisions did Jobzela rely on to ensure a safe return of staff under the Covid-19 pandemic?
In Jobzella, we adopted an essential and intuitive stage in risk assessment. The risk assessment stage is related to defining reasonable measures to control risks in the workplace. This helped us determine whether we took all measures needed.
This is a 4-step process that we adopted at the risk assessment stage.
- We transparently shared the results of the risk assessment with our company employees through each division manager and his team.
- We revitalized and activated the hygiene procedures that we adopted before the decision to work from home, which was stipulated by the World Health Organization.
- Continued to support employees working from home morally and technologically.
- Reviewed the workspaces and their ideal distribution to ensure the best possible form of social separation.
Jobzella’s strategy to a safe return to work
A protocol was arranged consisting of four components, as follows:
- Preparation
- Reporting
- Prohibition
- Recovery
Preparation
At this stage, it was announced among the directors of the departments about the intention to return to work from the office, on their turn they started to work on a plan for a safe return, as follows:
- Discussing and finalizing the terms of the return-to-work program.
- Prioritization of work in the next stage in the various departments.
- Examining the company’s daily cleansing and disinfection program for offices and workspaces.
- Office reorganization plan to maintain social distance.
- Arranging travel procedures and limiting them to severe and necessary cases only.
After agreeing to these terms, the company’s employees ’situation was discussed, examining who could work from home and who could work from the office, and it was agreed according to every employee’s social and health conditions, taking into account the distance between the office and the home.
The priority of work from home has been granted to expatriates, pregnant women and those with children and residents of areas far from the company’s headquarters who had to use more than one means of transportation were also exempted from returing to work.
Reporting
Through collective communication with the employees and informing them of the plan of return and the intention to work from the office, and in complete transparency they have been reconciled with what was agreed upon for a safe return including the following:
- Cleaning arrangements for the headquarters and the workspaces inside it
- Arrangements and procedures for arriving and leaving the workplace
- Emphasis on following the government’s advice on the use of public transport
- Seating arrangements and provision of social spacing between employees
- Health and hygiene requirements in the workplace
- Eating, drinking and using refrigerators for personal food
- Maintaining enhanced health and ultimately hygiene awareness, they are effective in keeping people healthy and safe
“I was very pleased with the decision to keep me working from home in the interest of my health and my family, as I live in the city of Damanhur and I have two daughters and a wife, and this decision protects me from movement and exposure to risks in the shadow of the Corona pandemic,”
Ahmed Al Malla, graphic designer in Jobzella.
Prohibition
The agreed procedures require a series of barriers that must be stressed and we agreed at Jobzella that they are as follows:
- It is prohibited to enter the company without wearing a protective mask.
- Meetings of more than 3 people are prohibited, and wearing a mask is emphasized inside.
- No movement between the corridors of the company outside your office without wearing a mask.
- It is prohibited to attend to the company for whomever feels the symptoms of the disease, even if it looks like the symptoms of a normal cold.
- Group breakfast activities or group lunch are prohibited.
Recovery
One of returning to work from the office’s goals is to restore business recovery and compensate some of the economic losses of the Covid-19 pandemic. At this stage, we agreed to encourage and strengthen the working team in each department to restore confidence in its capabilities and in what its productivity can achieve.
Motivation is necessary and important as well as comprehensive review and continuous follow-up of all agreed procedures.
We agreed at this stage to update our business continuity plan according to new matters related to the outbreak of the Corona pandemic and to monitor the smoothness of its application with the staff.
Finally, we agreed to review what we learned from the time people worked from home, search for the positive traits that need to be obtained, we believe that the closure has reconnected everyone with their families and given people time to consider what is important to them, so it may be time to consider how the teams work differently now!
Did you like this case study? Tell us more about your company’s adaption of having to return to work in light of COVID-19. Share your thoughts, suggestions, and comments with us!