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The COVID-19 outbreak has hit everyone across the world pretty hard. The majority of businesses had to halt their operations due to the pandemic, which resulted in significant losses. Now, 2020 is almost over and things are starting to normalize once again.
However, the risks of transmitting the virus are still high and businesses must resume operations to avoid failing altogether. Many companies have pondered about how to continue working while reducing the risk of infection among employees.
One of the best solutions turned out to be remote work and the so-called “working bubbles” for those who couldn’t work remotely.
In other words, companies should form small teams so if someone gets infected, you can send a small group into isolation instead of the entire workforce. This is particularly important in industries like law where you cannot afford to have members of your team away from work for long periods of time. Be that as it may, managing such schedules and procedures can be quite chaotic. However, during a time when remote work has become the norm, software has become very useful for allocating work, managing teams, resource allocation, and so on. Accordingly, if you would like to learn more about allocating work this resource allocation definition and some of the other resources on the viGlobal website are well worth exploring. With all of that in mind, here’s how to stay on top of your employee schedules during the pandemic.
Divide employees into shifts
The usual standard where everyone works from 9 to 5 is no longer viable, unfortunately. Having a lot of people in the same space at the same time is just too risky these days. What you can do is divide your workforce into two or more shifts based on your organizational needs. You can even use rostering software so that the shift allocating part, time tracking, or even other tasks can be done within minutes.
Two or even three shifts could potentially save your employees from getting infected by the virus. Meanwhile, it will ensure that if someone does get infected, you’ll still have employees to continue working, while the other group is in isolation.
You’ll have to create cross-functional groups where each group contains at least a few members of each department. That way, you won’t have to halt specific business operations if an entire department has to go into isolation.
Of course, your teams won’t be able to handle the entire workload so make sure you don’t overwork your employees. This is why multiple shifts can help you out and you can even have remote teams jumping in between shifts so that work continues on without interruptions.
Manage your employee schedules
Once you divide your workforce into shifts and remote teams, you’ll have to keep an eye on their schedules. Working with multiple smaller groups is more difficult than managing an entire workforce at once. In this case, you have to rotate groups regularly.
For example, the group that worked last week at the office should work remotely this week. That way, you can ensure that your employees avoid too much contact so that you can minimize the risk of infection.
You have to have your employees’ welfare in mind if you want to remain operational and ensure the safety of your workforce. The right combination of remote work and working at the office will help you create a COVID-safe environment for your employees.
Use technology to your advantage
To help you rotate groups more efficiently and ensure that no group gets overworked or understaffed, you can use employee scheduling tools. Manually scheduling employee shifts and keeping track of all the changes is not only time consuming, but also poses a higher risk of making mistakes.
Some of these tools can even help you with employee engagement by allowing your employees to easily communicate through centralized platforms, bid for additional shifts, lodge their availability and leave, and provide feedback at the end of every shift.
Keeping your employees engaged during the pandemic can be challenging, but technology can help you keep them connected and motivated, wherever they are.
Communicate with your employees
The key to staying at the top of the employee schedule during the pandemic is communication. You must consider employee needs when creating new schedules and you must include them before you make the decision.
For example, some of your employees may have a family member who is in the high-risk group, such as an elderly person or someone with a chronic illness like diabetes. These employees might want to take time off from work or work remotely to avoid getting infected, as well as avoid infecting family members.
In that case, you might consider placing them to work remotely indefinitely, which means you’ll exclude them from any roster rotations.
Such factors can greatly impact your decision-making process so it’s of vital importance to gather all the necessary information about employees before you start making new schedules. If you don’t consider employee needs in such trying times, you might face a high turnover rate because no one wants to work in an environment that’s filled with uncertainty.
Consider more flexible work hours
This is another disruptive method that will force you to manage employee schedules but will also reduce the risk of infection at the same time. Introducing more flexible work hours will allow your employees, especially the ones who commute to work, to avoid unnecessary risks, such as traveling to work when traffic is at its peak.
Moreover, this can help you avoid bottlenecks where one shift leaves while the other comes in and they are all in contact at the same place and at the same time. In addition, flexible work hours means there will be fewer employees at the office at given periods, which allows you to clean and disinfect the office and equipment seamlessly. A bit of flexibility may be more difficult to manage at first but it will help you keep your employees safe from infection.
Managing employees’ schedules during the pandemic is a daunting task. You have to have everyone’s safety and health in mind while ensuring your business doesn’t suffer any more losses. Fortunately, with a bit of effort and effective planning, remaining at the top of employee schedules even in the times of a pandemic can become seamless.