How Employers Should Respond to the COVID-19 Delta Variant

The following is an excerpt from my FREE Workplace Intelligence Insider Newsletter. Subscribe now and get the full article delivered straight to your inbox!

For several months I’ve written extensively about what the post-COVID workplace experience would look like, focusing on topics like hybrid work, technology, the new office environment, and more. I know many of us hoped that we were through the worst of the pandemic, but recently things have taken a turn for the worse and it’s clear that this is no longer the case.

Over the past few weeks, there’s been a swift resurgence in new COVID-19 cases, largely due to the highly contagious delta variant. According to the CDC, this variant is now responsible for 83.2% of novel coronavirus infections in the U.S. Right now more than 85,000 new cases are being reported per day, but experts predict?that in August there will be as many as 140,000 to 300,000 cases a day in the U.S.?

Faced with the recent surge, employers are having to rethink their return-to-work plans as well as their existing workplace policies. Although the approach will vary depending on your business, here are some broad ways that you can adapt in response to our current reality:

• Delay reopening your offices — Many large corporations are pushing back their return to the office until later in the fall or early 2022.
• Mandate or incentivize vaccination — Businesses like Google, Twitter, and Facebook will require employees to be vaccinated before coming into the office.
• Encourage frequent testing — Even vaccinated workers can transmit COVID-19, so employers should consider routine testing in workplaces where the risk of transmission is high.
• Reinstitute mask requirements — With the CDC’s recent reversal on its mask-wearing guidance, major retailers like Walmart, Target, and others are again requiring their employees to wear masks.
• Continue to build safety into your workplace — Even if you’re delaying your reopening, you should prepare your offices now to reduce the risk of transmission when workers eventually return.

It could be several months before the delta variant completely burns out, so employers have no choice but to be flexible in the face of such uncertainly. To read the full article and learn more about how you can respond to the COVID-19 delta variant, subscribe to my FREE Workplace Intelligence Insider Newsletter.