What’s your exit strategy – Part 2…..getting back to work, including furlough scheme update and ‘covid safe’ working guidelines.

Do you want to reverse the sign?

In my last article (What’s your exit strategy – Part 1) I talked about maximising the ‘furlough’ scheme to conserve your cash flow and get your business back to recovery or in some cases, reopening. 

If you are anticipating that you will not need as many people for the future as you have had in the past, you need to read Part 1 quickly!

In this Part 2, I’m going to cover some of the return to work issues that might be faced as we embrace what is becoming known as ‘The New Normal’.

I write in week beginning 10th May, as we hear a steady stream of Government announcements encouraging us to get back to work, except where the work can be done at home. An attempt to modify the very successful ‘Stay at Home’ message that had previously prevailed and led to much misunderstanding about whether we were supposed to go to work at all.

This message coupled with the generous ‘furlough’ scheme hastened the closure of many businesses that could have stayed open (for the avoidance of doubt, that is a personal opinion!).

Businesses such as the window company that has installed my new windows and has not returned to finish off because they closed following Government guidelines, despite the fact that the remaining work only required one person!

That is probably a bit harsh. I do accept that for many businesses, it was a case of just not knowing how to operate and ensure social distancing, and particularly in the construction sector, the messages were confusing.

Employers may now find themselves reopening and/or reengaging with employees who have been furloughed. There are immediate issues to be faced, as well as longer term changes in the workplace that we will need to embrace.

Here are six key short term issues that need addressing:-

1.      Getting your workplace ‘covid safe’. Here’s the 5 step test. Could you display this poster in your workplace?

These are the standards outlined in this week’s very comprehensive Government guidance – ‘Working safely during coronavirus’.

Lots of great ideas in this guidance which is set out by type of workplace (including outdoors, factories, offices, homes, shops, labs, restaurants offering takeaways and vehicles).

Quite frankly, I don’t think you can keep your business open without having read your section of this guidance, and at least carrying out a risk assessment (see the HSE website for general help on how to do this) which if you have 5 or more employees, you should document.

You may also find this checklist, written before the publication of the Government guidelines from Ligtas useful.

2.      Communicating with returners. I have frequently emphasised the need to communicate regularly with all staff (whether furloughed or not) during this crisis, and what a great way of reassuring people it would be to demonstrate how you are fulfilling the standards in the poster above. After all, employers have a duty to consult employees about the health and safety implications of change in the workplace, and many are facing the most fundamental changes they have ever experienced.

3.      Most people will be desperate to get back to work, but I was struck last week by the number of questions on a webinar that I was presenting, about the ‘reluctant returners’.

There will be some of these, and for various reasons. 

a.      There will be the ‘malingerers’ (but perhaps not as many as the Daily Mail thinks there will be) who will be just looking for excuses not to return, but many will be the genuinely anxious for one reason or another.

b.      Some will be anxious about having to travel on public transport – you can help with this by staggering start times so that people can travel at less busy times – it also avoids a rush of people coming through the front door at the same time.

c.      Others may be ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ (those that have had a letter from the NHS and referred to as ‘shielding’). They have been strongly advised by the NHS to stay at home and will qualify for SSP (if they cannot work from home), but not necessarily for Company sick pay. 

They, may be disabled giving rise to discrimination as well as health and safety claims (those that live with them may also have a discrimination claim). Certainly, care should be taken with any ‘blanket’ return to work policy.

d.      Many will have child or elderly care challenges, and after repeated questions to politicians, there is still only a vein hope from them that employers will understand. Tolerance of this might be limited, although with the recently announced extension of the ‘furlough’ scheme, the tough questions will probably not be addressed until September when schools go back.

Ultimately the tolerance of employers may be stretched in difficult times, and people may be dismissed for not being willing and able to work. Even the normally employee centred ACAS says that ‘If an employee refuses to attend work without a valid reason, it could result in disciplinary action’.

Dialogue (which is the main emphasis in the Governments' advice to employees) will be important in all these situations, even though ultimately it needs to be recognised that if an individual is not presenting for work as required, then it can lead to the termination of their employment - an emphasis which the Government avoid for obvious reasons, preferring to emphasise 'pragmatic agreement'.

You’ll need professional advice, because it will be very difficult to guarantee that any termination (with the possible exception of redundancy) in the current circumstances, where furlough exists as an alternative, will be risk free! 

It's also worth noting that the BIS is rumoured to be considering the possibility of introducing legislation to further protect the rights of workers who feel it is unsafe to return to work.

4.      Changing terms. You may be in a position that you need people back, but key terms of their contract may have to change – the most likely being their salary. You should try and do this by agreement, so get on with this well before they return. If salaries are going to stay at 80%, say so as soon as you can. You may have already got agreement to this.

However, if salary reductions were time bound for the furlough period, you’ll have to get agreement again, or look at the possibility of enforcing changes if agreement is not forthcoming. A step by step process for this is discussed in a previous #coronavirus update.

5.      Gradual returns. Currently the ‘furlough’ scheme allows you the flexibility to call employees back from furlough and then return them at a later point. It’s not all or nothing, so some can come back whilst others stay on.

We now know that we have the scheme in its current form until the end of July, and thereafter with some varied terms. These varied terms will include provisions for part time returners for ‘current’ users of the scheme, employer contributions to wages, and The Times predicted (but as yet unconfirmed) that there may even be a relaxation of the minimum period for furloughing of three weeks.

6.      Home working. Surprise surprise, the issue that everyone is talking about.

Home working has often been treated rather suspiciously by many employers, convinced that most roles cannot be done from home and that productivity declines because of other distractions.

Coronavirus has largely dispelled these myth, with many employers predicting that they will never need so much office space again.

Many employers will be returning to more of a ‘mixed economy’ when it comes to home and office based working, and I have previously covered some of these issues in https://bit.ly/tips4homeworking.

The Government may shortly be introducing 'right to work at home' legislation (as already exists in Germany), persuant to a 2019 manifesto pledge to make flexible working the norm.

I’ll be returning to home working (particular the approaches to managing home based staff) and other workplace trends in Part 3 of this series when I deal with some of the longer term implications.

Ken Allison | 20th May 2020 | Paradigm Partners | www.paradigmpartners.co.uk

Ken Allison is an engaging trainer and speaker who manages to make his topics, highly interactive, challenging, entertaining, and above all, relevant to the 21st Century executive. Ken uses his understanding of managing businesses to show managers what they ‘can do’ rather than what they ‘cannot do’.

Ken specialises in taking the strain out of employment law related people issues through training workshops for managers, and his firm’s ‘ExecutiveHR’ service, providing telephone based support services to businesses throughout the UK.

Nothing in this article should be relied on as a substitute for taking professional advice about your particular situation.