The number of employees returning to the office may be small right now, but it's vital that business leaders don't overlook them.
Whilst many have enjoyed the benefits of remote working – such as more leisure and family time thanks to no commute – others have struggled with feelings of isolation and a less than optimal home workstation, and so will be eager to be back in the office.
Health and safety will be top priority for those returning to the physical workplace, and your intranet can help you with key aspects of office safety.
Use Holiday Planner to manage office capacity
Depending on how many staff want to return, you may need to stagger start and finish times or create a rota to limit capacity – so keeping track of who’s in or out of the office is essential.
Use your Holiday Planner app to monitor office capacity, where staff are required to “book” time in the office like they would if they were requesting holiday or reporting sickness. Include an approval process so that managers can deny the request if all available desks have been taken.
You can also use the "Who's Out" component to display people’s working location directly on your intranet homepage.
Communicate urgent updates with Announcements 
If there’s a potential Covid-19 case in the office, staff should be notified immediately with advice on the next steps.
Use Announcements to communicate these details to the relevant members of staff. You can restrict intranet access until people have read and accepted the notification, and track who has yet to confirm acknowledgement.
To increase coverage and ensure it reaches everyone, broadcast the announcement via multiple channels, such as email, internal system notification, and intranet pop-up banner.
Share a survey to assess the office environment
Reopening the office after months of closed doors is unknown territory, so getting everything right first time is unlikely!
Use Polls & Surveys to get regular feedback from your staff about which parts of your office reopening were successful, and which areas need improving.
Use the survey data to create an action plan for moving forward, and keep consulting with your staff as health and safety guidelines change.
