01/20/2022

When New COVID Variants Upend Your Return-to-office Plans

The key is to give employees a sense of control

The year 2021 was supposed to be a turning point in the pandemic. As vaccine rates soared, companies across America geared up to head back into the office. Plans to re-open were put into motion and target dates were set. But then, the “hot vax summer” turned into the Delta delay as companies were forced to postpone their returns to in-person work.

Now, we face the ominousness of Omicron, a highly transmissible and vaccine-evasive variant portending more unpredictable months to come. As many companies push back their return-to-office mandates yet again, the back and forth is giving employees whiplash, further threatening company morale.

There’s a surprisingly straightforward way to calm (at least partially) the frazzled nerves wrought by COVID and its many variants. The key is to give employees a sense of control — the feeling that there is order and predictability even in the face of constantly fluctuating plans. To provide that sense of control, leaders need a return-to-office plan that contains clear-cut contingencies and is clearly communicated.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.