It’s very important that before you as a business owner open your doors back up and start having your employees come back to work on a full-time basis, that you go over your attendance policy and employee handbook to make sure that any changes that have occurred during this unforeseen time, has been updated for documentation purposes. Another factor to consider is that a lot has changed in the last 9 months. This means that incorporating flexibility into your workplace may need to be considered accordingly. Allowing for people to work from home a few days a week, change out their schedule a day or two at times, changing hours of operations, can be so beneficial as it reduces attendance concerns that can include disciplinary action and or termination. Remember, not everyone has been able to get back to the norm. Lots of employees have children underage that is still remote learning, daycares are still closed after school programs are on hold. The reliability that parents had prior to the pandemic, isn’t there at the moment. And although your organization is going full speed to start back up, some unfortunately just don’t have this option. So it’s important to make sure you as a business owner are providing flexibility but at the same time, not allowing for your employees to abuse the system. A guideline in place can make all the difference for your organization, by reducing turnovers which in turn, saves you time and money on recruiting and training someone all because you weren’t able to provide that flexibility in the first place.
