As many organisations plan for the resumption of office working, with staff returning to the workplace on a full-time or hybrid basis, we highlight some of the key areas to consider from an HR and employment law perspective. Please get in touch should you want to discuss any of these issues in further detail.
| Issue | Questions to consider |
| Vaccination status and a partially vaccinated workforce | Will you make disclosure of vaccination status voluntary, mandatory, or neither? Are you prepared for difficult scenarios e.g. if an employee who is medically vulnerable refuses to work with or be close to colleagues whose status is unknown or who are not double vaccinated? |
| Employment contracts | Have you updated or varied them to reflect hybrid or other new working patterns? |
| Employee handbooks | Are your policies up to date and suitable for your new working arrangements e.g. covering confidentiality away from the office/main workplace? |
| Hybrid working | Is your policy ready for implementation? How will you deal with staff who want to work in a way that is outside of the policy? Have you checked whether you need to notify third parties of changes to normal workplaces e.g. under the terms of insurance policies, IT licences or work visas? |
| Monitoring the impact of new working patterns | How will you measure if the transition to permanent new working patterns is having a positive or negative effect on things such as employee engagement, integration or productivity? |
| Data protection | Are your processes and documents up to date to reflect hybrid and remote working, or to cover any changes in employee monitoring? |
| Health and safety | Will you be scaling back your Covid-19 safety measures? How will you deal with issues such as the voluntary wearing of face coverings at work? |
| Wellbeing | Do you have effective measures in place to support employees and are they equally accessible to all? |
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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
