Communications Blueprint for Returning to the Office: Step by Step

Countries around the world are working toward successfully suppressing COVID-19, and after a year-and-a-half-long battle, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Many organizations in parts of the world are starting to bring their staff back into the office and restoring their lively in-person culture. Is your company working on a return-to-office plan? Are you considering a hybrid return-to-office strategy for the interim, and working your way back to full return-to-office over the next several months?

As you develop your return-to-office strategy, it's crucial to consider how you'll communicate the upcoming changes. Employee Experience Platforms (EXPs) can be invaluable for this purpose.

In this blog, we'll show you how these platforms can be used to communicate office re-openings, convey essential health and safety information for both physical and mental well-being, and collect employee feedback to address concerns about returning to work.

Read on for step-by-step guidance on establishing an effective communications plan for in-office or hybrid working in your organization.

In this blog you will find: 

🌐 Step 1: Create Space For Your Team

📢 Step 2: Communicate Information in a Clear and Concise Manner

📌 Step 3: Share Key Information

💬 Step 4: Understand That Effective Communication Is Give and Take!

📅 Step 5: Plan and Create a Return-to-Work Schedule

✍️ Conclusion

Step 1: Create Space For Your Team

Planning your return-to-office communications is a major task that requires the support of various functional departments in your organization. The first step is to gather the right team for the job and create a safe, central space where they can collaborate and understand each other.

Form a core team responsible for creating and reviewing communications, and include other stakeholders who will be involved. This might include executives who will use your chosen Employee Experience Platform (EXP) to share updates, or individuals participating in real-time video events such as “Ask the CEO” or live Q&A sessions.

Step 2: Communicate Information in a Clear and Concise Manner

Your return-to-office communications plan must be conveyed clearly and concisely. To ensure that your most valuable assets—your people! — are safe and fully informed as they return to the office, use Employee Experience Platforms (EXPs) features like groups, live streaming, and other easily accessible tools. Make sure your message is prominent and that everyone in your organization knows where and how to find the information they need.

To develop your message, first write the key points in an easy-to-understand way. Your messaging should cover the basics of your return-to-office plan: content, timeframe, people, and methods.

During this step, it’s important to anchor your message to why! Outline the importance of getting back to work personally and provide a compelling vision for the future to motivate your employees.

Obtaining the correct language can be difficult, especially when multiple people are sharing information on behalf of your organization. Here are some useful tips:  

• Be clear and direct: Communicate in an easy-to-understand manner and avoid the use of acronyms and difficult-to-understand terms.

• Be considerate: The pandemic has been difficult for all of us, but it has hit harder for some than others. We must recognize the resilience and adaptability that people show in the face of these challenges and ensure that we’re considering both the physical and mental health and safety of our employees in our return-to-office policies and procedures.

• Prepare for the unknown: Make sure that the language you use allows room for unplanned changes.

Step 3: Share Key Information

As mentioned, it's important to set up channels for sharing useful updates and resources with employees. This type of information sharing can be effectively managed through Employee Experience Platforms (EXPs) features such as groups and content repositories. By using these tools together, you can centralize all return-to-office content, including announcements, policies, health and safety measures, and safety alerts.

• Streamline Static Resources In Your EXP's Content Repository: Create a centralized repository for return-to-office resources in your content repository. If policies vary by office location, set up distinct categories and subcategories for each site, covering specific topics such as:
  

👉 Health and safety measures.

👉  Return to office phases.

👉  Updated services, such as a new kitchen usage policy, cafeteria considerations, or help desk support.

Step 4: Understand That Effective Communication Is Give and Take!

It is important that employees understand your plan to return to the office, but it is also important to show them that you are listening and that you take their concerns and opinions seriously.  

Employee participation surveys are an easy way to collect simple feedback and encourage employee participation. You can use it to prepare a live video event theme and quickly measure how your employees feel about their plans to return to the office.

Your organization can also host a live video Q&A session with return-to-office planning team members and leadership to address employee questions in a safe, open and transparent forum. Employees can listen in real time and get answers to their questions. Plus, anyone who misses the broadcast can catch up at any time when the footage is posted to the group.

Step 5: Plan and Create a Return-To-Work Schedule

Now that you know how to approach return-to-office communications, it's time to enhance communications and summarize your plans.

Your Internal communications plan should include:

• Return to office summary.
• Goals and objectives.
• Communication tactics and tools (i.e., Live Video, Safety Center, Group Posts, etc.).
• Metrics to measure engagement and success.

Your plan should also include a content calendar and simple tables and spreadsheets summarizing each communication phase, including person, channel, sender/poster, subject and date. 

Conclusion

Returning to the office post-COVID-19 requires careful planning, communication, and consideration for the well-being of all employees. As companies navigate this transition, leveraging an Employee Experience Platform (EXP) can be instrumental in streamlining communication and ensuring a smooth reintegration.

It's more than just sharing updates; it's about fostering a culture of transparency, empathy, and adaptability. Whether you're on the brink of unveiling your return-to-office plan or are in the midst of it, we hope this guide equips you with actionable insights for a successful transition.