With COVID-19 infection rates seeing yet another spike in Connecticut — aided by the highly-contagious delta variant impacting largely unvaccinated residents — some employers may be having second thoughts about their return-to-work policies.
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Labor Day is less than a month away and this year the holiday honoring workers will take on extra meaning.
That’s because many employers, particularly Hartford’s largest companies, have targeted Labor Day as a key date to return more workers to the office.
But with COVID-19 infection rates seeing yet another spike in Connecticut — aided by the highly-contagious delta variant impacting largely unvaccinated residents — some employers may be having second thoughts about their return-to-work policies.
Travelers Cos., for example, announced that it was pushing back its September return-to-the office plan for at least a month.
The reality is the pandemic is not over, but I do think Connecticut, with its high vaccination rate, will be able to keep the delta variant under control, precluding the need for further lockdowns or restrictions on businesses.
A mask mandate is sensible in regions where the virus is spreading at a quicker rate.
Regardless, the decision for how to manage employees in the weeks and months ahead will not be an easy one.
Flexibility will be the key to not only keeping workers safe but also retaining and recruiting top talent.
Two issues in particular will have major implications for how employers are able to keep their best people: vaccine mandates and remote-work policies. I’ve got strong feelings on both.
Vaccine mandates
Most legal experts at this point agree that employers can largely mandate their workers to get vaccinated, allowing certain exemptions for religious or health matters.
In Connecticut, hospitals have taken the lead on this issue, announcing in June they were collectively backing a policy that will require their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Many local colleges are also requiring vaccines before students and faculty return to campus this fall.
I’m of the mindset that employers should strongly recommend vaccines but stop short of mandating them. Work life, however, should be made more challenging for the unvaccinated, maybe requiring them to wear a mask at all times, or not allowing them into the office at all.
As long as the virus continues to circulate, and we haven’t achieved herd immunity, the threat of the disease spreading and mutating remains high.
Employers should play a leading role in encouraging vaccination and educating about vaccine safety, even providing incentives to those who are hesitant or obstinate.
Return to work
In 2016, health insurer Aetna, which had long offered telecommuting to its workers at the time, announced it was curbing its work-from-home policies and requiring more employees to return to its Hartford offices.
The reason? Aetna concluded too many employees working from afar was curbing innovation and collaboration — the lifeblood of any business.
The COVID-19 pandemic taught all of us that remote work is a viable way to operate a company, particularly during a health crisis. But I predict businesses that operate with a fully-remote workforce long term will lose their competitive edge.
Large employers have talked about the added benefits of being able to recruit from a larger talent pool, now that more of their positions are fully remote. That is a positive outcome of the pandemic, but retaining those workers, who will have less personal ties to the company, will be a greater challenge down the road.
Friendships made in the office or even at a happy hour help boost employee morale and make the employee-employer relationship more sticky.
Not to mention, you can’t replicate the unplanned interactions in an office environment over Zoom. Sometimes that’s where the best ideas germinate.
According to a poll conducted by Hartford Business Journal and PwC in May, only 18% of HBJ readers wanted to work from home five days a week — signalling both a willingness and desire for the majority of people to spend some time in the office.
Again, flexibility is the name of the game.
The hybrid work model is one that will have staying power and give companies the best chance to succeed long term, both in retaining and recruiting talent and maintaining an environment of innovation.