Revisiting Your Workplace Culture After The Pandemic

Many small businesses are preparing to return to the office with the vaccine roll out well underway in most states. This presents some interesting challenges for small business owners who need to make sure that their staff is able to return safely. Revisiting workplace culture after the pandemic was probably not on their list of to-dos as they ready their workspaces for in-person business. But it should be.

The Zoom office is not the same thing as the in-person office. While many of your staff rallied during the worst time in America in decades, chances are they weren’t that close before they all had to stay home. When the Motto of We Are All In This Together starts to tarnish, you can expect those old interpersonal friction spots to return. How will you handle that?

How people feel about themselves, others and the world around them has changed a lot in the last year. These changes in perception will no doubt follow them back to their desk. It is those things that will change your workplace culture whether you want it to or not.

Your Workplace Culture After The Pandemic Should Change 

Many of us lament that things will not be returning to pre-pandemic normal, but should they? We all have to admit as small business owners that our workplace culture was not perfect before we shut out the lights and paid for our Zoom business membership. Revisiting your workplace culture after the pandemic is a good thing. Now is the best time to sit down with your employees and talk about what has changed and what should have changed if it hasn’t. 

Getting your employees to be honest with you about the things that they feel stand in the way of a great workplace culture after the pandemic should be a top priority. Helping them understand that you welcome honest feedback and encourage them to do so early and often will allow them to open up. 

It is not just about cleanliness and viral safety protocols for reopening. How do you get your employees to feel good about working together again is just as important. How do they feel about their place in the business? 

• Do they trust the people they work with?
• Do they feel they can talk to you about anything? 
• Do they feel they have the right tools for the job?
• Do they feel as though the organization cares for them? 

We Need To Make Caring For Our Employees A Priority 

The old days of the starchy office sanitized of all emotion is over. People have discovered that real feelings and lives life behind the office persona they see every day. Your employees lives have been irrevocably impacted by a lot of things in the last year

• The election
• The pandemic
• Loss of freedoms
• Loss of loved ones
• Economic Instability 

It was not any one thing that caused your employees to feel their humanity again, it was a lot of things at once. And you know what? They would rather be thought of as real humans than numbers on paychecks. Small business owners need to make the human side of work a real thing again. We all need it. 

One of the ways we make our employees feel cared for is by providing them with the right tools they need to live their life confidently. One of the ways we ensure that is providing them with great benefits.

We Need To Prove We Care More Than We Say We Do 

Being able to afford the kinds of benefits your employees needed as small business was tall order. Small group health plans don’t fit the bill and low cost health insurance comes with high co-pays, giant deductibles, and lackluster coverage. 

PEOs provide a way for small business owners to be able to provide the benefits their employees. Changing workplace culture after the pandemic looks a lot like demonstrating you care about your employees more than simply saying so. If you are telling your employees that they are more like family, then why wouldn’t you provide the with the kinds of benefits you’d provide to your own family?

If you’d like to find out more about how PEOs can help you provide great benefits and payroll management at less than you are paying now, contact us today for a free consultation.