Return to Work: Best Practices & HR Compliance

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MP: hello, and thank you for joining us today for an MP webinar on return to work we’re going to give everybody a few minutes to log on and we’ll start the program shortly.

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MP: Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us today for an MP webinar on returning to work best practices and HR compliance.

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MP: I am a meme in the head of marketing here at MP and for those of you joining us on a webinar for the first time MP, is a full service human capital management company.

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MP: offering a suite of products and services, including HR payroll benefits administration time and attendance and compliance assistance.

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MP: We support our clients with cutting edge technical solutions, as well as proactive reliable service and deep HR payroll expertise and NP we are wired for HR and help clients succeed by aligning their HR strategy with their business goals.

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MP: Your presenters today are or two of MPs top HR specialists amanda bridge and amanda me and already.

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MP: amanda bridge is a sherm certified HR generalist here MP, she currently provides HR support to small, medium and large businesses across a variety of industries.

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MP: And was previously an HR generalist at a 200 plus employee pediatric nonprofit organization.

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MP: amanda leonardi is also sherm certified HR generalist MP and she currently provides HR support to small, medium and large sized businesses.

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MP: across a number of different industries and previously managed HR for a 250 employee nonprofit organization.

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MP: amanda received her BA from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and received her sherm certification earlier this year, if you would like to submit a question during the webinar please use the Q amp a feature at the bottom of the screen.

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MP: And just to note that the recording of the webinar will be sent out following the presentation and with that i’m going to hand the MIC off to amanda.

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Amanda Leonardi: All right, thank you amy and good afternoon everyone Thank you so much for joining us on.

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Amanda Leonardi: On the amanda show here today to discuss a topic that many of you are probably strategizing around right now, which is how on earth.

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Amanda Leonardi: Do we bring employees back to a post coven 19 workplace before we dive into the content we first have our little legal disclaimer here.

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Amanda Leonardi: This training is intended for educational and informational purposes only, we are not attorneys and the information we discussed today should not be construed as legal advice.

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Amanda Leonardi: Alright, so today, we will be covering the following topics so first we’ll kick it off with what you as an employer should be considering when thinking through and creating your return to work plan.

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Amanda Leonardi: Then, how to properly address employee fears about returning back to the workplace will then go through the latest and greatest guidance surrounding mask wearing as restrictions continue to ease up.

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Amanda Leonardi: How to mitigate your risk when it comes to vaccine policies and compliance and then, if we have some time left over, at the end, we will jump into a Q amp a and answer your burning questions so let’s go ahead and dive in.

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Amanda Leonardi: So not sure if you have ever heard of this guy before, but a wise man named Albert Einstein once said, in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

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Amanda Leonardi: And, and if there is one word to describe the the past 15 months of our lives, the word difficult pretty much pretty much sums it up, so we have all faced many obstacles, both personally and professionally.

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Amanda Leonardi: And I don’t know about you, but I could not be happier to see the light at the end of the tunnel here, and as we are seeing coven cases go down and numbers of people getting vaccinated increase.

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Amanda Leonardi: The the trends are very much moving in the right direction and that has also become evident through some of the guidance, that we are getting surrounding you know relaxing some of the workplace restrictions.

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Amanda Leonardi: So it’s a really exciting time and a relief for many employers who are eager to to get the band back together and reopen their workplaces, with all of that being said.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, despite the slew of restrictions being lifted as ugly I really think it’s a critical time for employers to take a step back.

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Amanda Leonardi: And instead of just reverting back to business as usual think strategically about how you can best bring your workforce back, and I really believe that the way you go about this transition can make or break you as a company.

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Amanda Leonardi: But let’s stay on the positive side, and consider what cool opportunities, you have to make a lasting impact on your workforce as you start to bring people back to the workplace.

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Amanda Leonardi: So the first is evolution and pre pandemic, there were many employers out there that didn’t think they could function without people on site of each and every day.

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Amanda Leonardi: And the pandemic forced a lot of employers hands into remote work and the silver lining to this all.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, is a lot of those employers realize, you know hey this this telecommuting thing kind of works.

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Amanda Leonardi: And now that it’s becoming safer to have people returning back to the office, this is a great opportunity for you know, a workplace cultural change.

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Amanda Leonardi: So you have an opportunity to accelerate that change from more of a pre pandemic static culture to a more dynamic and flexible culture that allows employees to have more autonomy.

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Amanda Leonardi: The second major impact, you can have is is the employee experience and you really can’t sacrifice the employee experience, if you want long term overall success.

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Amanda Leonardi: And this employee experience really needs to be better now than pre pandemic, I think the past year has really put things into perspective for a lot of people and help them reassess their their priorities.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you know you as an employer, have to be competitive when it comes to the employee experience, now more than ever.

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Amanda Leonardi: The manner in which you choose to bring people back is going to hold a ton of weight in the overall employee experience and trust me if employees feel.

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Amanda Leonardi: Like it was a negative experience it’s going to be really easy for them to walk away, especially with how many other jobs are open right now in the in the marketplace.

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Amanda Leonardi: So please keep the employee experience at the forefront of your mind as we go through this today and, as you navigate these these were returned to work plans.

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Amanda Leonardi: And last but not least, you have a great opportunity to to to showcase empathy as a company.

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Amanda Leonardi: The the workplace should focus on employee well being and needs now more than ever, as well.

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Amanda Leonardi: And people have been through a lot over the past year, people have lost loved ones, people have been juggling their full time jobs, as well as being parents and teachers, for their children learning virtually over the past year.

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Amanda Leonardi: You have to come at this transition back to the workplace from a place of empathy and understand that people have been juggling a lot and may need some support as a transition back to onsite work so also keep that in mind.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you know if you knock these three areas out of the park you’re going to make a lasting impact on your employees and establish yourself as an employer of choice.

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Amanda Leonardi: And sometimes I hear people refer to these things as the soft stuff when it comes to HR, however, as my teammate and friend, Nick mirabella always says the stuff stuff is is really the hard stuff and is going to be critical, as you, you know start to bring employees back to the workplace.

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Amanda Leonardi: Alright, so speaking of the hard stuff let’s take a look at some cold hard data that just came out Jackson Lewis who’s reputable nationwide law firm administered a spring.

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Amanda Leonardi: remote and return to the workplace survey that shares some insights from more than 400 C suite on senior human resources and legal executive respondents on what the future holds for their workplaces.

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Amanda Leonardi: And some trends have emerged from the data, so we wanted to take some time to share some of the key takeaways with you so that you can see what some other companies are doing out there.

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Amanda Leonardi: So, first we have a data set for those employees who started working remotely because of the coven 19 pandemic.

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Amanda Leonardi: And 60% of respondents reported that less than 25% of employees have returned to their pre pandemic workplace.

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Amanda Leonardi: For those employees that have returned, the employees role primarily dictated whether the return was voluntary or mandatory.

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Amanda Leonardi: And only 29% of employers intend to take a universal approach to their return to workplace plans.

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Amanda Leonardi: While the remainder will you know differentiate based upon role on or have not yet decided on how they are going to approach this moving forward.

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Amanda Leonardi: And so the key takeaway there is that maybe not every role in your organization needs to be back in the office at this time, many employers are looking at the job functions to make the determination on WHO to bring back on site.

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Amanda Leonardi: Employers anticipate that 40% or more of the employees who did not work remotely before the pandemic will continue to work remotely going forward.

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Amanda Leonardi: And then 58% of respondents will allow for more permanent hybrid work arrangements where employees returned to the workplace in some capacity, but may continue to work a certain number of days remotely.

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Amanda Leonardi: So all of these data points you know it’s a pretty large shift from pre pandemic mindset.

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Amanda Leonardi: Alright, so if we take a look at this pie chart on the Left you’ll see that 30% of respondents said that the employees who have returned to work did so voluntarily.

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Amanda Leonardi: And 36% said that employees role dictated whether the return was voluntary or mandatory and then only 17% said that they required everyone to come back into the office so that’s a pretty small number.

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Amanda Leonardi: And the pie chart on the right shows that, right now, the majority of respondents who have established their return to work plans are developing multiple plans for different employee groups, instead of taking that universal approach.

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Amanda Leonardi: If we look at this chart on the overwhelming majority of respondents said that they will continue to allow for a more permanent hybrid model where employees only return.

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Amanda Leonardi: To the workplace, a few days a week, so 58% of respondents are in support of that, and you can also see that 27% of respondents are currently encouraging employees to voluntarily return to the workplace, which will eventually be followed by a mandatory return by a certain specified date.

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Amanda Leonardi: And then one other data point that I wanted to share with you, was that 52% of employers expect to implement their return to work plan between one to three months from now.

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Amanda Leonardi: And 15% expect to implement it four to six months from now, and this data is hot off the press and was released yesterday, so it is, it is timely data just so that you’re aware of that as well.

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Amanda Leonardi: Alright, so we have been doing a lot of consulting and strategizing with clients surrounding returning to work, and one thing that is for sure is that it certainly has people’s head spinning.

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Amanda Leonardi: Just like this graphic So what should you as an employer consider when formulating your return to work plan, there are a ton of moving parts here, so we wanted to break it down for you a bit so that it’s more digestible and can be addressed in pieces.

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Amanda Leonardi: So first, if you haven’t done so already i’d recommend assembling a return to work team, and I just read about a company, the other day that created.

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Amanda Leonardi: What it calls a coven 12 team, which is a group of a dozen company leaders from different areas of their business and they said that it’s been invaluable.

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Amanda Leonardi: As a company navigated difficult decisions and the constantly changing world we’ve been living in.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know the they don’t have one person responsible for everything and their code 12 team has you know leadership and representation from every team so it’s a really collaborative effort.

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Amanda Leonardi: And the team has met in and continues to me on an ongoing basis, to make sure every you know decision that they make is is human and that there are a variety of perspectives that are being brought to the table.

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Amanda Leonardi: You may want to also consider appointing a point person or two from the team to to lead and implement these return to work efforts as well.

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Amanda Leonardi: So although you’re reopening team may make the ultimate decisions you really need to get feedback from employees to.

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Amanda Leonardi: and employers should be you know, including employees in the process and finding out what their perceptions are.

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Amanda Leonardi: This will be especially important, if you plan on you know, requiring everyone to come back immediately or, if you are putting a.

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Amanda Leonardi: vaccination policy in place, I really can’t stress enough how important this this type of feedback and surveying is.

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Amanda Leonardi: So if you, you know, create a space where employees feel like their voices are being heard and you know you’re asking them about their thoughts and their feelings surrounding returning to the office.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you know you’re allowing them to provide suggestions on what will make them feel safe and comfortable returning to work.

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Amanda Leonardi: This is going to establish buy in and help with the overall transition and employees aren’t going to be as resistant because they feel like they’ve had you know stake in the game.

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Amanda Leonardi: One thing that you do want to make sure of is that the survey is anonymous and we have been helping some of our clients with anonymous surveys, where we will administer the the survey on There we have.

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Amanda Leonardi: review and compile the data and then present our clients with the findings and this has been going really well for the clients we’ve been helping.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you know it takes their hands out of it, it ensures that you know the results are anonymous and provides them with data to help them make informed decisions surrounding their return to work plans.

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Amanda Leonardi: one topic that has been extremely hot recently is asking about vaccinations status in those surveys.

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Amanda Leonardi: And amanda bridge will dive a bit deeper into this particular subject a little bit later in the presentation and cover the do’s and don’ts.

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Amanda Leonardi: But for the purposes of this slide I am a fan of administering anonymous employee surveys, so that you can collect data on you know, the percentage of your workforce, who has been vaccinated.

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Amanda Leonardi: To help you better understand your risk, as well as make informed choices about what types of workplace safety policies and precautions, you may need to put in place, as you return.

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Amanda Leonardi: Okay, so to give you some examples of survey questions that you may want to consider asking your employees.

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Amanda Leonardi: What concerns you the most about returning to work, how much notice, do you need to return to the Office, do you plan to receive the coven 19 vaccine.

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Amanda Leonardi: to feel comfortable working in the Office what safety protocols, would you like to see in place, and do you have any other comments questions suggestions or concerns regarding coven 19 and workplace safety.

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Amanda Leonardi: And again, the answers to these questions will give you a solid foundation to begin to build your return to work playing off of.

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Amanda Leonardi: Alright, so, as we all know, employers have to ensure their workplaces are safe and as safe as they can be right and.

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Amanda Leonardi: This is why many of us have been working remotely for the past year, but.

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Amanda Leonardi: It is important to keep in mind that employees and customers may have fears of returning to you know business as usual so.

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Amanda Leonardi: Preparing for and communicating how safety is a top priority will relieve some fears and increase your your brand loyalty ultimately.

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Amanda Leonardi: So some safety measures that you may want to consider might include implementing you know employee health screening procedures.

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Amanda Leonardi: Developing you know, an exposure response plan that addresses you know isolation or contact tracing procedures stay at home requirements on you know, having an exposure communication ready to go that can be sent out to impacted staff who may have had an exposure.

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Amanda Leonardi: Also, providing pee pee masks gloves disinfecting spray for workstations you know personal hand sanitizer making sure that your detailing cleaning procedures.

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Amanda Leonardi: That you’re implementing, as well as you know, make make it clear of your expectations for employees to clean their workspaces.

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Amanda Leonardi: You may want to consider establishing physical distance measures within the workplace so maybe you’re moving workstations to increase.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, separation and distance and then you want to be sure to establish some customer and visitor protocols to ensure their safety, as well as the safety of your workforce.

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Amanda Leonardi: So next you’ll need to plan for how and when employees will return to work on to create an organized and controlled approach.

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Amanda Leonardi: And all employees returning you know, on the same day, at the same time could certainly be overwhelming and possibly unsafe, so you may want to consider some alternative approaches so.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, maybe phasing in employees returning to work, so you know, using non discriminatory factors to phase people ended and determine.

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Amanda Leonardi: who’s going to be, you know phased in, and you know determine schedules change, you know schedule changes to provide you know protection to workers so maybe you’re going to stagger shifts for the time being to reduce the amount of people in the workplace at once.

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Amanda Leonardi: You also want to create a plan for employees and high risk categories for infection to return to work so maybe you consider allowing them to work from home until they feel comfortable to return or.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, determine increase measures to protect them when working on site so maybe isolated workstations or additional P P, as requested, fewer days in the office things like that.

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Amanda Leonardi: It also wants to determine how to handle employees who are unable or unwilling to return to the workplace, so you know Maybe someone who’s fearful of returning.

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Amanda Leonardi: or someone who has family obligations that may interfere with their ability to return to work, so you want to have a plan in place for that.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you also want to take a look at potential business travel if that impacts your organization, so you may want to start with essential travel only and define what that looks like and then over time, allow some more flexibility there.

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Amanda Leonardi: All right now, this is really important, you also need to know your local state and federal requirements about returning to the workplace.

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Amanda Leonardi: Many state and local governments have imposed their own you know mask wearing and social distancing requirements, so you need to take a look into what those are in the places that you operate.

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Amanda Leonardi: So some states like New York New Jersey, to name a couple recently started requiring employers to track employees vaccination status if employers are going to allow vaccinated employees.

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Amanda Leonardi: To no longer wear masks or socially distance at work on so keep your eyes peeled for more updated legislation surrounding this in the coming weeks, because it is changing rapidly and more and more states are you know changing their requirements off the heels of the CDC updated guidance.

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Amanda Leonardi: Your state also may have some industry specific requirements surrounding safety precautions that you need to be aware of.

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Amanda Leonardi: Some states have passed their own legislation requiring employers to provide employees with coven sick and family leave.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you know, while it still remains optional at the federal level like I said, some states are requiring that employers provide paley for coven related reasons.

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Amanda Leonardi: As folks are beginning to return to the workplace and then OSHA don’t forget good OSHA regulations as well, which we will likely be seeing some updated guidance from them surrounding mask Wang in the near future.

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Amanda Leonardi: So, even though restrictions are relaxing a bit at the federal level you’ll still need to stay in the loop about ongoing changes that are happening at the state and local levels as well.

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Amanda Leonardi: communicate communicate communicate so establishing a clear communication plan will allow employees and customers to understand how the organization plans to to reopen.

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Amanda Leonardi: or reestablish you know their business processes so you really need to communicate this clearly and transparently to your employees.

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Amanda Leonardi: You want to get out ahead of any questions that employees might have so that it alleviates potential anxieties or fears for those employees and you know if employees feel like you’re being.

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Amanda Leonardi: completely transparent they feel like they know your game plan they know what you’re doing to keep them safe and they know that you have expectations of the team to take care of one another.

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Amanda Leonardi: and communicating that from a place of empathy and understanding is ultimately going to lead to a positive employee experience, on the other hand.

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Amanda Leonardi: If you aren’t forthcoming you may take a colder approach and just you know, send out an email saying employee all employees are expected back in the office on Monday.

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Amanda Leonardi: that’s going to potentially lead to a negative employee experience and will cause employees to put their guards up and have an overall negative.

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Amanda Leonardi: Experience throughout this transition process so be sure that you communicate, almost to the point of nauseum so that employees feel like they can trust you.

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Amanda Leonardi: And when you’re communicating some topics that you may want to you know include in those communications, you know staying home if someone’s sick.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, physical distancing policies that you’re putting into the workplace to protect workers and customers.

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Amanda Leonardi: details on you know training on the new workplace safety policies and protocols and you know have exposure response communications like we talked about ready to go to any affected employees and customers potentially.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, inform employees have any other policy and procedure changes and then finally provide employees training on on those new protocols and expectations.

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Amanda Leonardi: Another thing you may need to consider is his new hire paperwork so employees returning to work, who remained on payroll.

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Amanda Leonardi: out this pandemic would generally not need to complete new paperwork, however, for those who have separated employment so maybe you had to lay off some workers and you’re recalling them.

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Amanda Leonardi: It may be best to follow you know normal hiring procedures when bringing them back.

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Amanda Leonardi: And one thing to also keep in mind is to address I nine issues for folks that you’ve hired remotely during the pandemic so as as most of you probably know, the requirements surrounding in person document authorization for the ions were.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, has been relaxed and employers were permitted to verify employees, I nine on in their authorized documents virtually when when they were hired during the pandemic.

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Amanda Leonardi: However, once employees returned back on site and or the iodine flexibility is lifted by.

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Amanda Leonardi: DHS employers are still required to verify those documents in person, so if the I nine was completed remotely you’re going to need to complete it.

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Amanda Leonardi: complete the in person document verification upon the employees return to the workplace so just keep that in mind, as well as you’re bringing people back.

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Amanda Leonardi: Alright, so, although the trends are moving in the right direction, like we talked talked about, and more and more people are getting vaccinated there are certainly still anxieties and fears that employees have about returning to the workplace.

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Amanda Leonardi: we’ve all spent over a year of our lives in you know, a state of emergency, with people we love getting sick people we love passing away.

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Amanda Leonardi: Many of us have gotten sick ourselves, we haven’t been able to spend, you know as much time with friends and family.

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Amanda Leonardi: Everywhere, we go, we are reminded of the the severity of coven for the past year.

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Amanda Leonardi: And so, this has understandably created great fear and anxiety for a lot of people out there and our brains have been wired to be on guard, for the past year, and that is a really hard habit to break overnight.

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Amanda Leonardi: And it’s funny i’ll throw myself under the bus here because I catch myself watching like TV shows and movies, with scenes of people in crowds are like concerts.

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Amanda Leonardi: And I find myself stunned at times that like no one’s wearing a mask and then I you know come to my son my senses and knock myself out of i’m like i’m amanda, this is just a TV show this isn’t real.

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Amanda Leonardi: Or you know this documentary was filmed years ago, so I think it’s just important for.

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Amanda Leonardi: employers to you know, keep in mind that people’s comfort levels may take a bit of time to get back to a place where they feel safe coming to work and being around bigger groups of people and break the the habits that we’ve we’ve established over over the past year.

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Amanda Leonardi: and helping employees feel comfortable about returning to work, you know will require more than just managing the rational fear of catching.

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Amanda Leonardi: So it’s important to keep that in mind, you know, fostering a strong sense of psychological safety and as much as physical safety will be imperative for employers, you know as vaccines continue to roll out and the risks of returning to work, reduce.

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Amanda Leonardi: So how do you how do you navigate this on you need to be understanding of the fact that people have different comfort levels.

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Amanda Leonardi: The way, each of us feel about the situation and about the safety of ourselves and others is different on just because you know john may feel comfortable going to the office and not wearing a mask.

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Amanda Leonardi: doesn’t mean that you know, Mary sitting six feet away from him would feel comfortable with that, so we have to be aware and understanding about.

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Amanda Leonardi: One important and easy step, you can take is to normalize that it can be challenging acknowledge it and.

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Amanda Leonardi: create a safe space for employees to discuss concerns so that they don’t feel like you know they’re being crazy or reacting.

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Amanda Leonardi: which then might cause them to suffer silently and when employees bring up these concerns, be sure that your remaining open minded and providing flexibility.

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Amanda Leonardi: One tactic that will likely help address return to work fears is to plan for you know, an incremental transition, the more people are exposed to situations.

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Amanda Leonardi: They feel uncomfortable with the more comfortable they gradually get so let them dip their toes in the water and get acclimated.

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Amanda Leonardi: Before pushing them fully and provide that flexibility and try to avoid mandates as much as possible and doing that and giving employees that flexibility and how they manage their own return to work will minimize the potential for feeling, you know pushed too far too fast.

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Amanda Leonardi: And as we discussed earlier and I will repeat several times today, transparency and communication is key empathetic empathetic leaders who you know regularly check in on the emotional pulse of of work groups will be better positioned to craft messages that address employees fears successfully.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you know managers who are taking care of employees and and their whole sense of well being will have an easier time with this transition than those who are focused purely on you know output when it comes to bringing people back.

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Amanda Leonardi: Alright, so many of you probably have have some burning questions surrounding the relaxed mask requirements, so the CDC has lifted it’s.

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Amanda Leonardi: related masking and physical distancing recommendations for fully vaccinated people and non healthcare settings and according to the CDC fully vaccinated employees can safely return indoors and many situations, without wearing masks without social distancing or undergoing coven.

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Amanda Leonardi: Screening procedures with all of that being said, keep in mind that the CDC guidance is not legally binding.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you know only tells employers what behavior the CDC thinks is safe, based upon their expertise when it comes to contagious infections and diseases.

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Amanda Leonardi: As we discussed earlier some state and local jurisdictions are imposing their own mask wearing requirements, so you do need to check in on those requirements prior to making any type of decision.

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Amanda Leonardi: For those employers that aren’t subject to more stringent local laws or state laws, you know you will have to choose whether to drop mandates or keep stricter rules in place.

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Amanda Leonardi: So again, what is the CDC say the CDC states that fully vaccinated people don’t have to wear a mask or say six feet apart, except were required by local business and workplace guidance.

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Amanda Leonardi: They say that fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask except where it’s required by law, including you know local local local business and workplace guidance.

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Amanda Leonardi: And, according to the CDC prevention measures, including masks and physical distancing are still recommended for unvaccinated individuals.

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Amanda Leonardi: So if there’s one message that I want you to remember from this presentation today it’s this.

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Amanda Leonardi: One size does not fit all you really need to take a look at your workforce gathered the data and let that help you determine what the best next steps for it are.

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Amanda Leonardi: Just because the restrictions are lifted, or just because your friends company is implementing a certain policy does not mean that the same policy is going to be the best fit for your business.

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Amanda Leonardi: So I encourage you all to do your due diligence and really take the time to understand what types of implications these these policies you’re putting in place may have on your employees.

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Amanda Leonardi: As well as the level of risk, you may be opening yourself up to from a compliance standpoint, by implementing them.

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Amanda Leonardi: So what do you consider when updating your mask policies and, of course, like we’ve discussed check the relevant state and local laws if a State executive order or local order requires you to.

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Amanda Leonardi: continue to have employees wear masks are imposed physical distinct requirements you, you should follow those rules and you also have to keep in mind that some states have their own occupational safety and health rules or recently enacted laws, for example, new york’s hero act so i’m.

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Amanda Leonardi: Just be be mindful of that and keep your eyes peeled for that and those updates in addition.

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Amanda Leonardi: To that some states are considering bills, that would limit and employers ability to treat employees and customers differently, based upon their vaccination status and the Governor of Montana actually just recently.

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Amanda Leonardi: signed such a law so long story short, employers must follow all applicable state and local laws and standards regardless of the CDC is relaxed recommendations.

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Amanda Leonardi: also keep in mind that the mass guidance does not apply to every industry people you know must cover their faces and practice physical distancing when they go to a doctor or a long term care facility when they’re traveling by public trans things like that.

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Amanda Leonardi: You also want to be on the lookout for new guidance, notably from from OSHA they’ve updated their website advising.

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Amanda Leonardi: That it they’re reviewing the recent CDC guidance and will update their materials accordingly.

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Amanda Leonardi: And, in the meantime, OSHA is directing employers to refer to the CDC guidance for more information on measures appropriate to protect fully vaccinated workers, however, that tune could potentially change.

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Amanda Leonardi: We also want to determine whether removing mask and physical distancing requirements makes sense, given your employee populations and preferences.

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Amanda Leonardi: While you know remaining in compliance with state and local laws and orders so many employees may be reluctant to return to the work site without.

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Amanda Leonardi: masking and physical distancing rules in place so it’s really important that you assess whether removing such requirements is going to help or hurt the business objectives.

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Amanda Leonardi: Generally employers can choose to continue to require masks and physical distancing regardless of vaccinations data so that might be something you want to consider as well.

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Amanda Leonardi: You also want to consider how removing mask and physical distancing requirements will affect customer So if you know if your ultimate decision is not to relax the mask requirements.

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Amanda Leonardi: And you want to be mindful that customers who have medical conditions that make wearing a mask unsafe may need to be accommodated as well.

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Amanda Leonardi: If you do end up lifting mask restrictions clarify that fully vaccinated employees and customers are still permitted to wear masks or face coverings if they so choose.

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Amanda Leonardi: And also emphasize that all employees are expected to be supportive of their co workers choices and you definitely want to reinforce that employees must respect employee and customer decisions to wear masks and engage in distancing regardless of their vaccination status.

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Amanda Leonardi: also want to avoid actions that would you know suggest a potential correlation between vaccination status and mask wearing so, for example, if relaxing mask and distancing requirements in the workplace.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know, make it clear that fully vaccinated employees should make their own personal decision regarding whether to wear a mask and physically distance at work if an employee chooses not to wear a mask, then it will be the employee who is disclosing their you know vaccinated status.

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Amanda Leonardi: also want to consider whether and how the business will monitor on vaccinated employees and if they’re properly wearing masks and engaging in physical distancing practices, it is lawful for employers to ask employees if they’re vaccinated, however.

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Amanda Leonardi: proceed with extreme caution and you know, asking employees, why they are not vaccinated may implicate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Amanda Leonardi: If employers ask employees, if they are vaccinated the best practice is to you know treat any record of their status as confidential and make sure it securely maintained with limited access.

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Amanda Leonardi: as an alternative to tracking you know who is vaccinated you may also want to consider.

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Amanda Leonardi: Having employees certify that if they’re not fully vaccinated they will continue to wear a mask and physical distance, however, again check your state and local requirements, because they may have different.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know requirements in place when it comes to vaccine tracking and relaxing mass mandates.

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Amanda Leonardi: And then, last but not least, you want to consider adopting a formal policy or issuing a communication, you know, clarifying the business policy and position on on these issues.

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Amanda Leonardi: Alright, so if we’re looking at the big picture here when it comes to masks some some words of advice don’t rush the decision, just because these restrictions are rapidly lifting does not mean that you have to also follow suit so.

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Amanda Leonardi: keep that in mind also proceed with caution, you know properly way your risks and determine the best policy for you communicate your policies effectively.

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Amanda Leonardi: Make sure you know your employees know what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen.

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Amanda Leonardi: You know the unknown can cause unnecessary fear and anxiety so it’s best to be transparent and clear and then know your state and local requirements.

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Amanda Leonardi: And lastly, be sure to protect mass workers from mistreatment so make it clear to people that this will not be tolerated.

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Amanda Leonardi: For those workers who are unable to receive the vaccine for legitimate medical or religious reasons or for those who you know continue wearing masks because they choose not to get vaccinated.

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Amanda Leonardi: You need to make sure that they you know don’t face mistreatment at the hands of supervisors or coworkers.

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Amanda Leonardi: OSHA continues to state that unvaccinated employees should not be treated differently than vaccinated employees so.

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Amanda Leonardi: Make sure your workers know that retaliation discrimination and harassment, will not be tolerated and include this this in written policies distributed distributed to workers as well.

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Amanda Leonardi: Overall, see if his approach for an employer, particularly a business operating in multiple jurisdictions is to apply the most restrictive and protective guidelines across the board.

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Amanda Leonardi: And as the directors, become more clear and more consistent an employer than can can relax protocols more uniformly from there.

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Amanda Leonardi: And with that i’m going to toss it over to the other half of the amanda show here to give you the rundown on code vaccines in the workplace.

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Bridge Amanda: All right, great Thank you amanda leonardi so good afternoon everyone so just like amanda said earlier one size does not fit all so in in addition to that, I am going to ask that you also remember that just like my parents always told me just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

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Bridge Amanda: The Eo has weighed in with guidance that answers some workplace vaccination questions employers may encourage or even possibly require coven 19 vaccinations.

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Bridge Amanda: But policies must comply with the Ada and Title seven of the Civil Rights Act, which covers religious accommodations and other workplace laws and according to the email.

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Bridge Amanda: So federal E laws don’t prevent employers from requiring all employees who are physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COPA 19 how ever.

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Bridge Amanda: Employers need to comply with the ADHD reasonable accommodation provisions, along with Title seven which covers religious accommodations and other ios considerations.

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Bridge Amanda: Whereas will also want to consider some barriers that bring employers that employees may be faced on based on location and availability of the vaccine so not everyone is kind of have that easy access of.

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Bridge Amanda: You know acquiring the vaccine.

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Bridge Amanda: In this instance, making vaccines mandatory could impact employees negatively, be aware that other laws may place additional restrictions on employers.

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Bridge Amanda: And that there are a lot of states that have their own specific laws, so it is important to keep that in mind, so like amanda had said we’re just going to keep monitoring every state in the guidance that they’re putting out.

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Bridge Amanda: So what does OSHA say about vaccines.

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Bridge Amanda: So employers are not required to record employee side effects from Cobra 19 vaccinations under OSHA so previously OSHA had released guidance That said, employers who mandated their employees get vaccinated.

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Bridge Amanda: any adverse effects from the vaccine that the employee endured may have been considered an OSHA reportable incident, however, the do well and OSHA, along with other federal agencies.

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Bridge Amanda: they’re working diligently to encourage coven 19 vaccinations so OSHA does not wish to be viewed as discouraging workers from receiving coven 19 vaccinations and also does not wish to determine players vaccination efforts.

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Bridge Amanda: OSHA will not enforce recording requirements to require any employers to record worker side effects from covert 19 vaccinations through may of 2022.

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Bridge Amanda: Okay, so this might be the $1 million question, maybe not even 1 million million dollar question but maybe $2 million question.

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Bridge Amanda: Can we be on employees from coming into the workplace if they refuse to get the coven 19 vaccine.

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Bridge Amanda: So short answer is yes in the eeoc faqs it does state that employees who are not vaccinated maybe include excluded from the workplace, subject to important limitations.

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Bridge Amanda: However, i’m going to use that word a lot, this does not mean that employees are excluded that are excluded can just be terminated.

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Bridge Amanda: You still may need to provide them with a reasonable accommodation for religious or medical reasons.

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Bridge Amanda: So you want to evaluate the positions and especially those that are in health care and employees who are tasked with protecting the public.

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Bridge Amanda: To see if an unvaccinated employee would pose a threat or a direct threat and that threat cannot be eliminated or reduced by a reasonable accommodation.

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Bridge Amanda: And so, this direct threat standard under the Ada is a high standard and must be also based on objective medical evidence and individualized assessment.

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Bridge Amanda: Based on these determinations you should follow a pre established procedures to respond to any accommodation requests.

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Bridge Amanda: And it is also important to keep in mind that many seats have enacted or pending legislation which we’ve talked about.

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Bridge Amanda: which provides additional protections for employees, be on the E O laws in regards to coven 19 vaccinations.

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Bridge Amanda: In certain States, these restrictions could even eliminate and employers right to require the vaccination, so you want to be sure to review all anti discrimination laws in the states where you have employees.

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Bridge Amanda: So what are some of the considerations before requiring employees to be vaccinated if this is what you or your organization are considering doing.

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Bridge Amanda: So first you want to evaluate both the legal and practical issues before making the decision.

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Bridge Amanda: And i’m not going to speak on the legal standpoint of things because i’m not a lawyer, however, if you want to join us on our webinar on June 17 and would like some legal advice, we will have an attorney from Jackson Lewis, who will be presenting.

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Bridge Amanda: I will say that you do need to ensure that you can effectively communicate how the vaccination requirement is job related and consistent with business necessity.

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Bridge Amanda: So when creating a mandatory vaccination policy, there are a couple of best practice guidelines, ensure that the policy fully explains that vaccine requirement.

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Bridge Amanda: And it should also communicate how if an employee can or needs to pursue an exemption they know how they’re able to do that as an accommodation.

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Bridge Amanda: Be prepared to engage in the interactive process for reasonable accommodation.

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Bridge Amanda: And then some ideas um you know of what might be a reasonable accommodation, they could be the use of a face mask at all time well on site, you could even consider moving and employees workstation temporarily reassigning that employee somewhere.

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Bridge Amanda: You know, continuing to approve that teleworking arrangement that you’ve previously had or offering a leave of absence.

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Bridge Amanda: employers will not need to provide an accommodation that would pose an undue hardship, so I think we’ve all probably have heard that term before an undue hardship, but the undue hardship standard depends on the request and also state and local laws.

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Bridge Amanda: So amanda had shown us some of these return to work survey questions and results and so we’re going to take a look at a couple throughout my part of the presentation.

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Bridge Amanda: And this survey asked if employers that are requiring employees to be vaccinated or if they plan to so.

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Bridge Amanda: Only 2% said that they would be requiring employees to be vaccinated in the workplace, however, the majority, which are both 50 and 54% said that they would not be requiring it because of legal risks and concerns with that, as well as employee relations issues.

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Bridge Amanda: So tracking vaccination status or vaccine status and some concerns about that.

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Bridge Amanda: So, while it is okay to ask for documentation for the vaccinations status.

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Bridge Amanda: You should also let the employees, know that you do not that they don’t need to provide any other medical or family history information, so you just want to make sure that they’re not handing you.

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Bridge Amanda: their entire medical file, with all of their you know shot history, all in there all at once, you just only want the information that you’re asking for So if you receive documentation, you will want to treat that as confidential and you know have it be that confidential medical record.

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Bridge Amanda: You want to avoid retaining any copies of actual vaccine cards, because that could trigger any kind of safety record keeping obligations that you probably would like to avoid.

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Bridge Amanda: So a suggestion to do the alternative would be to create a confidential spreadsheet and on this spreadsheet it to have the employees name.

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Bridge Amanda: What type of shot they received and the date, the date of that last dose that they got.

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Bridge Amanda: So you want to also stay away from asking any follow up questions such as you know what are, what are the employees reasons for not being vaccinated, because this could really trigger obligations under the Ada or gina, which is the genetic information non discrimination act.

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Bridge Amanda: So the eeoc and all of these these companies that are all these places are coming out with all of this new guidance, and so this one just actually came out this last weekend um and it really helped provide employers with some options on incentivizing it.

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Bridge Amanda: If you decide to go with either of these options presented by the eeoc you still have to consider accommodations and also confidentiality this guidance provides a clear direction if your organization wants to encourage workers to get vaccinated.

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Bridge Amanda: The first option for the eeoc defines places where an employee could have been vaccinated as pharmacies public health departments, or any other health care providers in in their community.

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Bridge Amanda: However, for option to if an employee voluntarily receives a vaccination from your company or, if you have a third party provider.

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Bridge Amanda: You can only offer incentives that are not so substantial as to be coercive so you want to be careful of that if you if you are offering them on company premises.

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Bridge Amanda: So if you decide to go the incentive route it doesn’t mean that you’re free from having to provide any accommodation or confidentiality.

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Bridge Amanda: And there still will be some employees that could have a legitimate medical or religious reason for not getting vaccinated.

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Bridge Amanda: And you know you don’t want to deny them of their incentives, because that could be discriminatory, so you will need to consider finding a way to offer an alternative way that they can earn the new incentive as well.

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Bridge Amanda: um and alternative way to earn this could be watching you know, possibly having a covert 19 safety video or even reviewing any kind of CDC literature on stopping the spread of covert 19 in the workplace.

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Bridge Amanda: So I also wanted to share this return to work survey that was published by Jackson Lewis, so you can get an idea of how other companies are planning on handling serving employees for vaccinations status.

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Bridge Amanda: Also, if they’re planning on offering any incentives which we just covered so as you can see 41% of employers plan on serving.

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Bridge Amanda: Their workplace on vaccination status, remember, if you do a survey, for your employees, you want to make sure that it is anonymous to avoid any kind of discrimination claims.

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Bridge Amanda: Then we have, on the other side 49% of employers do not plan on offering any incentives on whether it be monetary pto or any other kinds of benefits and.

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Bridge Amanda: We are going to be offering the link on to this Jeff and Lewis return return to work survey at the end of our presentation and the resources so you’ll be able to have access to these results there.

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Bridge Amanda: Alright, so can we share vaccination status with clients or customers, so we did talk about confidentiality and so.

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Bridge Amanda: And you know I had mentioned that employers were allowed to ask employees with their vaccinations statuses, but they should not disclose any of this information.

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Bridge Amanda: And it really should be treated confidentially some employers have considered even considering separating separating out employees, based on vaccination status so.

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Bridge Amanda: You know, potentially, putting all the the vaccinated employees and having them doing assignment and then having all the unvaccinated workers doing assignment.

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Bridge Amanda: But if you think about this, even this could be considered sharing confidential information, because if you’re splitting up the teams into two groups basically you’re letting everyone know who is and who isn’t vaccinated so definitely be careful of those kind of out of the box ideas.

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Bridge Amanda: So if you do decide to conduct an employee survey, to see if your employees are going to be vaccinated or if they plan on being vaccinated i’m just wanted to let you know some of the considerations.

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Bridge Amanda: You definitely want to be consistent and you want to ask everyone, so you don’t want to just you know pick a group and ask them and you also want to ask everyone the same questions.

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Bridge Amanda: And so the Ada specifically restricts employers from making a disability related inquiry or require you know, requiring medical examinations.

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Bridge Amanda: But the eeoc says a coven 19 vaccinations are not considered medical examinations and that requiring or asking for proof of an offsite vaccination is not a disability related inquiry.

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Bridge Amanda: However, related medical inquiries or follow up questions such as why the employee will not be vaccinated would be a disability related inquiry, so you want to stay away from those.

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Bridge Amanda: And if you decide to conduct a survey, it should be designed to only ask questions that allow for yes or no answers.

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Bridge Amanda: Because you don’t want to allow a text box or something where an employee might elaborate as to why they’re not getting vaccinated and so this will help avoid any violation of the Ada or other laws, you know even under gina.

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Bridge Amanda: So amanda had also mentioned that you know we want these surveys to be anonymous that’s important.

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Bridge Amanda: The reason for this would be really if an employee were to be terminated or disciplines the employee could just really say that the employment action was based on their survey response in their answers.

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Bridge Amanda: So you want to consider your industry and your workforce before developing an employee survey, it would need to have a legitimate business purpose, meaning if you have a fully vaccinated work fully remote workforce doesn’t really seem relevant to conduct a survey.

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Bridge Amanda: So whenever i’m on webinars I always find scenarios, the most helpful and so I am going to dive into the first scenario that we have here.

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Bridge Amanda: which says your organization is hiring and has required vaccination policy.

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Bridge Amanda: When you were deciding if an employee is the best fit for the position you are also considering their vaccination status So what do you do.

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Bridge Amanda: So you can ask but remember all all the same considerations apply to applicants, as they do your current workforce your current employees.

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Bridge Amanda: So you need to be careful, the follow up questions again, you will need to consider the demographic and you know, make sure it doesn’t lead to any discrimination.

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Bridge Amanda: If you decide the applicant is not the best fit for the position and they share the reason why they are not getting vaccinated was due to an health issue you could really be setting yourself up for discrimination claim so definitely tread lightly there.

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Bridge Amanda: And then on scenario number two we have your Organization has decided to require employees to be vaccinated.

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Bridge Amanda: Joan has said that she doesn’t plan on getting the vaccine and is not asking for a disability or religious accommodation so.

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Bridge Amanda: You know just basically put it out there, that you know she doesn’t plan on getting the vaccine So what do you do in that situation.

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Bridge Amanda: Well, one of our favorite HR freezes is it depends, you want to start by asking if they want to share their concerns about the vaccine.

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Bridge Amanda: And so the Eo says that employers can share information about the vaccines, such as the importance and where to get it.

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Bridge Amanda: um and if Joan is uncomfortable sharing information, then consider that there are things that she might not want to share with her employer so.

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Bridge Amanda: It may be that she is considering trying to get pregnant or going through IDF treatment and she’s concerned that there’s really a lack of information about the vaccine and pregnancy.

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Bridge Amanda: And so, what do you do next, I mean if she’s not sharing the information you’ve asked her to share some of her concerns you need to figure out another way, so, even though you may not be required to accommodate them under a specific law.

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Bridge Amanda: Understand that we need to be flexible in this environment and consider other options, such as you know, the possibility of changing a work location like we discussed wearing a math.

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Bridge Amanda: or other situations that could help ease her concerns, so you could present Joan with some of the options, and you know other things that we had kind of touched upon, to see if that would help with her concerns in her worries about getting the vaccine and you know returning to work.

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Bridge Amanda: So we’re going to hop over to the next slide which contains the resources that we promised you we would deliver you today.

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Bridge Amanda: And we covered these in our presentation and their surrounding the CDC guidance and we wanted to provide you with the full Jackson Lewis report that contains the return to work data that we discussed.

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Bridge Amanda: And so here’s the copy of the presentation will be sent to you after we wrap up today and you’ll have access to these resources.

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Bridge Amanda: pass it over to amanda to address if we got any questions in.

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Amanda Leonardi: All right, thank you, we have some great questions here, the first is, do you have any tips on how to navigate guests and visitors who may not be vaccinated can we ask them for test info or vaccinations and.

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Amanda Leonardi: Again it not one approach fits odds walk in you know it’s not one size fits all for for employer so it’s really going to depend on you know you as an organization and the type of work you do and.

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Amanda Leonardi: Those types of considerations, but I will say i’m more inclined to say potentially continue the mask.

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Amanda Leonardi: requirements as opposed to soliciting any type of vaccination information from you know customers or clients things like that so.

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Amanda Leonardi: i’d recommend going more in the direction of continuing some of the safety precautions that have been put in place up until this point in order to you know avoid making any any missteps there when when you’re asking for vaccine information from from visitors and guests.

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Bridge Amanda: yeah that’s a great point amanda like you had mentioned, you know take things slowly, you know don’t just rip the mask off and continue business pre pandemic on so you know, keeping keeping masks on and and monitoring the situation is is definitely an advisable way to go.

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Bridge Amanda: um okay so Ken an employee ask another employee if he or she is vaccinated, so I think this is the only thing people talk about.

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Bridge Amanda: You know I run into people that I see or you know I even talked to clients all the time and and it’s such a hot topic and I think it’s just so natural that we’re like.

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Bridge Amanda: You know all are you getting vaccinated it just comes out of everyone’s mouth and so employees can ask other employees if they’re vaccinated.

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Bridge Amanda: But you know I really just want to caution the employee environment and making sure that no one’s really discriminated against or that anyone feels that you know they’re they’re treated miss fairly just because of their vaccination status.

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Amanda Leonardi: yeah I agree and.

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Amanda Leonardi: To amanda’s point it it totally does come up naturally in conversation I mean it is definitely the hot topic these days of like which vaccine, did you get, but I would just be really, really careful and i’ve had a couple of clients asked me.

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Amanda Leonardi: Questions along the lines of what can our supervisors ask this information from employees, so that it’s not you know we’re not asking all employees.

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Amanda Leonardi: keep in mind your supervisors are an extension of your organization and so you know sending them into more or less for lack of a better term do the dirty work is is still you’re still you know at risk there and and you still want to you know proceed with caution when it comes to that.

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Amanda Leonardi: We did have one question and just quickly, because I know we are at time here, we want someone had asked to go back to the slide about the percentages of folks who one second here, let me go back.

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Amanda Leonardi: So the percentage of folks who are requiring employees to be vaccinated so here is that that graphic again, you will be receiving a link to this so that you could really analyze it.

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Amanda Leonardi: in more depth afterwards, but you’ll see here that 54% of employers are respondents most likely are not requiring.

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Amanda Leonardi: The vaccine mandates due to the legal risks and then 50% are most likely not requiring due to employee relations issues there’s a very small subset of the respondents.

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Amanda Leonardi: To the survey, who are mandating vaccines for their employees so again we’ll we’ll send you the link to this, so you can do a deeper analysis.

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Bridge Amanda: yeah we did get a couple more questions that we will certainly feel you know we’ll we’ll gather up together and answer those offline for everyone, so that they get their questions answered, but just in respect of everyone’s time i’ll pass it over to amy.

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MP: Thank you amanda we have already made a bridge great presentation we hope you all came away with some helpful information about best practices for returning to the workplace.

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MP: If you do have any further questions as amanda mentioned, you can send them to marketing at MP dash hr.com and have a great rest of your day everyone thanks again for attending.