Prepare Your Staff

Hiring and Recalling Employees

• Review local, county, and state government ordinances to determine whether such ordinances will impact your process
• Determine dates employees will be brought back to work – and plan if it will be in stages or staggered
• Prepare protocol for identifying who will be brought back to work
• Have a protocol in place for company response to employees who ask to not come back to work temporarily due to continued concerns over COVID-19
• Analyze the impact of recalling and re-hiring employees using any loan proceeds obtained through federal government or other government benefits
• Consider staggered return-to-work issues
• Determine any high-level changes to operations that will need to be communicated to employees upon return
  • Change in business hours
  • Travel freeze or limitationsChanges to bonus programsAcross-the-board compensation reductions or freezes
  • Amendments to vacation and fringe benefit programs

Create a communication plan

• Communicate your company’s Return-to-Work Plan and timeline to employees
  • Designate a point person to stay on top of developments, manage the communication process, and receive and respond to employee concerns
• Ensure employees understand the company has a solid plan in place to maintain a safe workplace and a healthy workforce. Communicate via webinar or All Hands virtual meeting.
• Communicate Return-to-Work Plan and timeline to customers, suppliers, contractors, vendors and onsite visitors and establish clear protocol for access to the workplace as well as new rules that impact them.

Understanding Employment Issues During the Coronavirus Pandemic

In the midst of a global pandemic, employers are navigating a host of new employment laws in addressing employee issues. Whether it is the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act, the CARES Act or Georgia’s new “partial claims” unemployment process, employers are struggling to digest all the new obligations imposed on them. At the same time, long-time existing laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, create an additional layer of requirements for employers to consider in operating their business. Listen to our recent webinar as Brad Adler and Natalie Pulley with Freeman Mathis & Gary will walk through the most common issues employers are facing and offer practical solutions in responding to those issues.