Ari Kwiatkowski, associate, was featured in the Buffalo Business First article “Bringing Your Employees Back to the Office? Create a Policy for That.” about the need for return-to-office policies for employers who want their employees back in the office.
Return-to-office policies should be approached in the same way work-from-home policies were approached in 2020. “Some of our clients who have reached out about this have asked, ‘What should our policies say?’” Ari said. “A lot of the considerations are the same as when they were drafting work-from-home policies.”
In terms of what should be considered when drafting return-to-office policies, vaccination status is one of them. “I don’t think mandatory vaccinations have fallen by the wayside,” Ari said. “What’s important for employers to know is that they’re OK, as long as you provide for certain exemptions for medical conditions and religious beliefs.”
However, some employers have abolished their vaccination mandates as political pressures have subsided. “A company is perfectly within its rights to have a policy and then alter its policy,” Ari said. “Employers are generally trying to be accommodating and flexible, but obviously it’s a balancing act.”
There are performance-related reasons for bringing employees back to the office, one of which is bringing back an employee who is on a performance improvement plan. “If there’s a documented history of a lack of productivity or they’re on a performance improvement plan, it’s OK to require them to come back to the office as a way to improve that plan,” Ari said.
Buffalo Business First subscribers can read the full article here.