How Should Companies Communicate New COVID Policies to Their Employees?

From a logistical perspective, how best to communicate these changes depends on the structure of the workforce.

In light of the new guidance from the CDC shortening quarantine and isolation periods, what are the implications for workplaces and what are the best ways to communicate this to employees without confusing them? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

First, employers who have policies in place that are specific about how long a sick or exposed employee needs to isolate or quarantine for should update them. That is, if the employer wants to reduce the isolation and quarantine periods to five days. Presumably, most will want to make that change, but it’s not required that you use five days, so a policy that hasn’t yet been updated from 10 and 14 days is unlikely to cause you any legal trouble. (There might be a state rule that requires a certain number of days, but CDC guidance is still just that – guidance.)

Second, employers need to get the word out about the policy change. Although some employees may have been excited about the potential for 10 to 14 days away from the workplace should their household get hit with COVID, most will likely be happy about losing less income, or needing to use less PTO. Thankfully, since most people won’t consider this bad news, employers shouldn’t need to be as concerned with blowback or how to message it so that they ruffle the fewest feathers.

From a logistical perspective, how best to communicate these changes depends on the structure of the workforce. If your workforce is plugged in, a company-wide email or Slack message may get the job done. But if your employees aren’t online as part of their jobs, you may need to take a more old-school approach to communication. You could ask managers to figure out how to relay this information to their employees, but given the potential for garbling the message, this change in policy is probably best delivered by Human Resources and in writing. That may mean placing posters around the workplace, having managers hand out written policies, or issuing notices with paystubs – whatever method you usually use to communicate with your entire staff.

Almost any time an employer rolls out a novel policy, they should be explaining why they did it. It helps with buy-in and reduces follow-up questions and arguments. In this case, you’ll just be telling employees that you’ve adjusted your policies to keep up with current guidance from the CDC.

This question originally appeared on Quora and was published January 20, 2022 by Apple News.