Work-from-home policy changes necessary during a pandemic

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Many companies quickly revamped their policies as the coronavirus pandemic required all nonessential workers be put on lockdown.

“The clients are changing, the staff is changing and our guidelines are changing,” said Christina Kamer, HR Capital Management Consultants owner.

Kamer works with companies on their business plans and she says the pandemic has caused many workplaces to revamp their policies and procedures.

“It was a chaotic atmosphere because we weren’t really sure what the impact was going to be,” Kamer said

Kamer says many companies quickly went remote without time to prepare for the pandemic.

“They knew what to do if there was a tornado or a hurricane or some natural disaster but not a pandemic, " Kamer said.

Which led businesses to revise their policies and put trust in their employees as they work from home.

“If there is an understanding between a company and employee there is not going to be a problem,” Kamer said.

With most employees working from home for the first time, companies had to revise their employee reimbursement policy.

“Employees are asking for help in paying for HDMI cables, a new mouse, all the way to buying a new monitor,” said Anant Kale, AppZen CEO and founder.

AppZen is an AI-platform for modern finance teams to analyze and automate employee expensing and more.

“You want to make sure employees get the necessary help but also to make sure some of them aren’t abusing it,” Kale said.

Kale says working from home is not going away for many companies, so he encourages business leaders to take advantage of available software.

“The perspective on who needs to physically be in office and the requirements are changing,” Kale said.

Experts say you’ll be most successful while working from home if you continue with your normal routine and find a quiet workplace with no distractions.