COVID-19: How German Employers Can Handle the Crisis and Prepare for a Return to Work

Strict contact restrictions have been in force in Germany since mid-March 2020. Where possible, many employers switched to working from the home office, while others were unable to do so for practical reasons and had to take special precautions to protect employees on site in the company. Employers might have taken or at least have considered measures going beyond this in order to prepare the company for the crisis in the best possible way. The implementation of short-time work and long-term measures aimed at the strategic orientation of the company even beyond the crisis might already have been and are still to be considered. At the same time, companies must prepare themselves to reorganize work processes if there is now a further easing of contact restrictions, without the company being able to return to its former "normal" state as it was before the crisis. A company infection protection standard, which describes the necessary additional protective measures to protect employees from getting infected by the coronavirus, should give the employees the necessary security to resume work.