Safely Bringing Our People Back to the Office

CHALLENGE

For Seyfarth, the quick pivot to remote work was facilitated by the Firm’s sustained investment in process improvement to support legal operations and client service delivery, coupled with the Firm’s cohesive team-based culture. An even more significant challenge took form many weeks later as the Firm, like many of its clients, began navigating a thicket of varying and sometimes contradictory jurisdictional orders on reopening the workplace.

OPPORTUNITY

As the pandemic was taking shape, Seyfarth assembled employment, workplace safety law experts, and Firm leaders, to help navigate the profound changes dictated by COVID-19. This group soon evolved into Seyfarth’s Return to Office (RTO) Task Force, which provides guidance to the Firm's 17 offices. The RTO Task Force has developed protocols and practices to ensure that Seyfarth’s attorneys can remain both productive and healthy when entering the workplace.

The RTO Task Force produced a number of innovative solutions including an office reopening status dashboard. In collaboration with its compliance services and training subsidiary, Seyfarth at Work, the Firm also rolled out “Safe Return,” an engaging and customizable online animated health and safety training which allows the Firm, clients, and others to comply with state, local, and federal training requirements. This training offers best practices in social distancing, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as simple, practical strategies that all employees can use to ensure safe interactions in the workplace. The training script was built in accordance with CDC and state requirements, and is updated regularly as health and safety directives evolve.

The training takes about 20 minutes to be completed and can be accessed on desktop or mobile devices. The training consists of four video shorts, as well as some click-to-advance call-outs, quizzes, and various interactive elements that require participants to engage and absorb the information before clicking through. Because it’s online, Seyfarth at Work can host it on its Learning Management System, or a client can license the course for their own LMS.

RESULTS

Seyfarth’s Return to Office program is a reflection of the Firm’s larger commitment to its people and its clients. The Firm’s clear communication and efficient process for welcoming back employees to the office has reduced anxiety and enhanced client service delivery. It also demonstrates the innovative thinking that has defined Seyfarth for many years. To that end, more than 500 Seyfarth workers have taken the “Safe Return” training. Outside the Firm, more than 145,000 people have taken the training, and more than 26 clients have elected to offer it to their employees.

The modular and customizable nature of the training has allowed Seyfarth to repackage and offer this course, through Seyfarth at Work, to both existing and first-time clients, who face a similar training issue as they reopen. Seyfarth can easily switch avatars and backgrounds to fit the industry of clients, be that retail, manufacturing, and food and beverage, to name a few. It can be customized with the employer’s branding, and can also reference its reopening plans and specific policies. Incorporating these customizations into the training follows the model long used by Seyfarth at Work training programs, which support and reinforce client policies.