The White House wants 1,000,000 federal workers to report back to the office this summer as the pandemic winds down. The Biden administration set the deadline for agencies to hand in return-to-office plans for July 19.
- Mika Cross, Federal Workplace Expert, said return-to-office planning is more an art than a science and will depend on individual agency missions, assessment of performance with remote work and other factors.
- Cross said agencies should take advantage of the time they have and take into consideration federal workers who cannot or choose not to get vaccinated, CDC guidelines regarding physical distancing and administration requirements around maximum occupancy in federal buildings.
- She said some agencies have been collecting survey data and holding listening sessions to determine what worked during the pandemic, and they can also use data from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS).
