Letter to Employee to Get Back to Work

A letter to an employee to get back to work is a formal letter written by a supervisor or human resource manager to an employee for notifying or providing information about returning to work after a break or set no. of holidays. For quick or urgent correspondence, the employer may rely on emails but sometimes a letter is sent to the employee to signify the importance and urgency. The letter serves as a professional communication channel between the employee and employer.

The letter provides all relevant details pertaining to the reason it is written for. It could be written for any of the following reasons:

Offering a job
Job onboarding
Communicating a warning
Contract extension/termination
Acknowledging the services/accomplishment
Notifying about promotion
Sharing updates on an important matter

There are times when an employee either takes extended leave or is asked to work from home due to a sudden accident or an unfortunate incident. In such a scenario, the letter is written to notify the employee to get back to work. Such a case may arise due to;

A road accident
Death of an immediate family member
Curfew or lockdown in a country
Pandemic outbreak
Extreme weather condition

Suppose the employees have been staying away from the workplace due to a pandemic outbreak. But, the situation is now under control and you as a human resource manager would like your employees to get back to the work. For such a situation, the following tips can help in drafting an effective back-to-work letter:

Reflect excitement:- opening statement of the letter should reflect exciting or good news that the time to resume activities has finally returned and the employees need to keep their spirit alive by focusing on the organization’s vision and striving to take it forward.
Communicate new or revised protocols:- Notify the employees if any changes have been made to existing policies or if any new policies have been defined to run the operations. Also, elaborate on the protocols the employees need to take care of.
Emergency or Query Mechanism:- Share the details of the relevant focal person(s) who need to be contacted in case of any emergency, unfortunate incident, or query.
Acknowledgment statement:- close the letter by acknowledging the devotion and work of the employees for carrying the mission of the organization forward.

Sample Letter

Date

[Complete name of Recipient]
[Designation]
[Organization]
[Address]

Dear Mr./Ms. [X],

I would like to extend my gratitude that we have been able to survive the [X] by staying safe and positive.

The letter is written documentation to inform you about the re-opening of the office from July 13, 20XX. The office timings have been revised. The new timings will be from 9:30 Hours to 17:30 Hours. Therefore, you are requested to get back to work on the said date. In order to avoid a new surge in the cases of [X], we have closed the dining area. All of the departmental offices have been equipped with sanitizers and fumigants. The following guidelines will be in effect from July 13, 20XX:

The employees not wearing masks and gloves shall not be allowed to enter the workplace
A salary deduction will be made for the employee failing to continue work due to the reason tabulated above, for the respective day(s)
Social distancing will be practiced by each employee
A fine of $[X] will be charged from each employee on a gathering of 4 or above people
In case of suspect or symptoms, the employee must communicate to the relevant focal person(s) immediately

We appreciate your tireless effort and devotion to your work during the prevalent crisis. We hope to witness the continuation of the same spirit.

To address queries or an emergency, the management has nominated Mr./Ms. [full name], [designation]. He/she can be contacted at [Email] or [Phone].

Looking forward to seeing you once again.

Sincerely,

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