Not too long ago, most companies with numerous teams and employees working at various offices were asked to send their workers home, for the sake of reducing the spread of the virus. While most larger companies still need to adhere to this rule, some, smaller businesses are beginning to go back to their regular work hours at the office, and it’s down to their daily behavior and precautions to continue implementing preventative steps to stay healthy.
So, before you let your teams start hurrying back to the office, it’s your main responsibility to update your office with all the needed prerequisites for sanitation and elevated standards of hygiene, and to educate them on what steps they should take as soon as they do come back. To make sure you have all of your bases covered, take a look at the following tips to keep your office healthy and clean for as long as the pandemic lasts – and beyond.
Social distancing still matters
Since your teams won’t be seated at all times and you have to enable some level of interaction, you should at least remind them and enforce those basic social distancing rules. That includes keeping their distance at six feet at all times, and reducing the number of people per office to avoid large groups of people spending too much time in the same place.
Add to that, when you need to set up a meeting, make sure that no more than 10 people are present, and that you are using a conference room enabling you to respect the listed precautions of social distancing. Providing ample disinfectants for their hands is a bonus for these occasions, too.
Provide your employees with accessories
From giving your team peace of mind, reducing stress and fear from getting infected, and above all, for ensuring optimal protection, each employee needs to use a surgical face mask when they are at the office. Having enough supplies to replace them as per regulations and recommendations is necessary to make sure that these masks are actually doing what they are intended to do: reduce virus exposure in case someone is indeed infected, but asymptomatic.
In addition to masks, some of your employees handling more than their own computer should consider using gloves, as well, although combining sanitizers, regular hand washing, and social distancing will likely be enough. Also, make sure you have separate bins for these disposable items to get rid of them according to protocol and for increased safety.
Daily office disinfection
Hopefully, your office is built using resilient materials that make sanitation simple and easy, but you still need to introduce regular disinfection by professionals in your building, to prepare your office space for your employees coming back to the office, and to make sure a clean space greets them every single day.
This means that you should talk to your office building cleaning crew to check what kind of precautions they are taking, and to set up a daily cleaning schedule that will provide your teams with optimal levels of cleanliness and hygiene.
Rethink your office layout
The physical space in your office might be perfectly designed to comfortably fit fifty people or more. That doesn’t mean that you are now given the all-clear to fit that same number of people in your office, hence the need to change the layout and remove any excess chairs and desks, to ensure social distancing rules are implemented.
Add to that, you should create a schedule for using the kitchen and other smaller rooms in your office, so as to avoid closer interaction.
Stick with remote work in certain departments
Some business sectors do depend on working at the office, and others can live without this level of interaction. Before you immediately push for office-based work for all of your teams even though you run a small business, think about the option to let some of your employees continue working remotely. For example, graphic designers can often successfully work from home if they have the right equipment, and the same applies to your marketers and content creators.
To ensure seamless collaboration with your office-based team, do find a reliable task management tool that will keep your employees in the loop, let them communicate with ease, and exchange ideas in real-time whenever they need to.
Some rules go without saying, such as regularly washing your hands for 20 seconds, and using tissues when sneezing and coughing – but other than that, most people will need some time to adapt to these new changes. Create your business protocol for safe office conduct, and you’ll not only prevent the spread of the virus, but you’ll provide a healthy workspace for all of your employees and ensure their peace of mind for better productivity and better results, too.
Guest Author, Raul Harman, s a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. While he’s not enjoying travel, football and great food, you can find him on Technivorz.com.
