As Coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions start to ease, business owners now have the unenviable task of preparing their office space to be suitable for employees returning from furlough or from working from home.
There is a long list of safety measures that will be need to be put into place to ensure social distancing is upheld and that employees are effectively protected from the threat of infection. What are these measures you can take? Well, it’s time to find out.
Separate Desks With Protective Screens
One of the first and easiest changes to make to help protect your employees is to implement protective screens in between desks to reduce the possibility of contamination. When it comes to the screens available there are a variety of options from just plastic screens to clear PVC screens.
This UK based blinds company has started providing clear hygiene screens for this very purpose, that can either be erected from the floor, or fit to the ceiling and drape down called RollerScreens, and use NHS approved hospital grade materials, so you can rest safe knowing that your employees are protected.
Reduce Employees In Office With Split Shifts
Having a large team of employees begin and end work at the same time can be disastrous for social distancing, with a large group of people entering the office at the same time, leaving for lunch together and then eventually heading home at the same time.
This can be resolved by splitting shift times for your employees, rather than having your whole workforce begin work at 9am, allow for some people to start earlier or later to allow for a more steady stream of people entering and leaving the offices without large groups entering/exiting at once.
If your employees were working from home, you can take this a step further, by having some people remain to work at home, but come into the office on certain days to reduce how many workers are in your office at any one time, having half of your WFH employees in the office Monday & Tuesday, then the other half in on Wednesday and Thursday.
Clean And Reduce Touchpoints
Another simple task, make sure that any touchpoints in your office are being cleaned frequently, whether by a cleaner or a staff member. Door handles, water coolers, etc will need to cleaned frequently and employees keyboards, mouses and phones will need cleaning on a less frequent basis if they’re being used by one person, but in cases where multiple people may use an item, it should be cleaned after each use.
Also you should reduce communal touchpoints as much as possible, so this means no hot desking, reducing meetings around a table etc, to reduce the amount of areas multiple people will touch, this should all help mitigate the threat.
