Reinstating Your Workplace for the Coronavirus-Era
by William Outcault
Monday, May 11th, 2020
How will our daily workflow be affected after this next phase is initiated? Cafeterias may be closed, desks separated by plastic and hallways will be made one-way.
These are all speculations made by the Wall Street Journal, however this could be the dim reality for the next few months, or maybe years? Amenities given by successful ‘white-collar environments’ could be limited in order to mitigate the spread of germs. As per the WSJ they mention no more snack containers, coffee bars or elaborate gyms inside the workplace. But what does this mean for us medium sized companies?
Guidance on Return to Work
At Strike Force our offices are separated, they are not part of one open space. This seems to benefit us as we do not share as many high-traffic areas. Less plastic between desks because we already have dry-wall between one another. Instead, our focus remains on our common areas. We have a waiting room for visitors and a greeting desk that our employees pass every morning when clocking in. We have our coffee bar, in addition to our conference room, training room, and cafeteria, all of which need to be treated with particular care.
These high-traffic areas must be modified and treated with disinfectant regularly. One particular suggestion would be to include disposable pads atop chairs and to limit persons in each room. Companies such as Infor, a New York-based cloud software company are mandating masks while working. Discover Financial Solutions in Chicago are placing X’s on desks and chairs that might place employees too close to one another. They have even gone so far as to making some hallways and stairwells one-way while completely shutting down conference rooms. Another popular procedure is assigning workers to come in on different days of the week in order to allow for more space between employees.
A more sensible approach has been to equip your employees with the necessary PPP equipment. Supply your staff with gloves, masks and hand sanitizer. Treat your work environment with routine disinfecting and cleaning. Inform each employee of proper precautions necessary to reduce the spread of the virus and identify those high-traffic locations within the office. Be aware and be proactive, but do not cripple your staff be introducing ‘A’ and ‘B’ days. Do not go crazy covering furniture with plastic and restricting employees from walking in a certain direction in a hallway. Routine disinfecting and teaching staff the proper procedures will be the most cost-effective approach to a safe reopening.
Wall Street Journal – Reopening the Coronavirus-Era Office: One-Person Elevators, No Cafeterias