Embracing the New Normal: Tips for Ensuring Employee Safety When Returning to the Office

Not long after finally figuring out how to empower employees to work effectively from their kitchen tables or makeshift home offices, employers are now facing the new challenge of getting their workers back into the office safely. Returning to the office during the COVID-19 pandemic is an experience fraught with anxiety and uncertainty for employees.

There are lots of considerations that both companies and employees have to make when returning to work in the office to ensure a safe and smooth transition. The risk of spreading and contracting the virus increases when people are working together in an office, so we can’t quite return to business as usual. Managing and limiting the number of workers in the office at any given time is crucial to protecting worker health.

Social Distancing Is Key

Social distancing will remain a key aspect of modern work life for some time. One of the first steps that employers will have to take when preparing the office for the return of employees is to space out workstations so that workers can practice proper social distancing. It’s also important to limit the number of people walking around the building at the same time to prevent the risk of spreading the virus.

The Workspace Booking App features an interactive floor plan that helps employees visualize exactly which workspaces are available and where they are located, so it makes it easy for them to book workspaces and find them quickly once they arrive at the office.

Workers will know exactly which workspaces they will be using, even before they get to the office. This limits the number of employees who are moving around the office at any given time to find an available workspace. Staff can also use the app to review detailed information about meeting rooms, such as their maximum capacity and any equipment that’s available.

In addition, a digital meeting directory can be placed in a central location so that users can quickly and easily find their meeting room and see which meeting rooms are booked.

Avoid Touching Shared Surfaces as Much as Possible 

By labeling workspaces and meeting rooms with QR codes that users can scan with their mobile devices, companies can prevent employees from having to touch more shared surfaces than they need to. Employees simply scan the QR code with their mobile device to check in or check out of a workspace.

Enable Contact Tracing

Knowing where employees have been working, with whom, and at what time is crucial to being able to perform contact tracing in case someone in the office starts showing symptoms of COVID-19. Armed with information about each employee’s whereabouts at any given time, you can quickly prevent further spread of the virus and notify employees who have come into contact with the infected person so they can quarantine.

Most business will undergo a multitude of changes in the months ahead to adapt to this new normal. Let Add-On Products help ease this transition back into the office with our suite of tools for meeting room and workspace management.

Contact us today to schedule a free trial or free online demo.