Deep Clean and Regular Cleaning
Before inviting staff back to the office, you should ensure that the office has undergone a thorough cleaning with disinfectant. This not only makes sure that the staff have a hygienic workplace to return to, but also reassures clients that you are taking hygiene and safety measures seriously. Go a step further and encourage your employees to take a proactive approach to cleaning and hygiene. Staff should regularly clean their personal workspaces, especially the most frequently touched items such as keyboard, mouse and desk surface.
Social Distancing
When reopening the office, this is arguably the most difficult but most important way to keep staff safe. For hygiene purposes, staff should be distanced as much as possible. This will probably mean taking away or adjusting any social areas, changing the seating plan to ensure distance between workplaces and in some cases even installing dividers between seats. Meetings should be kept to a minimum number of participants physically attending and big group gatherings, such as eating lunch, should be discouraged. Physical contact, such as handshaking, should not be permitted.
One-Way System
Introducing arrows on the floors to direct flow can prevent many people crossing the same spaces. Not only does this assist social distancing, it reduces exposure time between people. This is especially important for the entrances and exits of the building to avoid many people crossing over at peak times. With this in mind, implementing a staggered entry and exit time may also be useful to prevent many people coming into close contact.
Hand Sanitisers and PPE
Access to hand sanitiser, water and soap dispensers should be a no-brainer when reopening the office space. Staff should have no excuses not to be keeping their hands clean. There should be hand sanitiser available upon entering and exiting the building as well as being readily available in meeting rooms and around the workspace. Some employers are going that extra step further by adding hand washing stations at the entrances of their facilities.
For those staff members who need to interact with each other, contact should be minimised and PPE should be worn when necessary.
Entry Points
When staff enter the building, they are coming from many different places with various levels of exposure. This is especially true for those employees travelling to work via public transport. Subsequently, the entry point of the building is the first opportunity for hygiene measures to be implemented. There should be hand sanitiser available as soon as staff enter the building as well as facilities to disinfect their shoes.