No matter your political affiliation or personal opinion about COVID 19, its severity, or the accuracy of statistics, it has and will affect the office environment going forward.
In an office environment, there are many opinions and perspectives to account for. Employee’s safety and the safety of their families must be considered. Also, life must go on and at some point, a large percentage of employees must go back to the Office. Not all employees will return to an office environment as the work from home (WFH) option has certainly been forced and gained traction…but a lot will. Because of that, businesses with an office environment will need to be evaluated and prepared (likely modified) for employees to return.
These potential preparations include office furniture cleaning and sterilization, office reconfiguration, and the addition of personal protection equipment (PPE).
Office Furniture Cleaning and Sterilization
Office furniture cleaning and sterilization includes steam cleaning fabric or soft surfaces and wiping down hard surfaces with germ and virus killing products that won’t hurt the furniture. This will give employees, managers, and Human Resource teams a good clean baseline starting point for safe office return and can set new standards for office cleaning protocols.
Office Furniture Reconfiguration
Office reconfiguration includes resizing and rearranging Existing office cubicles and other furniture to allow for larger walkways and make sure all employees are properly spaced while at their workstation. While the open areas will likely be less packed with cubicles or open benching furniture, these areas are the most likely for the spreading of the virus and therefore will need the most attention at this point.
Reconfiguring existing furniture can be a cost-effective way to accommodate the new normal. Density and cost savings is no longer a top factor in space planning with the new safety concerns all business owners and managers now face.
Personal Protection Equipment or PPE
PPE used to be a term used on construction sites to describe the required safety equipment required to be allowed on the dangerous job site (think Hard hat, steel toe boots, safety glasses, bright-colored safety vest). Now, it is being used to describe face masks, hand sanitizer, acrylic or glass partitions between employees, and even Office Panel extenders added to cubicle panels to make them taller and help divide space more effectively.
Manufacturers have acted quickly to develop and refine existing products to help divide open-concept spaces. These products can be used to provide more private and quiet space as well as a layer of protection from one another. These dividing products are considerably less expensive than all new furniture and they are a way to help accommodate people sitting less than 6 feet apart at their workspaces.
C-Serv provides painless workspace transformation services through a quality partnership with all of the businesses we work with. We can help your office reach a new standard and make it safer for your employees to return to the office with any of the above-mentioned services.
