Getting the office ready for the big return

July 5, 2021 John

The world has been in the midst of a pandemic for the best part of 18 months, and it’s just now that many businesses are discussing bringing their businesses back to the office.

As much as many employees may want to be at home for longer, you might be hungry to get your business moving forward again and that may mean bringing everyone back to their desks. If this is the case for your business, you need to get your office ready for the big return.

It’s more than the professional cleaners coming in to do a dusting, or calling the HVAC specialists to check out the air conditioning, there is more that you have to do to get this right! You need to ensure that the people in your employment are comfortable and safe when they make their big return to the office. So, with this in mind, here are some of the tips to ensure that you have an office ready for the big return post-COVID.

Get sanitised. You need to bring in the cleaners, yes, but you should ensure that you bring in the deep cleaners who can sanitise the entire office and stairwells. You should have an office that has been disinfected properly so that your employees feel safe. Employ a great company to come in every day and deep clean space.
Change your sickness policies. While the larger lockdowns are finishing now, the snap lockdowns are still happening. When the cases get too high and your staff have to lockdown or isolate because of a cold, you need to ensure that you have the right, supportive sickness policies to accommodate the new health and safety rules.
Encourage people to be open. If you have staff that are immunocompromised, one of the best things that you can do is encourage your staff to speak up and say if they prefer people to wear masks when standing in the office. Encouraging people to speak up in the office will ensure that people are comfortable.
Keep up the rewards. It’s going to be a transition for people to get back to the office after spending so much time working from home, but you can make this transition an easy one if you’re rewarding everyone for the effort that they make to come back to the office. Offer incentives to those able to come back to the office, and for those stuck at home, make sure that they are still comfortable, too.
Check in regularly. Not only do you want to encourage contact track and trace, but you also need to be on top of how your people are feeling as they come back to the office. It’s a new world and you all need to be aware of how your employees are feeling. Coworking is like a family, and making people feel comfortable in their positions is one of the best things that you can do to encourage happiness and relaxation as well as productivity.