While lockdown continues to prevail, we witness the government easing the restrictions, especially on businesses. The companies are allowed to call a part of their total workforce to the “real offices”. However, the transition from “home office” to the actual would not be a cakewalk.
The government sure has propounded a checklist that employees must follow. It still requires employers to do a lot of rethinking, and reworking primarily from these three lenses and aspects- societal, governmental and environmental.
This blog is our attempt to help you as an employer rethink your workplace to keep the work going and keeping your employees safe — both together.
Set the new infra
It’s quite a conundrum for employers and administrators to set the work desks again.
Now, stepping out and going to work is inevitable. “Stay home, stay safe” norm is changing to “Go out, but with care” swiftly. The offices will again become the places people spend the most time in. Hence, redoing the setup to facilitate physical distancing is necessary. You can take help from websites like Robin Powered, that are specially built to create workplaces that keep employees at a distance from each other.
- No handshake policy- This reinforces the idea of physical distancing yet again. No handshake doesn’t only signify you cannot shake hands but also that you are expected to not hang out with your office pals. Make it clear that they are being called to the office to work with the right tools and equipment as their job is critical and can’t be done as effectively from home.
- Sit and eat at your work desk- It is necessary to restrict the movement of employees just like their gathering. While the employees are inside the office, they must not also move a lot in the corridor or anywhere in the office. This can aggravate the spread of the virus. For the more people that pass by an infected person or the more metal he touches, the more are the chances of it spreading.
So, request them to move only when they want to use washrooms, and even have their lunch at their work desks only. In addition to this, they should also start using HRMS software to mark their attendance without biometric.
Get deep sanitisation services
Remember that your office needs sanitisation and deep cleaning DAILY. We advise you to outsource this service for several months. The right tools and disinfectants will keep your office space and people safe. Besides, keep an alcohol-based toiled-seat sanitizer for people to use before and after they use the washroom to disinfect the seats.
Use air purification systems
Our body releases droplets when we talk, breathe or cough. While most of them fall on the ground quickly, some of them remain in the air for longer. If the person is infected, the virus can spread So, air purification systems should be used on every floor of your office. They will purify the air and reduce the chances of infection spread.
Collaborate on-call only-
Even when in office, avoid holding group meetings. Meet one to one for a work discussion only when it cannot be done virtually. Otherwise, stay at your desks and coordinate through chats, virtual rooms and video calls, etc. Try to restrict the movement of employees in and around their work desks only. A good HRMS software or other collaboration tools can surely help.
The health crisis in no time started turning into an economic crisis and led to recession.especially during the complete lockdown. Hence, announcing the gradual opening of businesses was a necessary and expected step from the authorities.
Now it’s on the businesses how well they will use it rightly. Let’s hope it doesn’t usher the next wave.
Although no one can predict the same, we all as employees and employers have a very critical role to play. If we rethink workplaces and unlearn the old ways to commute, work and collaborate — this can be a success. For instance, something as simple as using an HR software in India that is fully on-mobile like HROne can be used to collaborate(share files, chat and more to follow physical distancing diligently).
The brighter side remains the chance/hope of making the economy sturdier and the virus spread minimal.