As autumn and winter are approaching, more and more is being said about COVID-19 and related restrictions. After a few warm summer months with a smaller number of positive cases, when we could breathe a sigh of relief, we are now back at the point where a new pandemic wave is starting to spread at the speed of light. This is not good news for many business owners, who will need to change the organization of work at offices once again. Read our article to learn how to protect your employees from getting sick and provide them with safe working conditions.
Offices in times of pandemic
Workplace pandemic policies are shifting all the time, which is related to the changing circumstances. Last autumn, when the pandemic reached its culmination point, many offices offered their employees the possibility to work from home and the offices themselves were organized in a new, different way. For many people, it was a kind of a revolution, which now has become a standard. Giving their employees a possibility to maintain social distance, keep the area in which they spend time always clean and sterilized, as well as performing routine and random temperature screenings are only a few examples of how office owners dealt with COVID.
Preparing your office for COVID-19
There is a number of ways in which you can prepare your office for the next COVID wave. However, you should always start with instructing your employees on how they should behave when at work. The introduced measures can only be effective when the employees stick to them. If they ignore the rules, don’t keep the required distance or come to work with a raised temperature, keeping the rest of the staff healthy can be difficult, if not impossible.
Organizing the office in a well-planned way
Once your employees know how they are expected to behave, you can also introduce other changes to the office. The most important is a proper office layout. Many offices are closed spaces with a huge number of desks, one close to another. Unfortunately, such working conditions are not the best when it comes to safety. The recommended distance between employees should be at least 1.5 meters. Always keep that in mind and ask your employees not to sit closer to each other.
To make things easier for your employees, opt for Deski, an app for desk reservations. This is a simple, yet very intuitive solution, which will help you enforce the rules. The application allows workers to reserve seats and decide on where they want to spend a day at work. It also allows you to determine which desks should be out of use, or set up blocking desks that are near to other colleagues. What is more, the app keeps track of your employees’ presence at work. If someone gets sick, you can easily check who else might be in danger.
Cleaning and sanitizing
Another very important aspect that you simply need to take into consideration while preparing for the upcoming pandemic wave is cleaning. Although many companies hire cleaners or specialized cleaning companies to perform a thorough cleaning, usually once or twice a week, this may not be enough. This is why your office should be equipped with dispensers offering hand sanitisers and, of course, hand soap in the bathroom. Asking your employees to clean their desks with sanitiser every time they leave work is a great option to keep the office clean and healthy.
Unfortunately, offices are places where people can easily catch coronavirus. This is why you should do everything in your power, not to let it happen. If you feel that your employees are not sticking to COVID-19 measures when at work, make things easier for them. A desk reservation system, which points to the desks that can be seated, is among one of the most convenient solutions that you can adopt.
Don’t know where to start?
Start with us! Choose a desk-booking app with a simple, yet powerful interface. We can help you find an optimal configuration for your office. Booking a desk should be nothing but a single click! Get familiar with Deski – a desktop and mobile web app with real-time reservations. Set your own reservation rules and separate office space – it’s all up to you! If you have any questions about our hot-desking solution, let us know!