The workplace ‘new normal’ is a phrase you’ve probably already read or heard ten times today. There is no certainty on what the return to work may look like, but the reality is that heading back to the workplace will look different for every business.
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Thanks to the accelerating digital transformation of the workplace, organisations are able to find new ways to empower colleagues with digital user experiences, assist them in adopting remote working when needed, whilst increasing workplace safety, productivity, and real estate efficiency. But how does it help when you need to transition from a remote workforce to returning to a physical workplace?
This blog outlines the key areas that each business should review and address before deciding what the ‘new normal’ will look like for their workplace. Find out how workplace digital transformation can be used to reduce expensive real-estate overheads to keep the business functioning and your customers happy.
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First things first, address office capacity
To make social distancing work for your business, the first thing business leaders need to assess is how many employees you can have in the office at any given time for social distancing to work and to be effective. For many businesses, this figure may be half or more of the previous capacity.
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Control workspace availability
From here, you must review and adapt your existing workplace seating plans and meeting room capacities to encourage effective social distancing and prevent overcrowding.
By utilising a desk booking, or meeting room booking software, like Cloudbooking, businesses can manage workspace seating capacities remotely to set out capacity limits to introduce safe social distancing measures. Installing QR codes or desk sensors allow you to apply desk zoning for specific teams or shift patterns and send workspace sanitisation requests to the facilities team after an employee checks out.
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Desk assignment
Plan and manage your employees individual space as they return to the office, to help them work safely with predetermined desk assignments or bookings.
With Cloudbooking, businesses can pre-plan workplace seating arrangements for colleagues and teams returning to the office and send booking confirmations to colleagues with low touch desk check-in instructions using QR codes.
Once implemented, businesses can utilise agile sensor technology to help identify additional opportunities to reduce the space used and even reduce real-estate costs that can be feedback into the business to boost employee morality and business longevity.
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Low touch booking systems
It doesn’t all have to be monitored by an office manager. By utilising the same low touch booking technology via QR codes; employees can use their personal mobile device to book, check-in and out of desks and meeting rooms, so the return to work policy can run without dedicated booking support staff.
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Low touch check-in and visitor screening
It is not just workers that businesses need to think about. To keep the business running, many workplaces need to receive visitors and welcome additional personnel on-site. Low touch visitor management allows staff and visitors check-in via a QR code on their own device. Cloudbooking’s enhanced visitor management service also allows organisations to pre-register visitors and manage access approvals via a centralised team to ensure safety screening for visitors and colleagues, while managing employee wellbeing.
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Workplace contact tracing
Once you have the systems in place to manage employees and visitors both before and once they arrive at the office, during the ongoing pandemic its best practice to monitor their time in the workplace. By utilising Cloudbooking’s contact tracing functionality, any individuals who have become infected can be identified, triggering an alert of where they’ve worked and who was near-by to ensure appropriate steps and sanitisation measures are actions. This is monitored by the low touch QR code check-in management or workspace assignment for desks and meeting rooms.
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Ensure workspace sanitisation
Workspace hygiene and colleague health must be maintained through regular cleaning schedules and checks for all areas of the office. Desks and meeting rooms must be sanitised between uses to reduce the spread of potential infections to keep employees safe and give them peace of mind. Workspace sanitisation requests can be triggered once an employee checks out of a desk or meeting room. The facilities team can also be notified of ‘routine’ or ‘deep clean’ requirements depending on traffic in certain areas.
The end goal for businesses must be to optimise safety, improved productivity, and ultimately increase efficiency for their workplace. Implementing social distancing measures, cost-effective low touch booking technologies, controlling workspace availability, and reducing desk and meeting room capacities will all assist in your fight against COVID-19 as you begin the return to work.
How can Cloudbooking help your business transition to a new way of working?
View our COVID-19 workplace solutions or contact us to learn more.
