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Contributed by: Admin 2

Top 5 Tips for Re-Opening Offices Including Outsourced Solutions

Contributed by Nancy Matura, National Sales Executive

After a few months into the vaccine rollout, several businesses are planning to return-to-office while a significant number has already done so. However, health and safety considerations remain integral for all types of offices. Office building employers, managers, and leaders must not only take essential safety precautions but they should also understand the implications of each step and plan on employee health and wellbeing. Some of the steps that can work as a good approach toward creating a safe and healthy workplace include:

Office Layout & Physical Barriers

For office buildings, CDC recommends maintaining social distance of 6 feet between employees, where possible. One of the most effective ways to maintain this distance is through the adjustment of office furniture and workstations as well as the seating in other areas such as conference rooms, reception, break rooms, etc. As it may not always be possible to rearrange the layout effectively in all offices, the use of transparent shields or similar physical barriers should be used as an alternate to social distancing.

Visual Cues

In order to ensure social distancing is implemented, using signs, decals, and tape marks can help in guiding employees and other visitors about where to stand and how far apart is a safe distance to maintain from where they are standing.

Trustworthy Leadership

The recent pandemic have caused return-to-work anxiety among most employees. As a result, they are looking to leadership to navigate these uncertain times and model the behaviors they see. Office employers should not only lead by example, following expert guidelines and SOPs but also showing empathy by listening to employees to promote a culture of collaboration, to make sure their safety measures are tailored around employee expectations, and to ensure that the employees can trust their company has kept employee well-being as top priority.

Protocol to Remind Others

While most businesses are engaging in training employees on SOPs that they must adhere to, it is important to include a new protocol for politely and discretely reminding a colleague to follow safe practices if they are found violating them. Make it a simple please and thank you conversation without anyone being impolite or feeling offended.

Outsourced Cleaning & Facilities Maintenance Services

Most businesses realize that the coronavirus pandemic has brought some permanent changes in several operations and functions, including their cleaning and facilities maintenance protocols. For instance, the ‘new normal’ work environment necessitates disinfecting surfaces and high touch-points as a daily standard procedure. Similarly, other cleaning protocols also require higher frequency than before. Implementing new protocols along with other SOPs to be followed by the employees and visitors in office buildings, it is being considered beneficial to work with an outsourced facilities maintenance partner to ensure most effecting cleaning and disinfecting protocols are performed to mitigate the risk of possible exposure to coronavirus and other harmful pathogens. Successful and experienced service providers have revisited their original programs to meet the new requirements and expert recommended guidelines. These companies have also modified their employee training programs to ensure the on-ground staff understands the requirements for creating safe workplaces and resolving the common concerns among customers and their employees.

Diversified Maintenance has competently enhanced its cleaning and disinfecting protocols for offices and corporate headquarters while responding proactively to the new demands of high frequency schedules. To learn more about comprehensive facilities maintenance programs tailored around the unique requirements of different types of workspaces, send me a note at: Nancy Matura nmatura@diversifiedm.com.