Is the Office Ready for Your Return?

Is the Office Ready for Your Return?

Conversations are slowly shifting from ‘Working From Home‘ to the inevitable ‘How do we return to the office or workplace safely’ and in what capacity. Its perhaps one of the weightier questions Australian businesses are asking and will ask in 2020.

So we wanted to explore some ideas and strategies some workplaces and experts have shared with us in recent weeks. JLL’s Australian office have recently released a guide book titled ‘Re Entry‘ a simple and effective title, really says it all right. For me however it strike just how impressive those words have been to the human race in the past 70 odd years as oft referring to Space exploration craft final safe return to homeland Earth but today a very different world would await these explorers.

Office, Conferencing, Serviced and Coworking spaces alike have had to adapt considerably to new workplace health & safety measures and with superior urgency, not unlike as the PM oft referred to being with military like purpose.

So what have workplaces to do, well take heed of the Gov recomendations for a start, these are backed by various expert agencies and health departments making considdered and just in time investigations. For our own part JLL’s Workplace Strategists recommend we considder some pratical elements to workplace re-entry, that would otherwise have been taken for granted pre COVID-19.

Building Access, expect a wait to gain entry esp in larger multi-tenanted buildings, all the while keep your safe distance from others. Perhaps a handy tip here is consider an alternative time to arrive at the office, work with your HR team to build a program that works for your team, perhaps time slots of 30 mins x amount of employees may arrive. If all workplaces followed this then wait times would b reduced and workers feel safer on their journey to the workplace.

Tenancy Entry, you have made it into the building, used sanitiser at least once and now at your office, consider the ‘High Touch Points’ so keep your sanitiser handy once you’re through them all. Your office/employer will have also arranged deep sanitising cleans nightly, all desks, chairs, screens and generally high touch point areas.

Your Desk & surrounds, afraid you will have to pick one & stick like glue as Hot Desking and Activity Based Working are a No-No these days. Perhaps the biggest consideration within your return to workplace strategy is our behaviour, i.e. It is up to responsibility of the individual to be sensible and considerate of others safety. Clean up after yourself, naturally its was never someone else’s job to pick up after you but now we need to go a step further and wipe down any surfaces touched ‘high touch points’. Maybe best to ensure you have ample sanitising wipes or materials on hand. Regular deep cleaning of the workspace by professional cleaning services and finally work points are at least 1.5m apart so maybe the cluster of desks will be half full & staff staggered to hit the desired distancing measure.

These are just a few ideas and strategies to consider in your return to the work place approach, so best to do a little research, check Government Health updates and talk to a workplace professional for the latest tips to help guide you through this new challenge in the aftermath of COVID-19.