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At the start of the year, the office was a hive of activity. It was when all your employees met up to work, discuss the best way to tackle a project and set new objectives to grow the business. Over the last few months, most offices across America have been anything but active as offices shut overnight at the start of the pandemic. In many cases, employees wouldn’t have known that a normal day in the office would have been their last until the summer.
As restrictions begin to relax, it’s time to start planning how you’ll welcome your team back to the office. Here are some key steps you should take to ensure their safety.
Clean
The first step is pretty obvious. Your office space will have gathered a lot of dust, a lot of cobwebs and there could even be some very moldy food left around the office. Although you probably already have a team contracted to clean your workplace, it might be necessary to employ the services of an external company who can give the office a deeper clean than normal. Every surface needs to be cleaned, as there’s no way of knowing which of your employees could have had the virus before lockdown and what they could have touched.
Test the facilities
Once you’ve cleaned the office, it’s important that all the facilities still work. When left unused for several months, some of your utilities like water, electricity or even the bathrooms could need maintenance before they’re ready for use again. This is especially true if your business has a septic tank, as sewage spills can occur a lot more often than you think.
For example, ERS are a company who deal with Orlando Sewage Cleanup Restoration Ideas problems on a daily basis. A sewage problem could cause another major health hazard that could shut your office down as quickly as it did before. If there are any problems, make sure you contact a professional team who are equipped to work with such problems.
Signs and lines
You’ve probably seen the signs across malls and food stores across your area. Consider whether your office could benefit from the same one-way systems. Measure communal areas and decide how many people can safely use each space at any one time. Also consider introducing floor markings to make sure people keep their distance away from each other to stop the potential spread of the virus. It may also be necessary to move desks or remove working stations that are too close to each other.
Ease into the new normal
One of the most important things to remember is not to rush. Many businesses have been able to continue to run with employees working from home. Ask only the most essential workers and those who need to be back in the building to complete their day-to-day tasks to come back first. Once you are confident your workplace is safe, then you can start to introduce more colleagues.
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