Reopening Workplaces Post-covid 19: How To Plan Your Employees’ Return
30 Jun 2020
Middle East Insights
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As lockdowns begin to ease around the world, organisations are faced with an unprecedented question: how can they bring employees back into the workplace without compromising their health?
Companies are not only tasked with taking every precautionary measure to keep their workplaces healthy for their employees, but they will also have to manage the inevitable change in office culture as meetings, face-to-face interactions, and employee schedules will be significantly impacted by safety protocols.
Below are the major challenges businesses must prepare for before reopening their office spaces to employees:
Employee concerns for safety
While some employees may welcome the prospect of returning to the office, others may be stressed about the risk posed to their health. Managers must assure their staff that their organisation is implementing stringent safety protocols at the office. Whilst communication may still be challenging for managers in these times, virtual town hall events where employees may offer their views and suggestions are a good idea.
Implementing physical distancing measures
It is not enough to just communicate expectations regarding physical distancing at work to employees. Several office-wide changes are required, such as increasing desk spacing, limiting office cooler interactions, putting a cap on meeting sizes, enforcing recommended habits like hand sanitising and disinfecting common areas regularly.
Some organisations may have to opt for larger-scale measures, such as renting additional space to accommodate physically distanced workstations for critical workers. All of these changes require considerable time and energy to plan and enforce, not to mention the added monetary costs.
Creating new workflows and accountability systems
Companies should only bring back employees whose physical presence is required for efficient business operations, and stagger the schedules of those employees to keep the volume of people low at the office.
Managers also have to be sensitive to individual circumstances, such as lack of childcare or risk of exposure during a long transit, and prepare to offer leeway to certain employees. As a result of these situations, managers will have to create new workflows and systems of accountability to ensure that their staff is efficiently and harmoniously working together regardless of their locations. In order to meet these challenges head-on, businesses have to draft a coordinated plan for enacting multiple levels of preparatory measures.
At CBRE, we have developed a Workplace RESET process to help organisations reopen their offices.
The Workplace RESET process has four facets:
Space Reset, which involves an examination of office capacity and floorplans to develop guidelines for maintaining physical distancing at the workplace. Additionally, hot zones (as in, highly frequented areas like washrooms and cafeteria) may require layout changes as will other necessary office areas.
Occupancy Reset, which involves the creation of a schedule for employee return, based on their ability to perform their roles from home, the nature of their jobs and personal preferences.
Environment Reset, which involves an assessment of your mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems to determine risks of virus transmission through those facilities. A cost-effective mitigation plan is provided.
Portfolio Reset, which involves an evaluation regarding additional office space to facilitate physical distancing. The service includes finding an appropriate location for the client.
Is your company seeking professional guidance for managing your employees’ post-COVID return? At CBRE, we have developed a Workplace RESET process to help organisations reopen their offices.
Below are the major challenges businesses must prepare for before reopening their office spaces to employees:
Employee concerns for safety
While some employees may welcome the prospect of returning to the office, others may be stressed about the risk posed to their health. Managers must assure their staff that their organisation is implementing stringent safety protocols at the office. Whilst communication may still be challenging for managers in these times, virtual town hall events where employees may offer their views and suggestions are a good idea.
Implementing physical distancing measures
It is not enough to just communicate expectations regarding physical distancing at work to employees. Several office-wide changes are required, such as increasing desk spacing, limiting office cooler interactions, putting a cap on meeting sizes, enforcing recommended habits like hand sanitising and disinfecting common areas regularly.
Some organisations may have to opt for larger-scale measures, such as renting additional space to accommodate physically distanced workstations for critical workers. All of these changes require considerable time and energy to plan and enforce, not to mention the added monetary costs.
Creating new workflows and accountability systems
Companies should only bring back employees whose physical presence is required for efficient business operations, and stagger the schedules of those employees to keep the volume of people low at the office.
Managers also have to be sensitive to individual circumstances, such as lack of childcare or risk of exposure during a long transit, and prepare to offer leeway to certain employees. As a result of these situations, managers will have to create new workflows and systems of accountability to ensure that their staff is efficiently and harmoniously working together regardless of their locations. In order to meet these challenges head-on, businesses have to draft a coordinated plan for enacting multiple levels of preparatory measures.
At CBRE, we have developed a Workplace RESET process to help organisations reopen their offices.
The Workplace RESET process has four facets:
Space Reset, which involves an examination of office capacity and floorplans to develop guidelines for maintaining physical distancing at the workplace. Additionally, hot zones (as in, highly frequented areas like washrooms and cafeteria) may require layout changes as will other necessary office areas.
Occupancy Reset, which involves the creation of a schedule for employee return, based on their ability to perform their roles from home, the nature of their jobs and personal preferences.
Environment Reset, which involves an assessment of your mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems to determine risks of virus transmission through those facilities. A cost-effective mitigation plan is provided.
Portfolio Reset, which involves an evaluation regarding additional office space to facilitate physical distancing. The service includes finding an appropriate location for the client.
Is your company seeking professional guidance for managing your employees’ post-COVID return? At CBRE, we have developed a Workplace RESET process to help organisations reopen their offices.