As employees start to return to the office, you’ll likely be eager to provide your team with a safe, hygienic environment.
A safe space will not only prevent your employees from coming into contact with coronavirus, but also ease team members’ anxiety.
Provide your staff with peace of mind by learning how to create a COVID-safe office space.
Perform a COVID-19 Risk Assessment
If you have yet to do so, you must perform a COVID-19 risk assessment. The UK government has instructed all workplaces to carry out risk assessments as soon as possible to ensure all staff members enter a safe, secure environment.
To do so, you must:
- Identify potential hazards
- Assess any risks
- Find solutions to prevent risks
- Analyse potential COVID-19 transmission sites
To perform the above actions, you must consider the typical activities your staff will complete at work.
Maintain a Hygienic Office
Every business is responsible for maintaining a clean, hygienic office environment. Therefore, you must invest in professional office cleaning to deliver a daily cleaning routine.
For example, ICE Cleaning can clean your office from top to bottom using their industry-leading ICE SHIELD® technology. ICE SHIELD® will provide you and your employees with the peace of mind that your workspace is safe from harmful viruses and bacteria for up to 28 days.
Encourage Social Distancing
Every employer should encourage social distancing in the workplace as much as possible.
To do so, you may need to provide every department with social distancing training, which will ensure they never enter someone’s physical space when asking questions at a colleague’s desk, during a meeting, or chatting by the water cooler.
Also, you should remind your team to stay at least 6 feet away from each other by hanging signage and incorporating social distancing markings.
Introduce Antibacterial Dispensers
Help your team prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the office space by adding antibacterial dispensers.
Alternatively, you could provide every employee or department with their own antibacterial gels to encourage them to frequently clean their hands.
Limit Employee Capacity
After working from home each day for the past year, your employees may be open to hybrid working, which can limit the number of employees in the office.
Limiting the number of employees in your office can support social distancing guidelines and prevent COVID-19 from spreading in the workplace.
Make Physical Changes
Limit transmission by making physical changes to your office space. Placing a physical barrier between members of your workforce should prevent a high number of germs from spreading.
For example, you may choose to introduce screens to reduce contact between employees or change the office layout to support social distancing. These alterations may also you’re your employees’ anxiety when returning to the office.
By following the advice above, you can create a clean, safe, and COVID-secure office to support the transition back to the workplace so that your staff can hit the ground running and work as effectively as possible, ensuring your business remains profitable for the future.
