It’s time to become active and immune from pathogens like COVID – 19, coronavirus is affecting the works around the world. According to the World Health Organization, we have to perform some duties that are recommended by them such as washing hands regularly, covering our mouth and nose, thus that is our responsibility, and we should follow the directions given by the World Health Organization. Well! Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, which causes illness ranging from cold cough to more severe diseases.
Now, it becomes a big responsibility and brings an interrogation to everybody that how we would work? Is it safe to work? And many more questions. Everyone primarily checks for safety, and for their enhancement. This pandemic has made it more difficult for one to get a workspace that is more efficient and meets the needs of their chances.
As the world is trying to heal from the coronavirus pandemic, co-workers are back again to their office workspace. Employers need plans to ensure that their employees can return safely. While the crisis has led some of the companies to reinforce out-of-home policies, such as large tech giants, for that workroom space is quickly evolving in the post-corona virus era.
In fact, some new normal changes are adapted by the companies then some permanent changes may occur in the modern workspace environment. So, now it’s time to reopen your business, and then you have to create a future desk for coworkers space which can ensure the safety of you and your employees. As work never stops, so we should also try doing it with all safety and care. For that let us see how one can organize office space!
Rearranging Office Interior
source: cnbc.com
Nowadays, the priority for the business is to bring the employees back to the workplace as quickly and as safely as possible. At the first time of reopening (only 50% of employees are allowed to the office at a time), companies have to focus on remodeling the workspace to align with current health guidelines.
When you begin with the rearrangement, the most immediate way to reorganize existing furniture to ensure and then comply with social distancing etiquettes. You can fix the employee’s desk at a distance of about 6 feet apart from each other, if possible, which is the best way to comply with social distancing. You can even rearrange or remove the redundant furniture to add some more space. You can also implement one-way traffic to prevent employees from making unnecessary contacts.
Modernize Ventilation and Air Filtration
One easiest medium for coronavirus to attack is through droplets when anyone talks to one another, cough, and respiration. A small particle of the virus moves in the air rapidly, so when these droplets fall on the ground spreads quickly. Hence, to prevent such possibilities, update the air filtration and ventilation which in results reduces these small potentially viral particles.
In the near future if you want to improve the airflow and filter out contaminants, then upgrade office interior by involving HVAC systems. Many large businesses have already updated their HVAC system. If you don’t have enough budgets to replace HVAC, then portable air purifiers can be placed around the center for a part of the outlay. This is particularly useful if office windows cannot be opened to take out space.
Install Plexiglas Barriers (Temporarily)
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Plexiglas barriers are performing as a shield for one to have safe communication. Similarly, many businesses like restaurants, grocery stores, and gas stations have already installed the temporary Plexiglas shield and barriers to pause the spread of the coronavirus. These same barriers can be useful in workroom environments in areas with high foot traffic. Also, when a person is interacting these barriers prevent them from spreading the virus.
This Plexiglas shield can be installed temporarily in conference rooms, on staff desks, or in the hallway to isolate people and maintain social distance guidelines. In the future, it may be that Plexiglas partitions become permanent in the norms of new office interior designs. Hence, Plexiglas can help businesses reopen and create safe conditions by providing a clear shield between people in those places where social distancing is difficult.
Think to Reorganize the Reception Area
Earlier to the coronavirus epidemic, most open offices offered a reception area where clients, customers, and other visitors usually were greeted by an employee, they were encouraged to sit and have a talk while whom they were scheduled to meet. While this approach certainly made clients feel more comfortable and welcome, for the next few months, we have seen a major change in the reception areas after COVID-19.
Reliably, some companies are remodeling the reception areas as a decontamination lounge. New activities such as taking the temperature at the door, instructing people to take off their shoes, or even placing hand washing stations in the waiting room, may become common. In the meantime, facilities that pose a greater risk of spreading germs and microbes, such as self-serve beverages, will likely go through a pathway to reduce the risk of conduction. Instead, you can construct a sink or handwashing station that you will have to use before entering the studio.
Restructure Communal Spaces
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In this pandemic, many businesses, large enough communal spaces are becoming unused to follow the social distancing and other guidelines. These locations include large conference rooms, employee lounges, and cafeterias, also risky places to go. So, rather than avoiding these rooms to let it be empty or useless, companies can restructure these locations as a temporary workplace, so it will become spacious for employers to spread out.
Moreover, if your business doesn’t exist with that much space then you can shift your company’s workspace outdoors with weather permitting, at a distance of about six feet. Hence, it would be more comfortable for the employers too, by getting an efficient amount of environment, as a healthy environment maintains your health and respiration system in a better way.
Create Conference Area
Although office space is a way to convert workspace to a new normal, an open corner of office space can be used as a permanent or as a room, replacing a closed conference room. Similar to the workroom, corner conference rooms promote airflow and may allow employees to separate from one another.
Meeting places are essential that rely on collaboration to ensure good outcomes, these spaces are wide enough to give an employee a chance to safely socialize and enjoy the aspects of the workplace. For keeping the team safe, having to create the conference space rather than rooms correctly is important. These locations are necessary for the purpose of continuous communication.
In addition, you can invest in Bluetooth technology in the conference rooms, with the help of these employees are able to use their cell phones to connect to a conference call that is played in your conference room without touching the speaker or shared phones.
Using Window, No to Air Conditioner
source: miro.medium.com
According to studies and research, it has been found that opening windows is the best possible way to control the climate of the office while preventing the spread of coronavirus. Unlike that central air conditioner and heaters re-circulate the air, which can help the viral particles to transmit from one place to another. Conversely, opening the windows in your center will allow the air to maintain the flow and will not re-circulate the particles, preventing the virus from seeping through communal spaces.
While for some it is not possible for every building, if you can do that, then open the windows in your workspace to control the climate. If your center building does not allow you to open windows, avoid standing near the air conditioning exit, where particles are trapped and then released, which can catch you easily.
Conference Rooms into “Officles”
To say no to enter the coronavirus, many businesses are returning with the cubicles in the rearrangement of office room interior, these are returned with popularity because of COVID – 19. Building owners, entrepreneurs, and architects can remove a wall in conference rooms to help promote a healthy workplace.
These spaces that are created for the healthy workplace are known as “officles”, the name is given so because they are a traverse between an office and cubicles. These newly reorganized spaces have only three walls, along with that this space provides fresh air to flow and circulate throughout the space and potentially prevents germs from congregating in one location.
Implement Office Capacity Policies
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When there are fewer people in the building, obviously it becomes easier for creating distance between employees. Many companies are implementing a phased approach to return people to the officle, such as encouraging staggering schedules and a mix of remote and onsite work. Communal activities such as office-wide meetings, buffet breakfast, or lunch, should be put on hold or modernized to obey the safety regulations.
You have to avoid the foods that are high in sugar and salts, limit the intake of soft drinks and other drinks that are high in sugar so that there are no risks regarding the health of the employees. Hence implementing such workplace capacity policies can work accordingly and safely.
Reassess Cubicles
Cubicles have not been used as an interior design office for a couple of decades because we have upgraded center interiors, along with the impending year. Cubicles fell out of the modern workplace. But the year 2020, have the coronavirus pandemic which laid people to value private, personal spaces. For that cubicles are back again in the design of the headquarters.
This helps to foster the feeling of an open workspace whereas providing a private space for individual employees, Plexiglas cubicles can lead to replacing the open workspace concept. While temporary Plexiglas partitions are being established throughout the country, coronavirus may cause cubicles to back again to work. Hence, these are back to many offices, already.
There are few duties done that must be done by yourself for the studio apart from reorganizing, you have to look at the preparation that is supposed to be prepared by you:
source: environmentsdenver.com
Limit the surfaces that are touched by the employees – So, whenever an employee enters, it is not necessary a door should carry a handle, it can be opened by pushing with foot or shoulder, to prevent touches of many people. Install motion lights in rooms and even the bathroom, as these are environment-friendly. You can add motion sensors in the bathrooms so that one should not touch the faucet to wash their hands.
Choose the furniture for the interior design of the offices that are easily cleaned – This can become more worthy for a home so that it can be wiped easily. But it has become the same for the office space. In many centers, a crew from building or third party cleaning comes to wipe your place at the end of the days, which can become risky for everyone. So to choose the furniture that is easy to clean can make their job more efficient will become beneficial for your employees’ health.
Hygiene of the office space – Many offices want to opt-out of daily cleaning. You should not. Environmentally friendly sanitation workers should come to disinfect anything that is contaminated. A designated person in your workroom should know what are the cleaning products being used by the crew (you want them not to be hazardous to the co-workers or to the environment while wiping out the germs that can make your employee fall ill).
Keep adding sanitizer – You have to install sanitizer in every conference room, shared space, and reception areas. It will never go out of style, as it has been used for many years and also will be used for many years.
Always available with a first aid kit – Did you know that zinc lozenges are effective in preventing coronavirus from multiplying in your throat and pharynx? If your staff is concerned, then latex gloves and surgical masks may come useful. Wearing a high-filtration mask offers your mouth and nose the best defense against the coronavirus. This is so that when the user inhales, the respiratory protective device filters out both large and small particles. Share everyone over the counter first aid kit, so your employees feel that you have the best interest of their safety.
