While your establishment may be open, practicing social distancing will still be of utmost importance. Be prepared to make changes to your floor plans, conference rooms, and signage to ensure your employees can abide by social distancing guidelines. Your goal is to create an environment that is safe for all employees.
As countries and cities begin to look at easing lockdown restrictions, this checklist for reopening businesses can help you jumpstart your return.
Here are 10 Tips to Ready Your Workspace
Perform a thorough cleaning of the workplace before you reopen the doors to your employees. Make sure you communicate to your employees the steps you have taken to ensure their safety.
If you share your workplace with other tenants, ensure they are practicing safe and effective social distancing guidelines. If appropriate, post any building management or local health official’s notices in visible locations throughout your establishment.
Ensure your seating and/or workstations are in line with social distancing guidelines, and schedule employees to be in the establishment accordingly. In alignment with your WFH policy and “Return to the Workplace” schedule, establish proper working conditions for those employees who do come in. Limit the use of conference rooms if the space doesn’t allow for proper social distancing.
Be prepared to enable social distancing and good health behavior. Make sure your establishment is well equipped with enough hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, etc. so your employees can be as comfortable as possible.
Develop traffic flow patterns in your establishment. Just as many supermarket stores have implemented during this crisis, consider setting up traffic flow patterns in your establishment. This will help to ensure employees don’t “accidentally” bump into others, and will enable proper social distancing.
Establish guidelines for conducting group meetings. This will be especially important if you will be meeting in any conference rooms or common areas. Make sure your employees understand social distancing guidelines. Consider labelling conference rooms and commons spaces with occupancy limits and seating arrangements that allow for social distancing.
Establish guidelines for any visitors entering your establishment. Post the guidelines to ensure your visitors understand and comply. Don’t forget to communicate the guidelines to your employees.
Remind your employees of the recommended social distancing guidelines. Place posters throughout your workplace to remind your employees to be diligent with their social distancing.
Communicate to your employees the steps you have taken to ensure their safety. Keeping your employees informed will be absolutely critical to everyone’s health and safety.
Create a reclosure plan. Ensure you have a plan in place in the event an employee in your establishment shows symptoms or tests positive for COVID-19, or if officials close non- essential businesses again due to another wave in the global health crisis.
This checklist is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but it can help provide guidance as you look to reopen. Be sure to check out the other checklists in this series: People, Workplace, Technology, and Your Customers.
Everyone’s situation is unique, but evaluating your plan with these components in mind can help you get organized and anticipate obstacles.
Do you have the right technology in place? Are you tired of wasting time and losing money? I invite you to attend a 15-minute conversation. Whether or not we decide to collaborate, I’m confident I can offer insights that can help you find the right solution for your needs. Please click here to book a call with me.
