Resuming Office Operations Post Lockdown 2.0

Tags: facility management

As the number of cases dwindles in India, the current lockdown will soon get lifted, and offices will open back up. However, the pandemic won’t be over, and the facility management team would have a bigger responsibility post-lockdown to prioritise the employees’ health.

Each office’s needs depend on its physical space, staffing, operations, and other conditions. However, facility managers need to take specific measures to serve their employees better, which are as follows.

Maintain High-Traffic Zones

The facility manager’s top priority must be to adhere to the highest hygiene standards post lockdown. Most industries had already ramped up their hygiene protocols prior to the second lockdown, but now, they need to improve their protocols further.

In addition to disinfecting all the surfaces and providing adequate air ventilation at high-traffic zones, facility managers must also consider creating touch-free zones. With minimised touch, the chances of infection further drop, making the office environment safer for the employees. This, along with regular maintenance of the high-traffic areas in the office, would ensure that the employees remain safe from infections.

Design a Traffic Flow

One way to minimise touch and safeguard the employees is by designing a traffic flow in the workplace, i.e., designing the employees’ interactions with the facility. A traffic flow would reduce the number of physical interactions between the employees and the office and reduce overcrowding at high traffic areas.

For instance, the organisation can place hands-free doors or face recognition check-ins at the entry points, designate separate entry and exit points, and limit the number of people accumulating in a single location.

Optimise Staff Management

Optimising staff management is a two-fold process. The first step is to minimise the number of employees working at the office space at one time. The organisation can do this by either letting the non-essential employees work from home or by implementing staggered shifts for them.

The second step is the most critical—space management. The facility manager must innovate with the space to ensure maximum distance between employees and encourage social distancing. This can be done with reworked floor plans and strategically moving the employees’ locations.

Committing to Health and Hygiene

It’s only a matter of time before the pandemic gets under control. Still, there will always be other potential health risks at the workplace , including the third wave of the pandemic. Thus, facility managers must plan for the future. The hygienic housekeeping protocols must not be myopic and must prepare for the long term.

The facility management plan must have long-term strategies in mind to improve the office hygiene and health standards that far surpass the minimum OHS and EHS needs. They can do so by improved SOPs, optimised human resources, and reliance on the latest technologies.

Several organisations may meet reopening offices after the second wave with hesitation; however, Unify can help minimise the reluctance for both facility managers and employees with our industry-leading integrated facility management services. Contact us now to know more.