All over the UK, businesses are being encouraged to return to work. For a business owner, this comes with a lot of considerations. Times have changed since you last went into the office, meaning a few precautions need to be made.
Thankfully, you can make these precautions without spending too much money, yet by continuing to abide by the latest government advice.
Essentially, it’s all about creating a safe work environment that controls the spread of this virus. Here are some of the most useful and actionable tips to consider:
Hand sanitisers regularly available
Install hand sanitiser pumps on walls and near the entrances to your office. Make sure that everyone uses it before they go inside, ensuring that people enter the office with clean hands.
You should also have some on desks or dotted around the office for people to use as they please. This is one of the easiest ways to stop germs from spreading as you kill them in a few seconds.
Re-adjust the office layout
Social distancing is still a big buzzword used by the government and is proven to help stop the spread of COVID-19. In an office environment, people can be quite close together. To address this, you need to alter the layout of your office.
Try to get each desk at least 1.5m apart from all others. The best way to do this is by organising the office into rows of desks. It can look a bit strange, but this is the best approach to take.
If you can’t do this, it might be worth considering a rotation system where only some workers come in at a time. This ensures people can remain spaced out and avoid close contact with coworkers.
Place signage around the office
You need to have signs around the workplace to instruct people on the new measures in place. This can be done in a few different ways. For one, some professional painting and decorating companies can paint signs and murals on walls for you.
This will be clear for all workers to see, and you can avoid buying loads of different signs. Alternatively, you can buy posters and signs that have the instructions on them, placing them around the office.
Hire deep cleaning services
The biggest expense will be the deep cleaning service you should hire. Here, they can clean your office at the end of every working day, ensuring that all surfaces are sanitised. It’s an excellent way of killing any germs that are lingering on surfaces.
If your staff has been using the hand sanitisers, there shouldn’t be any germs on surfaces anyway! However, mistakes happen, and you never know when someone coughs or sneezes.
These four steps are the keys to opening your office once more. Yes, it will feel very strange and very weird. However, this is the world we’re in right now. We have to make adjustments if we want to get back to normal as soon as possible.
Apply these steps to your work environment to ensure that your employees return to a safe place.
