After months of quarantine, returning to the workplace probably feels like a love-hate relationship right now for many people. After all, COVID-19 was certainly a major disruption that shook society both personally and professionally. And with millions falling victim to the infectious virus, it is no wonder why people, as eager as they are to get back to ordinary life, are wary about returning back to work as more States give the green light to reopen.

Now, even though re-entry anxiety is at an all-time high, you are not doomed as a business if your employees are pushing back due to health fears. By implementing new actionable and emotion-driven strategies, you can help ease them back into work confidently and feel safe as they head into the new post-pandemic norm. Since these alterations are easier said than done, here are some ideal ways to support your employees on their uneasy journey in returning back to work again.

1. Update Your Workplace, and Let Your Employees Know About It
   If there is one thing we’ve learned, some space modifications are in order upon reopening. This means you need to nail down loose ends in your workspace and optimize it to be as “pandemic friendly” as you can. Some things you can do include updating sanitization procedures, cleaning out the air vents, adding no-touch technologies, temperature checks, visual reminders to wash hands and think about retrofitting your current space by adding office divider panels and consider reconfiguring the space to promote better separation.

Though these are all great, make sure you send out a communication email to your employees, so they know what you did and see you are prioritizing their health. Trust is a significant factor in re-entering the workspace.

2. Have Weekly One-on-One Check-Ins
   If you run a small business or even a medium-sized one, then think about carving out some time once a week in the first few months of employee re-introduction to sit down and talk with each employee one-on-one. Ask them how they are feeling and allow them to be open with you about what they like, dislike, and areas they think you can improve on. Doing this process makes employees feel heard and valued, and you gain insider information on health/safety areas you might have overlooked.

Tip: If you run a larger business, try bi-weekly meetings or skip-level group ones.

3. Remind Employees of their Legal Rights

When you are transparent to your team about their rights and ensuring that they understand them, this will ease their fears because they will be reminded that they have a say if they see something being manipulated. Give them copies of the OSH Act, which states that employees can refuse to work if they have reason to believe they are in danger or feel threatened in any way. If they see this legalese documentation, it is one step closer to making them feel more secured and having a sense of respectful control.

4. Show Gratitude

This one might be a given on any account, but it is exceptionally dire during a pandemic. In a nutshell, trust can be increased when employees feel appreciated and valued, especially when they are risking their health to come work for you. By recognizing that they returned to work to support the business during times of uncertainty is key to making them feel more relaxed and less anxious. This, in conjunction with providing them resources to optimize their feelings of safety and comfortability, are all ways to show you respect them and that they matter to you.

Conclusion – Little Changes Go A Long Way

Even though there is still no vaccine available yet, you and I both know that the show must go on in terms of business. And with that reality means that your employees have to start transitioning back to their typical duties after months of being away. But don’t reopen with the mindset that everyone feels safe jumping back into the game. Society has shifted as a whole, and what was once standard operations might not work as well anymore in making employees feel comfortable.

With that being said, do your due diligence and give them an environment that they can feel secured heading back to. By taking some time to make little changes, such as mentioned above, they can collectively make a big difference in helping your employees feel less anxious and more excited to return to the workplace. In the end, your efforts will not only help them feel safe, but will build a stronger company culture overall, and that is something that will carry on long after this pandemic is over.

Download our Return to Work Playbook here.

The highly anticipated return to work is finally upon us, and with it, a list of requirements workplaces need to meet to ensure the workspace is safe for their employees. But, for many employers, there’s another concern. Workers are concerned about working in the office environment they left behind. For this reason, installing office partition panels is both about following guidelines but also reassuring employees that their safety is your number one priority.

The Advantages of Installing Office Partition Panels

The CDC recommends that workplaces “Install transparent shields or other physical barriers where possible.” However, for workplaces, there are a host of other advantages to following the CDC recommendations. These include:

Creating A Sustainable Office Space

Installing office partition panels enable workplaces to be resilient to new outbreaks. One thing COVID-19 has highlighted is that workplace design can – and should – always be improved to reduce the risk of possible threats. Ultimately, installing office partitions make a workplace more sustainable.

Sustainability will become a buzzword of return to work campaigns. This is something workplaces should be cognizant of because installing office partition panels will be crucial to unlocking a sustainable workplace. Regardless of how long COVID-19 remains, having an efficient design will produce long term benefits.

Implementing Additional Safety Precautions

Office partition panels function as an additional safety precaution in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses spread by droplets.

COVID-19 may not be here forever, but common illnesses like the flu, strep throat, or colds spread through workspaces during the flu-season and greatly diminish the productivity of workers because co-workers are constantly infecting and reinfecting their peers.

Enriching Employee Wellbeing

Open plan office spaces can be triggering to employees who suffer from – or are prone to – stress and anxiety. While employees can still interact with their colleagues, having office partition panels is a great way to prioritize employee mental wellbeing while maintaining a cohesive and collaborative work environment.

Increasing Productivity

Working in isolation has taught us two things:

1. Young kids love making appearances on Zoom meetings, and
2. Working in isolation can help employees maintain productivity.

While working another month or two in isolation may be agonizing for employees, by installing office partition panels you create the sort of private and secluded environment employees enjoyed when working remotely, but add the benefits of working with teammates.

Besides, being in isolation also means employees have fewer distractions and can get the job done!

Various Panels and Their Purposes

What role will office partition panels play in advancing your workplace?

Creating physical barriers isn’t as simple as erecting panels and calling it a day. There are many different partitions with several different purposes and functions, all of which will greatly add to your work environment if selected correctly. If you choose the right partition, investing in office partition panels will be valuable.

Desk Dividers

Desk dividers can be divided (pun intended) into several smaller groupings, these include:

Desk Shields

Made of a clear, durable, and easy to maintain acrylic material, desk shields enable you to keep an open plan office feel, but with the health and safety benefits of other partitions.
Desk shields are transparent and can be installed on most desks to create up to 270-degree protection.

Mobile Dividers

If you’re searching for a short term or easy to install solution mobile partitions can be beneficial. The name says it all. Mobile dividers are easy to move and can be configured to accommodate diverse office setups.

Office Furniture Screens

Office furniture screens can be a multi-purpose solution. You can add office shields to existing partitions to maximize their benefits, but you can also use your office furniture partitions to serve other functions, one example is office furniture screens can double as whiteboards.

Cubicle Partitions

Cubicle partitions are a classic office partition. They’re durable, reliable, and can be configured in a variety of designs. They also offer employees privacy while reducing common office noise and distractions, enabling employees to escape to their mini-private office in a bustling office environment.

What You Need To Consider To Select The Best Panels for Your Workplace

To ensure you’re getting a partition that’s suitable for your office space, here are some matters you need to consider when selecting an office partition.

Structure

How durable, pliable, or sturdy do you need your office partitions to be? Depending on your needs you should choose a partition designed to handle the amount of wear-and-tear that will occur in the office. Therefore, it is vital to consider the materials in use.

Functionality

Consider the purpose the partition will be serving? Besides protecting from illnesses spread through droplets, office partition panels can have numerous other functions. Discussing your needs with a professional will help you determine what more you can do with office partitions so they have long term benefits.

Adaptability

How well will the office partitions you choose, adapt to an evolving work environment? It isn’t advised to use office partitions as a short term solution because if effectively incorporated into your office design, the benefits of partitions are definitive.

Since you’re heading back to the office, why not download our Return to Work Playbook? This superior resource covers the precise steps you need to take to ensure your employees are safe and adjust easily to their new work environment.

Stay-at-home orders and other confining measures began in March and are still in effect in some form, essentially forcing American offices to operate in a skeletal format or a state of abandonment.

Leaving critics to wonder: is there any value in the traditional office?

The Seeming Extinction of the Office

Similarly to the TV show The Office, the modern office is seemingly coming to an end. Instead, this time it’s not ending because a key cast member is leaving. Rather the office is being ravaged by a pandemic and social distancing restrictions that are ongoing.

However, the extinction of the office isn’t a 2020 philosophy. It dates back to 2013, and possibly even before then.

What proponents of this “dying office” philosophy believe is that all this technology makes the office a relic and redundant in the age of technology.

Yet, it’s this same technology that has allowed companies to keep their workforce employed while continuing their operations. Because technology is a vital component of the modern office, but it’s not the only component.

Those who believe the office’s death is only being exacerbated by COVID-19 – and that it would have been an inevitable fate for this type of work environment – feel that employees have more freedom, creativity, and personal responsibility when they’re able to work remotely.

They also argue that employees – and employers – will save immensely, establishing a leaner company.

The notion is: cut out the office and you save on overhead. Besides, you’ll have happier, healthier, and more fulfilled employees, all while increasing creativity, productivity, and overall morale in the workplace.

The Traditional Office Is Here To Stay

Some refuse to consider that the office will change. They assume that the office – in its current format – is set in stone. They maintain that only less-informed companies would give up their offices, allowing their employees to work remotely. They assert that employees are eager to come back to work, they’re eager to have some normalcy restored. These claims are valid, however, you need to consider the greater context.

Employees may be itching to return to work because work is the only regular thing in their life at the moment. Work is their only source of stability, and in some instances, human interaction.

Perhaps COVID-19 and social distancing regulations are amplifying their desire to leave the house for something other than the weekly grocery run, and perhaps this could be what’s driving their need to return to the office?

But those in favor of the traditional office cite studies that confirm that employees are more productive, more accountable, and more creative when they’re in an office.

So who’s right?

It’s a bit of both.

The workspace post-pandemic will be about finding a balance between the traditional office and the flexibility of remote work.

Finding Balance

What this pandemic is teaching us is that an office isn’t the only solution to increasing productivity. Employees can be as productive when working remotely as they are within an office. But productivity shouldn’t be the yardstick for determining the effectiveness of an office, nor should potential cost-saving be the only reason you let go of the office. The benefits or drawbacks of an office aren’t limited to financial or physical output.

Creativity, competition, knowledge-sharing: these are all diminished when you’re working from home, and are difficult to quantify.

Communication, something else that is essential for successful collaboration, is more straightforward face-to-face.

Employees aren’t being distracted by spaceship backgrounds on Zoom or trying to decipher the tone of an email before responding. Yes, these are conundrums you can face at the office, but they’re far more common when you’re working from home.

Instead of eradicating the office or leaving it as is; going forward the best solution is to find a way to adapt to the issues the pandemic has shown can impair the modern office.

Adapting To New Normals

The modern office is going to change post-pandemic.

This entails developing innovative ideas of what this new workspace will look like and how it will function.

How will an office incorporate social distancing while fostering creativity, knowledge-sharing, and healthy competition? What if workers prefer working remotely to working at the office?

The answer to these questions isn’t in banishing the office altogether. Instead, the answer is to reinvent the office space with these new normals in mind.

Just as an open-plan office concept took center stage as collaboration and creativity were encouraged, this is an opportunity to adapt to ensure these “challenges” don’t cripple the American office but help shape a new and more sustainable office.

In conclusion, there’s still value in the office.

Download our Return to Work Playbook here.

A few months ago less than 5 percent of the American workforce worked from home. Today, COVID-19 has made the arrangement a necessity for many as the businesses they work for aim to stay open amid shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders.

If you are an employer facing this new reality, your to-do list probably includes one urgent item after another. Ensuring that your employees thrive in a remote environment being at the top of the list.

Then you can address “the fun stuff,” explaining how making even a modest investment in office furniture can make a huge difference in how comfortable and productive they feel.

Put IT first

Like most businesses, we are reliant on technology to function properly. This reliance may take on an entirely new meaning with a mostly remote workforce placing new and usual demands on your computer system.

Since working remotely is not a possibility without a robust and reliable infrastructure, put “testing” on the top of your to-do list. Now is also the time to ensure that ancillary apps and software are installed for the people who will need them.

Some employees may not know what they will need. They may discover a more efficient method as time goes by. All employees working from home should have access to company email and teleconferencing technologies.

Cover the work bases

Fortifying confidence in your computer network can be a huge relief and allow you to move on to some important next steps, including:

• Assembling and distributing an employee contact information list. It should include work email addresses and personal cellphone numbers, too.
• Distributing the physical documents and materials your employees will need to work remotely.
• Conferring with each and every employee—or, in bigger companies, teams of employees—to ensure they have what they need, understand what is expected of them and know exactly who to consult when (not if) questions or problems arise during the work day.

Conclusion

For now, you may have no idea how long your company’s remote work model will last. Some companies are even using the experience as a test run, leaving open the possibility of offering remote work schedules after the current health crisis has passed.

No matter how long remote work drives your business, management experts agree that when employees are comfortable, they are happier. When they’re happier, they tend to be more productive. While you cannot mandate where your employees set up their remote work station, management experts say you can encourage them to:

• Designate a workspace outside of a typically busy room like the kitchen or family room and claim it as their own.
• Eliminate distractions (such as a TV) and improve necessary features (such as lighting).
• Invest what they can in making it comfortable—a chair and desk are office furniture necessities that most employees need to log a productive work day.

Like you, your employees may find themselves in unchartered territory. In this case, the design experts at Rightsize Facility can help. Call us for a consultation and we will help your employees set up an organized, remote office outfitted with office furniture that will help them equate WFH with their wonderful, functional headquarters.

Contact Rightsize Facility here.