After a year of prolonged isolation, starting and stopping lockdowns and unprecedent scare, offices start to open up again and people gradually come back to work. According to the recent researches 3 in 4 workers hope to come back to their offices in close future. In just a few months all best practices and conventions have changed. It affected not only our personal lifestyles but our workplace as well. Returning to work after Covid 19 pandemic may be stressful and awkward process. To make it more comfortable for their employees, companies need to change their polices by focusing on workers` physical and mental health, productivity and relations. Follow these 5 steps to ensure your office is ready for employees` big return.
Make your workplace safe and healthy
Upon returning to offices, health and safety of your workers should be your biggest focus. The very first step is ensuring the physical workplace is clean and safe for employees to work in.
First, hire a cleaning service to deep clean the entire office. The professional cleaning solutions are more effective in killing all kind of germs, bacteria and viruses than regular products. The cleaners also clear up the premises from top to bottom without missing any nook and cranny as well as disinfecting both common areas and individual workplaces. Then make a contract with a cleaning company for regular cleaning disinfecting on daily/weekly/monthly basis.
Privy is a professional cleaning service company offering wide range of cleaning services for homes and office spaces customized to your needs. Recently, due to the re-opening of the offices after Covid 19 lockdown, many organizations choose our Workplace management service with common sense for regular cleaning and disinfection.
It includes:
- Pandemic control and trainings
- Organization of re-opening your office after Covid 19 lockdown
- Disinfection routines for your team members and cleaning company
- Safety of the teams, employees
- When registered Covid 19 in the premises, organization of Certified sanitizing companies and care for the entire property.
- Organizing a vaccination campaign onsite
- Organizing PCR testing campaigns or other medical procedures onsite
- Daily shifts for disinfection of office spaces
- Building up Home office routines and care procedures
- Taking care for the office spaces, flowers and utility services, while at Home office
- Cleaning after end of the pandemic- Graffiti , sprays on floors and walls, glue from signs, etc
For more information, please visit our website:
Encourage good personal hygiene
After cleaning the office, it is important to encourage employees to keep it safe and healthy. When everyone does their part, the whole organization feels more comfortable.
For instance, everybody must be aware of the correct hand washing and cleaning protocols. The employees should observe good personal hygiene, e.g. wash their hands regularly and refrain from touching their faces. They should also keep their workplaces clean and hygienic and all high-touch surfaces and objects need to be wiped with disinfectant regularly. Workers should observe the rules of social distancing, wear masks and cover mouth when sneeze or cough. All sick employees must stay at home, but the company need to take care of the other workers by regular check of temperature and respiratory symptoms.
Lastly, make it easy for the workers to follow good hygiene practices by providing them with plenty of cleaning supplies on hand. Stock up with items such as Disinfectant wipes and/or spray, Hand sanitizer, Hand soap, Paper towels, Tissues, Face masks etc.
Update company policies and procedures
There are numerous of practical steps that employers could take to prevent the spread of Covid 19 in the workplace, but first and foremost is to update their policies and procedures in regards to working schedules and places.
First, update your employees` sick leave policy and allow them to get extra days off if they test positive for Covid 19. Also think about offering paid leave for employees who live or take care for an infected person.
Next, update your working schedules according to Arbeitsschutzregelungen in terms of the new rights of employees to work from home during the pandemic. If it is not possible, admit different working shifts combined with remote work to prevent gathering large groups of people at the same time in the office.
Last, change your policy about holding meetings, because stuffing too many people in the conference room doesn`t comply with social distancing and may make them feel uneasy. Make all your meetings on line if possible, but if not just fill the meeting rooms up to half capacity.
For more information, please visit Corona-Arbeitsschutzverordnung:
Support adaptation and socialization of the employees
Self-isolation and quarantining during the pandemic may have affected employees` feelings and mental condition. After so much time apart, people could react to socializing in 2 certainly different ways. Some might feel awkward meeting their colleagues for the first time after so long period, but others might have missed their coworkers and need to get back to the normal relationships as soon as possible. The main task of the employer is to provide the both groups of people with proper facilities by changing the office layout to make them feel safe and comfortable. On one hand, the company have to organize special spaces dedicated to focus work like concentration pods or phone boots which would boost in office experience. And on the other hand, there should be wellness and socialization areas where colleagues could communicate and reconnect with each other returning to the normal relations in the team. Most importantly is to be flexible with the employees and give them time to get used to the new environment.
Restore the productivity of the company
After a year of working remotely, home office routine has become the new normal lifestyle of the employees. However, going back to the office, earlier alarms, less flexible working hours, spending more time in the traffic might feel harsh and stressful.
To ease the transition and deal with the reluctance of workers to give up home office, employers need to apply a few facilitate measures such as being flexible with the working hours first few weeks, adding a few more remote working days to the employee`s contract, providing a list of productivity sources and others.
A major goal of returning after Covid 19 pandemic is to make workers feel as normal as possible. For instance, ensure employees have all equipment and supplies they will need on their first day, keep up with workplace rituals and encourage the social interaction.
If you are looking for a trustful cleaning company in Berlin for organizing of reopening of your office after Covid 19 pandemic, Privy Berlin is your best choice!
We will set up an individual plan for your business including cleaning and disinfection routines, spring cleaning, windows cleaning and others.
