Over the past few months, our Office Life Committee has been researching strategies to reopen our offices and implement ways for our staff to return safely. Now that more offices and businesses have started to reopen, we wanted to share some of the various changes, policies and procedures we have installed in our own office to see if they might also be helpful with yours!
Through research, seminars and trainings, our team has come up with a plan which promotes safety and security for all employees throughout our office. The challenges in achieving social distancing vary by office. We have already started working with several other offices to reevaluate the location of desks and divisions between them but there are many potential strategies that can be tailored to each space.
Our implementations start right when you exit the elevator (HHA is an open concept office space so the divisions between employees and others is critical). Once you get off the elevators and enter into the office, there is a defined drop-off and pick-up location for mail and deliveries to minimize interactions and the amount of traffic through the office. This creates a clear barrier between the employees and essential workers which can be seen below.
Before returning to the workplace, each employee has agreed to the HHA Social Contract. The social contract gives accountability to each employee to make sure everyone feels safe for their own return. The contract also included following the physical changes that were set in place which included temporary desk locations, enforced one-way circulation in hallways and corridors and sanitizing stations.
Once back at their own desk, each employee was given a “Welcome Back” package, which can be seen below, to the left. These packages contained hand sanitizer for their personal workspace, a face mask to be worn when not at their immediate workstation, personal eating utensils, vitamin shots and some snacks. Not only is it important to keep your “home base” clean but there were also Sanitizing Stations placed around the office at high traffic areas and touchpoints. Besides the restrooms, our Materials Library is another high touchpoint location. As you can see from the photo on the right, we have placed a variety of cleaning products for surfaces and gloves to be used when working the material samples.
Lastly, our HHA Office Life Team designed various signs which are placed around the office and can be seen below. Friendly reminders of what we should be doing to keep everyone safe!
Would your office benefit from similar measures?
If your interested in learning more, check out our previous blog post PLANNING FOR REOPENING to see if we can help!
Heitler Houstoun Architects 