Day to day operations in the office has come to a standstill, and everyone is currently working from home. However, once the lockdown is over, it will be back to your regular workplace. But a lot will have changed. Most importantly, the mindset of your employees will be completely different. Fear of infection will be their primary concern, and this is what you need to diminish from the word go.  Offices these days are crowded, especially those working in open offices with a flat hierarchy. The main point of concern will be to manage a healthy and safe lifestyle in the office. Here are some tips on how to do this.

• Reduce the clutter in the office. Make sure it is not too crowded. In case you find you have very little space, maybe you can have a staggering shift for your employees. If you had one shift earlier, perhaps you can have three shifts now so that at any point in time, only one-third of your employees are in the office.

• If shifts are not possible, consider asking part of the workforce to work from home on a rotational basis. So do whatever it takes to ensure a smooth transition for them. Upgrade their computers and invest in a safe online environment so that your data remains safe despite people working from remote locations.

• Stop large gatherings or meetings of any kind, and try to have more phone-conferences or video calls so that people can attend these meetings from their office seats.

• Sanitize the workplace often, and place automated hand sanitizers around the office. Have disinfectants ready at hand. Give each employee hand sanitizers, masks, and gloves. Insist on people sanitizing their hands before entering the office, and make masks compulsory for employees as well as visitors. Ask them to maintain a certain distance from their colleagues at all times. All of this will make your people feel safer.

• Have a doctor and ambulance available on hand in case of any emergency. You can even check your employees’ body temperature every morning before they enter the office, to avoid disaster and transmission of the disease.

• Announce strict protocols on how to behave in the canteen, elevators, and areas of everyday use so that at no point is anyone placed at risk.

• Ensure that employees don’t have to travel often and can get most of the work done either from the office or from their homes. Only in unavoidable circumstances should you allow people to go for meetings or other activities.

• Ensure that your canteen is clean and sanitized at all times because this could be the highest risk area since everyone comes and consumes food here.

• Establish an emergency task force that can swing into action immediately in case of emergencies.

• Immediately upgrade the skills of your staff to ensure that they can work from any location at any time if required. Customer requirements have changed now, and your team needs to be ready to handle any situation.

Thank you for reading this post, should you have any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.