Returning to work amid a pandemic
Returning to work in the “new normal” will require forethought to reduce the chance of spreading infection amongst staff and visitors. It may not be enough to simply pick up where we were on March 1, 2020 – Business owners and office managers should create a specific COVID-19 strategy to help safeguard employee safety.
There is a myriad of information about COVID-19 in the news and on the web. It will be some time before we have fully peer-reviewed and authoritative guidance about how to fully protect ourselves. Nonetheless, there are obvious and even simple things we can do to protect ourselves and our colleagues as we return to our office spaces.
The short term benefits from a tactical approach, and a complete “COVID-19 Office Policy” may not be necessary for many workplace. The most responsive COVID-19 office strategy may to simply change our behavior. In many instance minor changes of furniture may be required. In some cases, where densification was the goal, more involved configuration may be needed. In case, we think it may be helpful to have an office design guide to assist in determining the level of impact required to allow staff back into the office.
PRA Partner Michael P. Brush has summarized many of the issues and developed COVID-19 Strategies in our new whitepaper outlining office design and policy issues.