Adapting To The Next Normal At Your Workplace

Adapting To The Next Normal At Your Workplace There is no going back from the present reality of work. We have been put in a reset mode by the crisis. In the unlock phase, while the others work from home, the workplace will be a combination of virtual and physical set-up with a part of the workforce in the offices.

The new normal to which organizations have already adapted through digital transformation is working from home. However to be present at work, a few types of organizations or a few priority functions are needed.

The biggest concerns faced by organizations are providing offices with a healthy and safe workplace and allowing people who work from home to have an efficient workspace. Here are a few ideas that will help manage these issues for your organization.

With The 6 Feet Office Guideline Physical Distancing With a few staff working at the site, the offices have become an empty arena. Nevertheless in compliance with The 6-feet rule," it is essential to ensure that those few employees get a safe workspace set-up.

This rule was taken a step further by Cushman & Wakefield and the 6-Feet Office Concept Guideline was defined with the following 6 Elements:      

6 Feet Quick Scan: A concise but thorough analysis of the current working environment in the field of the safety of viruses and any other improvement possibilities.

6 Feet Rules: A set of clear and simple workable agreements and rules of conduct that put everybody's safety first.

6 Feet Routing: For each office, visually displayed and unique routing, making traffic flows totally secure.

6 Feet Workstation: A fully equipped and adapted workplace where the user is able to work safely.

6 Feet Facility: A trained worker who advises and operationally ensures an environment in the facility that is optimally functioning and safe.

6 Feet Certificate: a certificate stating that measures for the implementation of a virussafe working environment have been taken.

(Reference: Cushman & Wakefield-published Six Feet Office) Such detailed guidelines must be implemented by your organisation to allow all employees a healthy work environment. In the midst of this pandemic, that will give them a better sense of comfort and reduce anxiety.

New Spaces for meetings and collaboration

The conference room is one place that employees fear because it offers little personal space or protection from others because of the pandemic. Yet a few organisations require their staff to occasionally attend such meetings at their workplace.

A redesign of your conference space will allow for a great experience at office meetings.It will be important to minimise seating density and replace the long desks with smaller individual desks, as seen above.

Another aspect that impacts the health of the workers is clean air circulation. It will fix that by pushing the entryway to the middle of the conference room. In order to keep the place free of any possible virus and curb transmission at work, all these spaces would also need regular cleaning.

Creating Home Virtual Meeting Spaces In the future of the workplace, home offices will continue to play an integral role. Given the space constraints that most workers face in metro cities, making space at home and ensuring no noise for virtual meetings during the new job from home is not realistic.

A few improvements to their workspace, however will help make for a great virtual meeting room at home. The most critical aspect of maintaining a peaceful virtual meeting environment at home is the establishment of a physical boundary for your workspace. It could dramatically cut out the ambient noise by using acoustic space dividers or desk privacy panels around your WFH desks and compliment your favourite noise-cancelling headphones to give you the feeling of the conference room at home.

To feel at work, build a work set-up at home: Getting up and ready to go to work used to mentally brace us for an exciting and productive day of work. The present circumstance, however, has made this basic pre-pandemic routine a distant fact.

Similarly, it can help you become extra-productive by providing a workspace that gives you the feeling of working in the workplace. The decision to have a dedicated workspace was deferred by most of us because we thought that the lockout would end soon.

But while the guidelines are relaxed, most companies insist that workers operate from home, which means it will take a little longer to be back in offices.

Therefore, because of problems such as bad posture, you should make the decision and ensure that you have a great workspace at home to prevent a long-term impact on your health. It will also give you a feeling of being back at work, enhancing your performance and productivity.

Adjust earlier than later to the next normal The next standard for most companies is a well-balanced job in office scenarios from home and work. In their never-ending struggle, promoting employees' adjustment to this next normal will go a long way in encouraging employee happiness and efficiency.

Original article published here: https://bit.ly/3l39g46