Learn more on what you can do to keep employees safe returning to the office. Fundamentally, Facilities, Real Estate and HR teams need closer collaboration.
The pandemic increased our collective understanding surrounding viral transmission and the risks associated with confined office spaces. Early on in the pandemic, social distancing guidelines were introduced around the world to reduce direct transmission, and over the coming months more data surfaced connecting the buildup of particulate matter within the air and infection rates, turning our attention to indoor air quality levels.
It is now the responsibility of Facilities and HR teams to ensure that this knowledge is leveraged and acted upon within corporate spaces to ensure that every measure is taken to keep employees safe.
Social distancing
The most common mode of transmission according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) is via
respiratory droplets, particles with a diameter size >5-10 μm which transfer between hosts when breathing, coughing or sneezing. Therefore, it is imperative that within corporate spaces systems are in place to ensure that employees remain socially distanced from one another.
Gradual office re-openings over the course of 2021 have highlighted the limitations of signage and visual reminders, as employees become accustomed to their surroundings and fall back into previous workplace habits. Similarly, physically closing off spaces and assets as guidelines change has become an arduous and time consuming task for Facilities and HR teams.
Clearly there is a need for more robust, centralised and automated systems to manage these processes, such as introducing sensor based
occupancy and
booking solutions.
These tools can assist in the following ways
Manage work rotations
Ensuring that capacity levels do not reach a dangerous level requires the creation of role based and departmental mobility profiles, which enable HR and Facilities teams to plan and allocate space
usage throughout the week.
Creating these profiles is impossible without leveraging occupancy data which shows how various teams and roles are interacting with workplace assets.
Limit capacity
Introducing a
booking system serves to not only enable employees to navigate hybrid environments, but also creates a central point of communication. As guidelines tighten or loosen, HR and Facilities teams can release or withhold assets with ease from the system, removing the need for physical barriers as employees can only access reserved spaces.
Inform cleaning rotas
Respiratory droplets can also survive upon surrounding surfaces, and transfer onto hosts via direct contact. As such, ensuring that surfaces are regularly cleaned and sanitised is more important than ever.
Occupancy data can be leveraged by cleaning staff to understand which areas are the highest priority.
Ensure workplace fit for purpose
By providing the appropriate array of workplace assets HR and Facilities teams reduce the likelihood of severe peaks in occupancy occurring as competition for spaces is minimised. Gathering occupancy data to understand how each workplace asset is used enables teams to identify under-utilised spaces which can be repurposed.
Promote individual agency
In our recent
survey 44% of respondents identified remote working options as a safety measure. Hybrid work environments exist to facilitate all and every work style, and space within these frameworks has to exist for those for whom remote work is the most suitable.
The importance of gathering data
In each of these cases workplace data plays a further, vital role as HR and Facilities teams look to fine-tune processes and workplace policy. Workplace change processes are most successful when approached iteratively, making small and frequent changes.
Automating the gathering of workplace data ensures that teams are able to identify and react promptly to trends between behaviour, occupancy and safety levels.
Monitoring indoor air quality (IAQ)
Airborne viral transmission is also possible indirectly, as particles <5μm in diameter can remain in the air for long periods of time. This is highly unlikely in outdoor settings as there is a constant supply of fresh air, but in poorly ventilated indoor environments it poses a significant risk as particulate matter builds up as inhabitants respire.
Promoting the safety and wellbeing of employees therefore necessitates tight controls on capacity to ensure that particulate matter levels do not approach dangerous levels, alongside close monitoring of IAQ to inform HVAC system operations.
Want to learn more?
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