Social Distancing At Workplace

In addition to everyday steps to prevent COVID-19, social distancing is the best way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 locally and across the country and world. The government’s advice is to minimize social interaction outside our homes and enable staff to work from home (if possible). Social distancing or “physical distancing,” means keeping space between yourself and other people outside of your home.

Atalian Global Services have produced social distancing guidelines for the facility managers and our partners on measures to help you stay safe by limiting face-to-face contact with others at your workplace. It offers top tips on a new set of habits you can implement such as social distancing at your workplace to help you work safely during the COVID-19 outbreak.

New Ways of Working

The workplace is going to feel very different than it did before. It will start to adopt a new normal with social distancing, health, and well-being at its heart. By maintaining social distancing between employees, the risk of cross infections can be minimized. It will look different from organization to organization depending on the nature of your business, the property portfolio, and the building infrastructure.

To start this process, each organization needs to map out the employee journey. This includes going through access control, booking a desk, using a meeting room, pantry, or washrooms, going for lunch, sending or receiving posts, and using any gym facilities. Social distancing rules are crucial to each element of that journey while ensuring that each area they use is clean and hygienic.

Space Planning

Workplaces will need to change how they are laid out to maintain social distancing. Employees will no longer be able to sit close together at desks, in meeting rooms, or in the staff cafeteria. Similarly, how your staff moves about the building will need to change. Some considerations include:

Desking

1. Employees should occupy an alternate desk to keep social distancing. Consider putting a large red cross on the desks which should not be occupied to reinforce the message.
2. Desks can be moved further apart, with some desks removed if there’s no space on the floorplate.
3. The floor can be reconfigured to support social distancing with surplus furniture put into storage.
4. Stop a hot-desking policy and temporarily introducing a fixed-desk approach.
5. Consider creating physical barriers, stickers, or signage on bench desking to indicate the social distancing rules.
6. Use desk planning systems to show people where the nearest available desk is to avoid them walking around unnecessarily.

Office space

1. Reduce the number of chairs in meeting rooms by half and position to ensure social distancing.
2. Change the room-booking system to reflect the reduced capacity spaces.
3. Install signage requesting people not to move the furniture and explaining how to use the space safely.
4. Consider changing small meeting rooms into single-desk offices.

Break-out furniture / soft seating

1. Reduce break-out furniture to ensure people can still maintain social distancing.
2. Remove soft seating such as sofas where social distancing would be impossible.

People flow

1. Use signage and barriers to instigate a single direction flow around a building so that people can pass in open spaces.
2. Encourage the use of the stairs to reduce pressure on the lifts. Dedicate one staircase for upwards travel and one for downwards, using signage to show people how far apart they need to walk.
3. Install strict lift occupancy levels of typically two or four people per lift.
4. Open up additional building entrances and exits to ensure there is no congestion or unnecessary queuing.
5. Install queuing graphics in reception, or where people might be likely to queue, to demonstrate the social distancing rules.

Meetings

1. Conduct meetings with a large attendance virtually.
2. If meeting rooms do have to be used, then consider the following:

• Use large open spaces, such as atriums or even outside, with the appropriate social distancing measures.
• Reconfigure meeting rooms to support social distancing. Reduce the number of chairs by half and position tables accordingly.
• Change the room-booking system to reflect the reduced capacity spaces.
• Install signage requesting people not to move the furniture and explaining how to use the space safely. Signage should detail how many people can use the room at any one time.
• Consider changing small meeting rooms into single-desk offices.
• Provide personal protective equipment (PPE), including face masks and gloves.
• Install hand sanitizer and tissues for personal use, cleaning wipes for any IT equipment, and closed-lid bins for disposal.
• Encourage no handshake policy. Practice safer greeting gestures.

Front-of-house and Security

If social distancing is sloppy in the reception area, then it is less likely that people will adhere to requirements elsewhere. Use the front-of-house area to demonstrate how seriously the organization takes the safety and well-being of its occupants. This will promote confidence at every level of the business:

1. Install transparent screens at reception to protect receptionists and visitors.
2. Put graphics on the flooring to help people maintain the social distancing rules when queuing.
3. Reconfigure reception furniture so guests can maintain social distancing. Use signage/graphics on floors if required.
4. Consider changing the check-in procedures for guests and contractors to remove human contact.
5. Consider installing thermal imaging solutions that can automatically screen numerous people’s temperatures simultaneously and flag abnormal temperatures reducing the risk of virus transmission.
6. Consider using occupancy counters on main entrances and exits to maintain a set occupancy rate or use existing desk sensors.
7. Remove all non-essential items from reception areas such as newspapers, magazines, brochures, and sweets.
8. Remove or reduce guest hospitality in reception. Use disposable cups or bottles.
9. Remove any cloakroom facilities to avoid unnecessary contact.
10. Install mats inside and outside entrances.
11. Create a process for disinfecting deliveries.
12. Consider a policy to support social distancing among smokers.

Crowd Management

Minimize face-to-face meetings or gatherings by using other forms of communicating, such as through the telephone or video conference, and staggering work schedules:

1. Introduce lunch-time shifts to decrease the number of people in the pantries or common resting rooms at any one time to allow for safe social distancing. Swap these weekly so no-one is disadvantaged.
2. Avoid assemblies for roll calls and communal meals in crowded places.
3. Consider temporarily removing any ban on eating at desks to provide more spaces for people to eat their food safely.
4. Minimize unnecessary face-to-face meetings at the counters and workstations.
5. Ensure there is proper signage throughout the space, explaining what people should and shouldn’t do.

Emergency Evacuations

The process for emergency evacuations will need to be rethought with social distancing in mind. Consider whether it’s possible to conduct an effective emergency evacuation while maintaining the social distancing rules or whether fire wardens should concentrate on the immediate threat – fire, bomb, and others. Ensure that any change in policy is communicated clearly.

Commuting, Business Travel and Attendance at Events

Staggered starts and finishes avoid people all arriving and leaving at the same time. It also reduces the need for employees to travel on public transport at peak times, which supports social distancing. Still, organizations should do everything they can to help people to avoid public transport. This could involve:

• Install more cycle racks and shower or drying facilities.
• Provide more car parking spaces.
• Share walking routes to get to the office.
• Avoid gatherings, public conferences, and industry exhibitions.
• Avoid non-essential work travel. Consider when should people be allowed to fly on business.
• Provide advice on social distancing while traveling.

Home-working Policy

Split team working whereby a percentage of a team that works in the office on one day, with their counterparts working from home, and then they switch. This allows for a sense of business as usual for an organization while also maintaining social distancing for individuals. The employer’s Duty of Care is the same when an employee is working in their own home or the office. Organizations will need to consider:

• Utilize video conferencing to conduct home workstation assessments.
• Provide home-working employees with the necessary equipment to set up a comfortable workstation, including height-adjustable desk, ergonomic chair, screen, keyboard, mouse, riser, and more.
• Ensure that people are not isolated and feel supported in their roles.
• Ensure that data is safe and secure.

ATALIAN is pleased to offer immediate reassurance to protect your valued staff and customers. We provide a broad range of COVID-19 prevention products and services:

• Maintain a healthy PPE stock, including face masks, gloves, wipes, and sanitizers.
• Preliminary fever screening with access control and tracking visitor traffic with flow control.
• Pre-print acetate (sneeze/cough) protection screens with your logo and desired message.

Finally, our disinfection cleaning solutions for properties and vehicles provide germ-free surfaces for up to 30 days. Contact us for further discussion of any COVID-19 prevention products or services!