Effective Ways To Gear Up For ‘Back To Work’ In A Post Vaccine World

2020 has been one turbulent year. COVID-19 has flipped our work lives and life itself upside down. Anyone can agree that the Coronavirus era changed the way people do their jobs forever. An event as big as the pandemic is inevitably going to spur substantial long-term changes.

Entering 2021, we have arrived at a point where we see the hope of turning things around, as vaccines keep rolling out across the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world. And with this, world governments have already started easing lockdowns, making people feel hopeful for returning to the good old days.

Though most of us have already gotten used to the work-from-home setup, a whole year of isolation makes one miss working at the office. The social aspect of work that we took for granted in the past will have a different meaning moving forward as people start heading back to their physical offices.

To get your workspace ready for the post-vaccine world, here three things to consider:

Provide employees the assurance of safety

When discussing the post-vaccine era of working, one of the things most considered is rebuilding the office space. But more than rearranging furniture, or flipping offices, one area that organizations need to address critically is on high-touch surfaces.

Consider investing in touch-free technology devices such as hands-free faucets. Installing touchless hand sanitizer dispensers in areas like elevator lobbies would also help tremendously.

Even though most of your employees will be vaccinated, it is still essential to prioritize workspace hygiene. Protocols still need to be followed through so that employees will feel safe. This includes wearing masks and maintaining workplace distancing policies that can be accomplished using barriers between desks. You could also consider having special air filters installed to remove viral contaminants.

Implement physical changes to the office

Company leaders must already plan for some rebuilds in their offices because the change in the physical workspace is inevitable in a post-vaccine world. Companies need to take several considerations into account. One of which is focusing on personal space.

Even as most of the country’s population is already vaccinated, people will still be highly conscious of proximities, and cleanliness, being extra careful to avoid even the tiniest chance of illness, especially when the cold season arrives. Many people will start to cough or sniffle at work, and that could be anxiety-inducing to some. Your office could benefit from adding spacious and defined workstations in the post-vaccine era.

Embrace the hybrid work environment

Before the Coronavirus outbreak, remote work was already a concept being tested by multiple companies. The pandemic further accelerated this shift into work from home, forcing organizations to embrace this new model for working. After one year of total immersion in remote work, many companies have already developed tools tailored explicitly for permanent remote work out of necessity.

Like it or not, remote work is not going away anytime soon. Hybrid work, a combination of work from home and the office work setup, will soon be adapted as a standard work model for many organizations. Consider continuing the option of remote work for your employees. After getting through 2020 with this setup, the effectiveness of this model shouldn’t be of much concern now.

Furthermore, this hybrid working setup can be very appealing, especially to organizations that have taken a financial hit from the pandemic. The real estate savings that come with this working system is too significant to ignore. Besides, having this work setup prepares your organization for any future disruptions. There’s no guarantee that we won’t face another pandemic in the future. And companies don’t want to get caught off guard the way they did in 2020.

As much as we are excited to move back to the “old normal,” it is crucial to take the lessons learned in the past year and apply them in our approach to work systems. Organizations need to build resiliency and be ready to make adjustments when the need arises. This is where smart asset and inventory management comes in. With a cloud-based IT asset management system like Teqtivity in place, you’re ready to deploy your entire workforce back to a remote work setup, all while being able to manage your assets that they take with them.

Conclusion

If there’s anything that the pandemic taught us, it’s the value of adaptability. As the world’s workforce is already gearing up for a more optimistic and hopeful for the last half of 2021, organizations must make the proper return to work strategy by investing in design and technology innovations that facilitates the new distributed workforce system. Workers who were previously confined to their desks all day, using their computers, now need portable laptops to better adapt to changing workstation requirements. With the significant changes happening in the world, now is the perfect time to introduce tech and design innovations in the workplace to benefit not only your employees but also your clients.

Need more help is setting up a post-Covid workspace? Contact us and we’ll assist you!