Office design ideas were more predictable before 2020. COVID -19 has impacted us on a global level, including your office. The work environment has shifted from corporate offices and corporate meeting rooms to employee’s dining tables and video conferences.
While working from home has been an effective solution In-person contact is still a necessity in most businesses. The next challenge will be reopening your office to your personal and relevant third parties while educating your employees on new safety measures and design changes to comply with new health regulations and best practices.
The office is like a second home for your employees, and since they spend most of the day in their office, it needs to be sanitary. Office design ideas should be adapted in such a way to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. From social distancing to sanitization gel dispensing stations, every office design aspect needs to be looked at in a new light.
New Normal Office Design Ideas
Secure Desks
The most important aspect of an office is the working desk. The employees have to stay there for the entire workday, completing their tasks and interacting. This was not an issue before COVID-19. Now, post COVID-19, special attention needs to be paid to work desks, especially when keeping social distancing in mind. A radius of 6 feet is recommended to minimize the risk of infection.
Redesigning office desks depends upon your current floor plan. If you have open workspaces where ten people work on the same desk, you will have to reduce the occupancy to 4 people per shift as per health and safety recommendations.
Since working hours are flexible post-COVID-19, while four employees work in the office, six can work from home. You can then rotate shifts for different employees to work in the same office space but at other times.
Station shields will enable employees to interact without any fear of contagion and be more productive. This strategy only works when your company is flexible with employees’ work schedule; otherwise, you will have to increase the company’s footprint for your employees to maintain a safe distance.
In the case of closed workstations, you will need to either increase your office floor space or design the workstations with a substantial distance between them.
You can also use strategies to reduce communal equipment (such as networked printers) by distributing personal devices. If you plan to have the whole staff working together in one place and at the same time, expanding the space is the advisable option. You will need to distance the cubicles from each other to maintain social distancing.
Open Floor Plans
Before 2020, open floor plans and movable and adjustable furniture were used to create an adaptable environment for any occasion. Now, open floor plans with at least some stationary tables are essential. Open floor plans allow movement, ventilation, and adequate space between the stations. The area will be more secure if there are fewer doorknobs to touch. However, the fixed furniture, with sufficient space between them, serves as a physical reminder to practice social distancing.
Adjustable Furniture
If your company is switching to a rotating shift schedule, adjustable furniture allows your employees to adapt their office space as per their needs and preferences. If needed, the table can be adjusted to provide more storage space, and if necessary, they can be folded to take up less office space.
It should also be noted that easy-to-sanitize furniture is a necessity post-COVID-19. You aim to keep your space safe to protect and motivate your employees. If your furniture is easy to clean, such as a microfiber couch, it will be easy to sanitize.
No Touch Technology
The furniture and other functional office elements can be upgraded with the latest technology to adopt a no-touch system. If the employees don’t have to touch communal surfaces, it will reduce the transmission of diseases. Voice-activated technology will become the norm.
Remind Them
A must in the post-COVID-19 office design ideas are creative reminders. Attach frames and signs through the office to remind your employees to take proper precautions continually. A social distancing chat on the wall and a wear a mask sign on the entrance will be wise.
COVID-19 has been brutal to all the businesses. Shifting to virtual platforms was a considerable task that taxed your resources. Now it’s time to bring everything back to normal, as much as possible, which means you adapt to the new normal. You have to take precautions that COVID-19 can not affect your business any longer. You have to make your office design resistant to this pandemic and any possible future contagion. No one can afford to lose any more to COVID-19. Remember that post-COVID-19 security needs to promote productivity; thus, office design must be planned accordingly.
