We’ve dished out some advice on getting your home office in shape for working from home, but what if you have an office space you still have employees using at your office right now? How do you keep in mind social distancing and keep a good workflow with your office layout and furniture setup?
Not every business is the same, but I think most of us have the gist of the basic precautions employees can take during this pandemic to stay healthy:
-Maintain 6 feet of distance from other employees and customers
-Frequently washing hands
-Taking your temperature before leaving to go into the office
-Staying home if you don’t feel well, etc.
What about the physical layout of your office though?
If you you have been utilizing workstations you may be concerned that something like a 4-person workstation, with low dividers, isn’t providing enough distancing for your employees now. Or if you have an open office layout with desks next to, or facing each other, that that isn’t ideal either. The good news is that there are some simple solutions as far as how your employees are setup currently to get them a tad more social distancing friendly.
We’ll give you some tips for these types of setups, and how you can transition the spacing to be more conscious of today’s work guidelines. Also what might be good options if you’re looking at upgrading anyway, but want to ensure you’re keeping these types of social distancing measures in place while doing so.
Workstations
You might feel as though your spacing is doomed if you have workstations setup for your staff right now, but that isn’t necessarily the case. If some of your staff is able to work from home, spacing people out without purchasing more office furniture is totally doable. For example, if you have the 4-person workstations like below, and two of these people could work from home, you could then position the other two so that they are in workstations diagonal to each other.
Of course you would also want to make sure the next workstation was spaced at least 6 feet away from this one as well.
Basically, assigning some staff to be virtual allows you to use the existing space and furniture you have on hand. This is probably the easiest and most cost effective way to keep you and your employees healthy right now.
What if I need all of my employees in the office?
If having some staff working virtually isn’t an option for some reason, you can still make things work, but you may need to use more space, and/or purchase more office furniture. If you have other areas in your office that you could designate for employee work spaces, you can move some staff to that room or space. This would mean you would need to purchase more workstations to use in that space. If you have independent desks that face each other, then you could simply relocate some of those desks to your newly designated work area so as to keep people spread out.
The good news is that if this is only a temporary solution for you, and you need to purchase additional desks, or workstations, you can always schedule a time to come check out our preowned inventory. This option will still give you high quality office furniture options, but won’t be as much of an investment as purchasing brand new office furniture would be.
I want to upgrade my office furniture anway. What’s the best option and layout that is social distancing friendly, but works well long term?
If your itching to create a new and improved office space, now is the PERFECT time to do so. Either you don’t have people working in the office, which makes it super duper easy, you have less people than normal coming in to work at your office, or everyone still may be coming in, but upgrading now will help you get a fresh new layout and office furniture that will work both now, and post COVID. Whatever your case may be you’re winning here!
Office Layout
Creating a flawless office layout has always been our jam. These times are no different. We can do an analysis of your space, and help you determine how we can get you setup for ideal workflow, productivity, and still make sure distancing practices can stay in place.
Things to consider with your new layout:
-Keep desks off walls and windows in order to eliminate dead ends for foot traffic
-Have the layout setup in a way that makes one-way traffic feasible
-Take a look at the flooring before moving around furniture to determine where the high traffic areas are. You will be able to tell based off of what parts of the flooring have the most wear.
-You can physically mark 6-foot circles around each work area
-If you have general seating, or waiting areas, space out seats and tables
-Get blueprints of your office space to help visualize and map out how your new office space will flow
-Put up signs to remind employees of how the new office space flows, and of maximum capacity in areas like conference or break rooms
Office Furniture Upgrades
Oh!! We have so many options for you. Whether you still are looking for some budget-friendly preowned options, or are interested in some “shiny” new furniture, we got you covered. Here are some idea-starters for you to consider:
-Use workstations, but using 2-person stations
-Use actual desks so no one is attached to anyone else’s space
-Consider desks with non-porous surfaces so they are more easily kept germ-free
-Consider having dividers (they could be transparent) in between work areas to reduce face-to-face interactions
These tips should have at least got your wheels spinning in the right direction. Contact us today to check out new and preowned inventory, or to merely ask us some professional advice on your layout mapping!
