New Normal: Socially-distanced workplace: Are you ready?

Anticipating Office Life, Post-COVID

The recent infographic by TopCHRO – an online magazine for the CHROs – titled ‘Six-Foot Offices and the Age of Social Distancing,’ talks about the effects of coronavirus on office culture, and how social distancing and socially distanced workplace became new normal.

The infographic also talked about how the pandemic drove numerous businesses to quickly adapt to a remote working model. And now the current infographic had raised a valid question: As organizations are thinking about reopening their doors for business as usual what will be different in the post-coronavirus office?

Pandemic-Proofing Office Workspaces and Meeting Rooms

Divided into six parts, the infographic tackles and tries to find answers to all the raging queries in the minds of HR leaders. The first section ‘Embracing the New Normal at Work,’ talks about short-term fixes and long-term design modification to the office spaces so as to operate smoothly. The section also talks about the importance of preparedness until the fear of the immediate risk of pandemic subsides gradually.

Moving on to the next section ‘Short-term fixes to pandemic-proof office space,’ the infographic talks about four points to be kept in mind before the organizations plan to reopen their businesses. The points included –

1. Workstations now represent social distancing norms rather than privacy
2. Floor plans need reconfiguration to ensure contactless offices
3. No more meeting rooms cramming
4. Regular sanitization at the common areas and workstations

Changes to Expect within the Office Culture

Talking about the other section of the infographic is quite ironic, as before the pandemic had hit the world, there were talks about more open spaces in the office. However, now with the fear of pandemic lurking everywhere the post-coronavirus office, the new work culture will include –

• Personal workstations
• More dispersed, partitioned, and enclosed workspaces
• Minimized socializing at community places like cafeterias
• Visual instructions to stay safe during the work hours will dominate the walls and floors

Once these fixes will be in place in organizations, employees who return to work post pandemic will be able to relax a bit. There is still some more work to be done and the next section in the infographic talks about how the focus will be on hygiene and cleanliness and the steps to ensure there is proper ventilation and the safety is guaranteed at all levels.

What Will the Socially-Distanced Office Look Like?

Painting a picture of the socially-distanced office, the current infographic showed us the four ways the new office will look like — rotational shifts; staggered workforce; prioritization of employees required in the office; larger operations get distributed into smaller office spaces.

Finally, the infographic concluded with saying that organizations that can afford it will go for ‘contactless office.’ But whatever the scenario, COVID-19 has indeed changed the way organizations worked earlier.

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