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The bkm Post-COVID Workplace Playbook
Ready to Get Back to the Office?
We are here to offer Post-COVID workplace design considerations to help keep you and your employees safe as they return to work.
Contact us today at (858) 569-4700 or complete this contact form to receive a FREE risk assessment and floor plan analysis.
Wellbeing at Work
bkm has a long and storied history designing workspaces to support the cognitive, physical, and emotional wellbeing of workers. And now more than ever, safety is at the forefront of that work. It is foundational to your staff’s overall wellbeing and the key to a successful return to the office space. It is vital to adapt and provide resilient business continuity when reopening your workplace.
We can help you to provide safer spaces, and shape resultant cultural behaviors in the American office.
Guiding Principles – An Office Reopening Checklist
A plan is required before employees can be invited back to work. We recommend following the checklist below in preparation for that event.
- Enact safety guidelines
- Enable safe behaviors and cleanliness protocols
- Create physical and psychological safety
- Support effective and safe human interactions
Efforts to create creative co-working spaces often result in areas not immediately conducive to social distancing. A full overhaul, however, isn’t necessary; it is possible to take on these challenges with the help of data-driven smart design.
- Open Plan
- High Density
- Shared Spaces
- High Mobility
- Communal Spaces
- Residential Aesthetic
These characteristics created a competitive advantage for organizations — a means to foster new work styles, build culture, and attract talent. While many organizations prepared for employee safety in other ways, the workplace was not designed to mitigate the spread of disease.
We Can Help!
Employee Survey & Floorplan Assessment: Identifying concerns and uncovering the value of your space. Let us assess your space and make suggestions on how it can be tailored to support appropriate and safe interaction.
Signage & Graphics: Delineate paths of travel and utilize our new downloadable signage package. We can help you to create safety signs and graphics to implement in the workplace.
Cleaning: We can do a deep clean of your office furniture & upholstery (panels & chairs) with the help of SERVPRO and commercial cleaning services, and help you to implement sanitation stations.
AV & Technology: Does your space’s technology allow you to meet effectively with both in-office teams & remote workers? bkm’s Technology Team can help.
Protocol Book: Let us work with you to create a protocol book to give to your employees as they return to the office. It will include CDC guidelines, new social behaviors, & safer ways to interact.
Home Office: Are you planning to assist any of your users with their home office furniture needs? We have solutions.
Thoughts on Designing for the NEAR: We can do a deeper dive into your floorplan and suggest applications and space reconfiguration for phases 3 & 4.
Open conversations about the FAR: What does the future of our workplace look like? What permanent changes will your company be implementing? We are here to help!
The Future of the Workplace
The future is uncertain due to economic upheaval and a pandemic, and as people start to return to the office, it is evident that things need to change. To return to work safely in the post-COVID workplace, spaces must adapt to keep people feeling comfortable and productive upon their return. Here’s how:
How can we create a “new normal” workplace NOW? What does the office reopening checklist look like?
With science and data-based research, we start to understand how we may need to adapt our spaces for the NEAR future. As time progresses, the “new normal” will continue to adjust. We will start to get a perspective on how our spaces will also need to adapt in the LONG-TERM, to keep people safe and comfortable.
We can help with product solutions and services for the NOW, NEAR, and FAR.
We have the tools and resources to help you provide a safer office for your employees. Start a FREE workplace assessment here.