While companies across Ireland and the world are embracing work-from-home, Zoom meetings, and social distancing, it might seem like COVID-19 is making the traditional office obsolete. Smart companies understand that living with Covid-19 will be reality for the foreseeable future. It’s probable that returning to the workplace will happen in waves and be stressful for both Businesses & workers.
It’s impossible to predict what may happen next and when, we need to be prepared in order to not compromise the health & safety of our employees.
Whether it’s the COVID-19 pandemic or other illnesses that circulate when people share space, offices likely will be reinvented to reflect the need for more adaptability. The characteristics of a how we designed space pre-COVID was to support new ways of working with high levels of human interaction to fuel creativity, innovation, speed and agility. These attributes now pose challenges for the post-COVID workplace, to limit physical interactions.
I think infection control is a given, but we must not fix the office in a way that weakens your business culture, creativity, productivity and competitiveness, of course the office must be made safe, but also more resilient and more adaptive than ever.
As you plan ahead the things to consider are; the Density of Workplace & capacity, Divisions, Ancillary Spaces, Standing Meetings, Design for Disinfecting, Agile Practices and Working from Home.
This time should be used as an opportunity for your workplace to move forward, not backward, If you need any assistance with your workplace review we can assist you!
We will return to a new way of doing things. To help you plan for the new world.
Contact FKM to help retrofit and reconfigure your workplace, at +353 1 414 5000 or office@fkm.ie
