With government restrictions in place and strict guidance issued for those who operate various types of workspaces, it is important to be aware of the rules you need to follow in order to keep your workforce safe during the pandemic, whilst helping to stem the spread of the coronavirus. In terms of offices, contact centres and similar indoor environments, there is specific advice in place that must be adhered to. Here we explore the subject of workplaces and workstations, how to make a workplace COVID safe, and what you can do to maintain social distancing between individuals whilst they work.
There is government guidance in place that specifically applies to making offices and contact centres safe places for employees to work within.
The government advises, as priority actions, that office workers who can effectively work from home should do so, that cleaning and sanitising should be increased, that face-to-face meetings should be reduced, that crowding should be managed by lowering numbers in the workplace, and that work spaces should be arranged to keep staff apart.
The objective of the guidance in respect of workplaces and workstations is to maintain social distancing between individuals. This guidance includes the following:
Arrange work spaces to keep staff apart
To help make your office COVID-safe, consider the use of barriers to separate people in confined spaces, and introduce back-to-back or side-by-side working rather than have workers facing each other.
Where possible, workstations should be moved further apart, and cluster desks replaced with individual office desks.
Where it is not possible to separate desks, partition screens should be considered.
Partition screen systems such as the Kubick modular partition screen allow for the perfect layout to be chosen to suit the individual environment. These tempered glass screens can be placed around any desk or table with ease. If there is no choice but to set out desks facing each other, these Flexi Fit plexiglass screens will help to segregate workers.
Stop workstation sharing
To make a workplace COVID-safe, individual workstations should be assigned to each employee, with sharing of desks outlawed. Where hot desking was previously allowed, this will need to be stopped.
Where it is not possible to ensure working areas are compliant with current social distancing guidelines, businesses will need to consider whether that particular activity needs to continue in order for the business to operate. If it does, then all mitigating actions possible should be taken in order to reduce the risk of transmission.
The full government guidance on COVID-safe working for offices and contact centres can be found here.
COVID-safe office furniture solutions from ADD office
ADD office is a nationwide supplier of premium quality office furniture. We have a vast selection of individual office desks, together with height adjustable desks and virus protection screens, including fixed and portable models.
If you are looking to kit out your office in line with government COVID-safe guidelines, and could use some helpful advice, you are welcome to contact our helpful team for fully tailored guidance on selecting the best options to suit your individual workspace.
