Tips To Ensure Social Distancing at Your Office

The Corona virus has changed the conventional business settings, offices and their everyday routines.  Businesses have been adopting various measures to ensure social distancing to cut down the risks of contamination. Though in an office setting, it may be difficult to enforce, you can still practice social distancing the best way possible without putting the team and the clients into inconvenience.

Defining Social Distancing

Social distancing is envisaged to keep people separated to reduce the spread of illness. Some of the practical ways of social distancing include avoiding public transportation, keeping more space between people at stores, and cancelling  mass events among others.

Why Social distancing

Social distancing works because it prevents the mixing of sick people with healthy people.It prevents community spreading of diseases like Covid-19, which is transmitted through droplet infections. Studies show that droplets don’t travel any further than 6 feet, which is the recommended space between people.

Social Distancing in Office

Though there are limitations in employing social distancing in your office, you can still undertake some of these measures. Installing sneeze guards on work desks, making face masks compulsory and introducing a no-visitors policy are some of the measures that can be considered.

If you have an open plan office, you can install individual cubicles for employees to ensure the safety of the team and bring down the possibilities of droplet infections.

Stagger shifts: Rotate your employees in smaller shifts and keep 33% of attendance in office to prevent overcrowding and the possibility of a closer personal interaction

Social distancing signs: Remind your team to stick to the social distancing norms with these full color decals,signs and boards. It will help them to follow the distancing guidelines without fail.

Offer remote working: Remote working is the ultimate way to limit interaction and keep your team at a distance. It will keep the team safe without compromising on the productivity.  Though remote working isn’t for everyone, it is a sensible option in the prevailing pandemic situation. Let your employees get their work done from the safety of their homes to both ensure personal safety and keep their fellow employees safe from germs.

Postpone office parties: If you have any office parties on cards, it is better to postpone it till situation stabilizes

Virtual conferences: Switch to Zoom or Skype meetings wherever possible. When your team must meet in a group setting, leave at least 1 empty chair between each person to ensure sufficient distance.

Social distancing is of paramount importance as it will increase the space between individuals, help reduce the spread of germs and keep the office safe. Everyone will surely miss the warm hand shake and the high five, but in the current situation, ensuring personal safety is what is important. Social pricing is just a small price to pay to stay safe and stay healthy!