Practical guidelines to ensure smooth post lock-down transition

The pandemic and subsequent lockdown may not have given us enough time to think through how work and our role as people enablers would change, but it has definitely given us enough time to think about how we can come back to a better normal!

Preparation before return

1.     Regulation and compliance – Ensure that you have read all the regulations and are in compliances with the requirements before opening. Make a short document with a checklist to share with the team and vendors who will be responsible for compliance.

2.     Make sure you have created a set of guidelines and communicated this with the staff before they return to work

3.     Managers and team leaders are key allies – do a remote meeting with them to prepare them to handle the transition and to take on any practical concerns that they might have

4.     Enlist a professional sanitization company or check with your existing vendor to ensure 24-hour Sanitization cycles of the entire premises including specialized sanitization of electronic equipment. Ensure that your current facilities management company is equipped to handle the sanitization - they are you first line of defence and the service providers are well-protected themselves.

5.     Personal protective equipment (masks and gloves) and hand sanitizers should be readily available at key check points (near lifts, near common garbage bins, at multiple places on the office floor)

6.     Reorganize the office layout to ensure at least 2m distance between people.

7.     Reorganize the pantry to ensure that seats are 2m apart. Remove all items that pose contamination risk. Ensure the availability of hand sanitizers and wet wipes.

8.     Contingency plan for positive-tested/ suspected cases - Ensure that you have an area to isolate any suspected or confirmed COVID-19 positive cases. Have a plan in place to deal with this, including informing the authorities and assistance on contact tracing

Upon return to work

Sanitization measures

1.     Ensure 24-hour sanitization cycles

2.     Identification measures & health checks such as temperature checks for all individuals entering the premises. Ensure that managers immediately intimate HR in case any symptoms are displayed

3.     Self-reporting – encourage individuals to report any symptoms or sickness immediately. Encourage employees to avail of their sick leave and not come to work if they are not well. Even if they are not COVID-19 positive, immunity levels dip during illness and this may make them more susceptible

4.     Safety and personal protective equipment - Encourage the use of gloves and facemasks. Procure these items if required. Keep a few spare ones on hand (remember not to hoard – we need to have enough for everyone for us to be safe). Disposal of all such equipment should be done correctly in the prescribed manner

5.     Share a guideline with employees for social distancing and preventive measures when they are outside the office premises.

6.     Electronic equipment - Ensure that all electronic equipment (like common laptops in conference rooms, VC equipment, phones etc.) are thoroughly sanitized. Discourage people from touching or sharing keyboards, mouse etc. – These are high-contact areas. Encourage laptops, keyboards, mouse, and other electronic equipment used by staff to be safely sanitized

Working protocol to reduce risk

1.     Desks and seating protocols - Ensure that all employees have been allotted seats based on social distancing protocols and are at their assigned seats – do not encourage ‘at-desk’ meetings which involves gathering of people at one desk.

2.     Meetings – Minimize the number of meetings and limit meeting sizes to less than 5 people and ensure adequate distancing of 2m between the attendees.

3.     Remote working – Encourage at least 70% of your workforce to continue working from home. Try and extend this to the maximum number of people who need to use public transport to limit risks

4.     Working hours – Try to reduce working hours in the office or at least limit working hours

5.     Gatherings and events – Suspend all in-person gatherings, events and townhalls.

6.     Guests, clients, and visitors – Make all potential visitors to the office aware of the required protocol. Avoid in-person meetings as much as possible

Use of Facilities

1.     Parking – Ensure that parking meters, touch points of parking barriers, are sanitized regularly.

2.     Lifts/elevators and escalators – Do not allow over-crowding inside lifts and elevators – limit this to 30% of capacity at the most

3.     Pantry regulations – Use individually packaged, disposable cutlery and plates. Stagger lunch hours and break-times. Ensure social distancing of at least 2m between individuals. Encourage people to wipe-down with anti-bacterial wipes after use of the tables at the pantry.

Employee engagement

1.     Engagement – This is the time when employee engagement would typically be at the lowest. Employees may be worried or upset with some changes. Step in to drive engagement.

Employee physical wellness – Deploy practical steps to enhance physical well-being like virtual fitness classes or diet consultations. Invest in good health insurance.

Employee mental wellness – Stress and uncertainty foster fear. Mental health is critical for employee well-being. Invest in outsourced counselling or mentoring; offer virtual meditation classes etc.

2.     Communication is key – Ensure that you have communicated all measures before re-opening. Also, ensure that you have communication material at key locations to reinforce some of the measures such as social distancing. Share a daily bulletin with all employees highlighting the positives and explaining bad news (if any). Ensure that you share data and information from official sources with your employees so that they can always depend on this for guidance rather

Care and empathy for all

Care and empathy needs to guide our response to transitioning into a better normal. Everyone will have to make adjustments - it maybe easier for some and not so practical for others. Remember that everyone may not have the same enablers to help transition easily, keep and eye out for this and help them. Do everything you can and more to highlight how much essential services staff (within and outside the organization) have contributed to keeping us safe and how much we owe them. Gratitude, caution, care and empathy will help us create a better future for everyone.