Three Areas Companies Should Consider When Adapting Their Workplaces To Covid-19

When 2020 started the word pandemic was something you would only hear in blockbuster movies, video games, and TV shows. Where we are now doesn’t feel nearly as exciting but is equally as frightening as some of those films. However, even as many people have begun to settle into the routine of working from home (or wherever they happened to be when the shelter in places went into affect ) there’s thousands of people trying to figure out what Workplaces will look like when we finally go back to them. We think some (not all) of the adaptations we will see can be broken down into three categories; construction, culture, and operational adaptations. We have left architectural planning out of this post as that is not our field of expertise.

Construction

As we begin the slow ramp up to being back in the workplace we can expect many of the projects that were halted to begin their process of moving towards construction. When they do they should expect extended time frames for the construction of their spaces. General contractors need to adapt to the new social distancing rules and we have already seen multiple guides from contractors requiring more stringent check in processes, health checks, and applying rules limiting the number of people on a job site. All of this will result in safer conditions, but also in tasks taking more time. Teams that manage construction will need to advise their clients closely on this to avoid issues with the delivery of spaces.

Additionally we can expect to see longer lead times for furniture and other manufactured goods. Many of the factories that make these goods have had to shut down, but there will be a pent up demand from many projects ramping back up at the same time. We believe there should be an expectation as well for there to be a desire to use new types of materials like copper.

Culture

Many companies have shied away from allowing employees to work from home. The argument has been that it would not work, or that it’s just not right for their culture and employees become disengaged. We believe many companies will realize that many more people than they thought could, can work from home. Companies will need to set a strategy for who can continue to work from home, how many people can come back to the office as currently designed, and how they will handle requests to not come back to the office. They will need to do this before the doors open again.

More employees working from home, coupled with new social distancing guidelines, will result in the de-densification of the workplace. Over the past 10 years companies have squeezed in ever smaller desks into the open office. They have moved from the individual to the communal. Unfortunately this will have to adjust to the new health information we have available and the norms of the company along with it. It may be commonplace for even people who currently shared private offices, to request that they have individual offices for health reasons.

Companies will also have to decide how they handle HR policies such as sick leave moving forward. If employees come to the office sick, should they be sent home immediately? How does the company enforce this policy without violating privacy? There are many questions to answer.

Operations

The way workplace teams operate their spaces will have to adapt alongside the culture of the office. Some of the changes we may see within the way we operate our spaces may include requests such as on-demand cleaning of desks. Any office with communal space will need to be cleaning more actively and more frequently to prevent the spread of germs.

Savvy operations managers will likely also look at how people enter into and move around their spaces. Automatic door openers and closers, infared temperature sensors, touchless security readers, and even self cleaning surfaces will likely come into the forefront of solutions.

It has been a blessing for employees that many technology companies and companies that have been influenced by the “Google effect” of the past 20 years, now operate cafeterias. These beautiful spaces promote culture and also are a heavy piece of operations teams workload. However, communal troughs of food, with common utensils might be a nightmare for people returning to work in a Covid-19 era. These programs will need to adapt and operate akin to restaurants (if not more stringently) in order to survive within workplaces. Every program will have to work to regain employees trust by informing them about their response and teaching new habits to current employees.

So What Is There To Be Excited About?

This sounds like…a lot, doesn’t it? Yet when writing this, we are not downtrodden. We are hopeful. Over the past 20 years there has been a very disjointed effort for improvement and many times too much focus on the glitz and glam of spaces. For the first time in this century, we have a problem that all of us in Workplace Experience are trying to adapt too. We are all working on the same problem and trying to solve it. This is why you see so many people (now myself included) pontificating on the internet about what comes next.

This is an extremely encouraging fact to me. We believe that if we are willing to share what we find, what we learn, and what we enact as a response to this issue - then we will all be able to overcome it. We will be able to bring our employees back to workplaces that they enjoy, at least the ones that don’t work from home now.

Looking At Your Workplace With A Diversity and Inclusion Mindset

There’s no one way to approach Diversity and Inclusion initiatives.  However, we’re very lucky as Workplace Experience professionals to be able to take an active and vital role in improving the setting for these initiatives.  If you work at a company that is embracing diversity and inclusion, the below is simply a group of thought starters based on previous experience, pain points, and ways you could easily push forward to make spaces that better accommodate all users.   The focus below is mainly on inclusion, but we will be following with more blogs on Diversity as well! 

Room Schedulers and Wayfinding

I started my career when we were still using paper schedulers at Google.  That feels like a long time ago.  Today most companies have a room scheduler on every room that looks something like the below.  

Conference Room Booking System by TEEM

Unfortunately the way these are typically mounted (too high for people in wheelchairs), the way the display is designed (no accommodation for color blind users), and the way the casings work (do not have Braille to accommodate blind users) - is sub par in terms of inclusion.  How could we change this and easily make it better?  A few suggestions are to simply move the scheduler down on the wall, create displays using already known best practices from UX design, and to simply add Braille to the physical sign.  Some quick sketches of how this might work are below  - but please forgive my terrible skills at drawing:).  Again these are just a place to start!

Move the scheduler down to a lower position for wheelchair accessibility.

Adding typical UX standards for color - blindness accommodation is easy!  Also adding Braille will help your meeting rooms feel more welcoming for blind users.  Yes, it’s a legal requirement, but often one people get wrong and don’t update often. 

Conference Room Seating  

As space planners we typically try to maximize the number of seats we can fit into a conference room.  This helps our ratios and helps us to make sure that the room feels full.  But if a room is already tightly designed, and it’s not easy to move chairs around already, what does that mean for a user in a wheelchair?  Could you imagine having to come into a meeting, or an interview, and attempt to move a chair out of your way?  It doesn’t seem very welcoming at all.   

But what if you thought about designing your conference rooms differently?  What if you left a spot at every table for users?  You could easily make sure that this is done by leaving one space open, and adding a simple symbol to the end of the table.  This will help people know that this is a dedicated spot, and also let your facilities team know not to place a chair there as well.  A simple example is below. 

Leaving space creates an invitation. 

Place a symbol at the end of the table to help note that this is a dedicated space.  Bonus if it’s the new more inclusive ISO symbol.

A Mindset for Inclusion

As I said a few times above, this is just a beginning. These are simply thought starters that are based off my own experience and pain points I’ve observed.  So how can you think about Inclusion and go further?  I’m a big believer in research and that you should do your own to figure out the best way forward for your company.  As a start I’d suggest the below: 

1. Research what the legal requirements are in your region - Are you ahead of them or not even meeting them?  Are they progressive, or are they falling behind the rest of the world?  What standard should you use as your base?
2. Consider each area of your space and think about ways in which they could be more inclusive. 
3. Put yourself in their shoes.  Use empathy to think about how users with difference physical abilities will utilize your space.  Empathy is a powerful tool. 
4. Try it out!  Why not create a prototype for your idea and quickly implement it.  You might find that it is well received and then have the buy in to keep pushing forward with further initiatives. 

There’s no perfect way to start, but starting is the hardest part.  Once you start thinking about your space with an inclusive mindset, the rest will follow.