Strategies for the ‘return to work’ are as varied as organizations themselves. How can organizations ensure safe but effective meeting spaces for their employees? Here are some tips for using technology to prepare meeting spaces for the safe return to work.
While our pandemic-driven exit from the workplace was hurried, our return will be anything but. Organizations have serious considerations to make in planning their return to work.
Both OSHA and the CDC provide considerations for individuals returning to work and valuable guidance for organizations to develop safe return-to-work strategies, guidelines, and workspaces. Many of the building safety recommendations and guidelines revolve around creating and maintaining a healthy work environment, including communication of safety protocols, proper social distancing and building ventilation considerations, and guidance for cleaning and disinfecting.
As we explored in a previous blog, among the most important spaces to consider are meeting spaces. While individual work may be possible from anywhere, it’s collaboration that will bring workers back to the office. How can we keep our meeting spaces safe and hygienic, yet still enable engaging and productive in-person meetings? Luckily, existing meeting room technology can be used to support a healthy workplace plan and communicate new health and safety protocols to employees. Here are three ways meeting room technology can help.
Prepare Safe Meeting Spaces In preparing safe meeting spaces, choose safe solutions that support the new hybrid workforces, including touchless, BYOM, and overflow space solutions.
Some considerations:
Keep Workers Informed of Workplace Health & Safety Guidelines Digital signage, customizable welcome screens, and room calendar displays can all provide valuable messaging for your workers.
Some ideas:
Use Workplace Analytics to Measure & Optimize Spaces As the t-shirts say, ‘data is the new bacon’. It’s hot, it’s delicious, and it’s essential to a good breakfast – or in this case, business – buffet. If ‘everything is better with bacon’ then certainly businesses are better with data. Workplace analytics will enable organizations to measure the return to work in a meaningful way, helping IT administrators and decision-makers to better understand and plan for changes in the workplace.
Some suggestions:
Workplace analytics can inform both near-, mid-, and long term office and meeting space planning. The pandemic will likely have real and lasting implications on how organizations plan and use space, infrastructure, and technology. Collaboration technology with analytics capabilities can help building administrators and decision-makers plan spaces that will keep their employees safe, engaged, and productive now and into the future. Stay tuned for more on meeting space analytics in a future blog.
While meeting spaces are only one element of safe return to work planning, they are among the most important spaces to evaluate because they are where people come together to collaborate. What other meeting space technology considerations is your organization considering? Leave a comment below.
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