From the customers you serve to the vendors you welcome, the repairpersons who keep your building safe and everybody in-between-- the people that pass through your reception space are decidedly unique to you. Your entryway sets the tone for the health and safety of the entire office, making these some of the most important areas to optimize.
While returning to work, these spaces need special consideration for immediate safety, and as we transition to the all-new workplace, further purchasing can enhance wellness for years to come. Whether you're retrofitting, renovating, or reinventing your reception space, we've got the tools to help you make a safe return to work.
IMMEDIATE IMRPOVEMENTS
CONSUMABLE SUPPLIES
SET UP SNEEZEGUARDS
The best barriers are physical barriers and, when used with ample spacing, can keep everybody happy and healthy. Companies are increasing the availability of sneeze guards, fashioned from completely transparent acrylic to remain unobtrusive. Ensure that your guard is the right height, exceeding the height of tall-stature guests or seated receptionists. For valets, security staff, or other standing employees, full-body guards are available to satisfy these needs.
See all of our sneezeguard solutions here
ELIMINATE PAPERS
- Laminated signage or required reading materials
- Tablet-based sign-in systems to replace paper log books
- Web-hosted materials that can be accessed on visitors' cell phones
- When paper is necessary, provide ample recycling areas for disposal and use small desktop scanners to immediately digitize all forms
As for writing utensils, opt for single-use pens or short golf pencils for an inexpensive and disposable solution. While appealing, options with antimicrobial coating aren't efficient enough against SARS-CoV-2 to be beneficial.
REMOVING & SPACING SEATING
The easiest way to prevent overcrowding? Make it impossible. By removing seating, adding barriers between chairs, and spacing out seats, there's no option for visitors to crowd around one another. Keep single-seat chairs 6' apart, place tables between them, use movable partitions, and add cleanable fake plants to areas to make it difficult to overcrowd.
If you need added capacity and have the facilities, consider transforming an adjacent room into an overflow reception space, only opening up this area as needed. Ensure that it remains easy let guests know when it's time for their meeting or appointment. Maintain the same strict surface cleanliness and spacing measures as you would in the main area.
WAYFINDING & DISTANCING
REMOVE AMENITIES
Magazines, made of highly-porous paper, and correlating literature racks should be emptied and stored for the time being, and instead ensure that your WiFi signal is accessible while visitors are waiting. For child-friendly waiting rooms, any toys should remain in storage indefinitely.
EMPLOYEE ENTRYWAYS
Before your employees settle back in to their workspaces, your workforce might share an entrance with outside visitors. There's game-changing challenges for mixed reception and entry spaces, and we recommend creating separate aisles for in-house and external entries. Use crowd control belts, wayfinding decals, and clear signage to denote internal and external walkways. See our guide to Policies & Procedures to lean more about employee onboarding.
LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS
UPGRADED MATERIALS
Healthcare furniture is specifically designed to be highly cleanable, featuring durable vinyl upholstery, synthetic or metal arms, and a cleanout space at the back of the seat to prevent debris buildup. These days, seating solutions for hospitals and clinics have become increasingly stylish and serve as universally attractive choices for waiting areas everywhere.
In the meantime, our complete guide to furniture cleaning can help you maintain both durable and fallible materials alike.
SMALLER FOOTPRINTS
To increase the space between chairs, decrease the space that the chairs take up. Narrow options, with a few bariatric selections throughout, allow for a higher waiting area capacity without taking up any more space. Avoid multi-person seating, such as benches or sofas, and try to keep chairs staggered apart from one another or back-to-back in order to keep direct airflow at a minimum.
LIMITED AMENITIES
While we'll all miss those cups of coffee or simple snacks, they're just not feasible for the fairly distant future. The changes applied at the outset should be maintained and, once meetings are underway, offer your guests a beverage in an employee-controlled way. Similarly, magazines may not be a great addition to spaces, but keeping an open wireless connection or a muted television can provide entertainment during extended wait times.
STICK TO A SCHEDULE
While return to work changes were made immediately, relaxation schedules will take time. As the need decreases, slowly reduce your countermeasures proportionally. It won't be an overnight overhaul and there's some changes that are here to stay, but the process will inherently take time. Though they will change as situations develop, craft a tentative schedule for reductions. At the same time, be prepared to quickly pivot to original alterations.
HANG ON TO SUPPLIES
0 Comments