The coronavirus pandemic has made working quite a challenge for businesses of all sizes. A variety of factors have lowered productivity and profits. From needing to close physical offices, to employees experiencing extended isolation and sick-leave, it’s tough to own a business right now. If you want to ensure your workplace is ready for COVID-19 health and sanitation requirements, you need to put the right practices in motion.
Remember to make the health and safety of your employees a top priority. Ensure cleanliness and sanitation, encourage social distancing, and set up remote work options. Make sure your business doesn’t suffer through this with an effective OKR system (objectives and key results system) for your virtual workspace. With a few wise moves, your business can survive the pandemic without too many hiccups. Here’s how to get started.
1. Hire cleaning teams.
Cleanliness is an excellent way to avoid the spread of germs and illnesses like COVID-19. So, if you’re bringing employees back into the office after a lockdown, ensure it gets a deep cleaning before anyone steps foot inside. It’s also essential to hire a janitorial service that provides regular cleaning. Germs may spread faster in enclosed spaces, so it’s crucial to ensure everything from the carpet to the keyboards are clean.
Hire a commercial cleaning service to ensure your space is spick-and-span. It’s an investment that will keep team members safe and prevent the need to shut down again because of a cluster outbreak. Ensure you hire a reputable, experienced commercial cleaning company that offers everything from carpet cleaning to dusting. For example, Dappir Clean—a company for commercial cleaning in Tampa—offers everything from bathroom and kitchen to offices and upholstery cleaning.
Remember to sign a contract for regular cleaning and not a one-off service. An all-in-one cleaning service like this will help you save time, and money, and is the best way to ensure your office is clean and ready for your employees to return to work safely.
2. Allow remote work.
Not everyone can go back to the office yet. Whether it’s because of a family commitment, a sick relative, or because they’re immunocompromised, take steps to allow your employees to work remotely when they need to. The thing is, you don’t have to worry about your business’ productivity. You can ensure that employees are meeting their goals for the end of the quarter by moving your business from a physical office space to a virtual workspace with an OKR system.
An OKR system—or objectives and key results system—is a goal-setting framework for your business. It helps businesses of all sizes track everything from their metrics and company strategy to their quarterly objectives. It also allows professionals to develop the best practices for every ambitious goal and enables you to predict the end result. You can also track performance on a team level or an individual level, set up a leadership team, and set up templates for your OKR goals. It’s an invaluable tool for any business, especially during COVID-19.
3. Motivate your employees.
Do you think your team is working slower than usual? Leading a team means motivating them to work as productively as possible. It’s easy to keep your team productive if team members are happy and motivated. However, during a public health emergency like the coronavirus pandemic, motivation is bound to dip lower than usual.
Instead of trying to adjust company objectives and business goals, focus on individual employees. Keep team members motivated even if they’re working remotely by checking in on them. Ask them how they’re doing, ensure they know that their safety is the top priority, and make your company a safe space. Give them paid sick leave, bonuses for good work, and tell them when they’re doing a great job. It may seem like a waste of time, but it will help improve efficiency in your organization.
4. Conduct regular health checks.
If one of your employees is unwell, it can compromise the entire organization. To ensure you don’t end up with cluster cases, conduct regular employee check-ins. Consider daily temperature checks and ask questions about symptoms every week. Set up a paid sick-leave program to encourage sick employees to work remotely or stay at home. Also, offer employees free coronavirus tests to ensure any asymptomatic team members can isolate themselves.
5. Encourage social distancing.
If your employees still come into the office, ensure you set up social distancing practices. The best cleaning practices and regular check-ins won’t always prevent the virus from spreading. Ensure that employees in the entire company are seated at a safe distance from one another.
Encourage the use of masks in shared spaces and place hand sanitizers around the office. Also, reschedule any events or in-person meetings that can occur remotely. For those that require in-person communication, limit the team members, and practice social distancing.
