Member Article

New health and safety report reveals how workplaces might operate post-coronavirus

A new study by Manchester HR and health and safety experts Citation reveals some of the ways in which office life could change for employees post-coronavirus.

With Boris Johnson urging Brits to return to the office, Citation’s new report ‘The Post-Lockdown Workplace’ looks at how image recognition technology could be used to spot Covid symptoms before staff enter the workplace, tea rounds may be banned to prevent cross-contamination and team meetings could now take place in beer gardens to facilitate social distancing.

The study reports: “Businesses may need to implement a number of creative measures in order to enforce hygiene, safety and social distancing in the office. It could also require them to entirely re-think whole areas of their workplace, including break areas, toilets and meeting rooms.”

One of the changes proposed by Citation’s report is to have team meetings take place outdoors, such as in parks, beer gardens or outside coffee shops, as social distancing would be difficult in traditional meeting rooms.

Futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson, who contributed to the study, said: “If it’s a nice day, have your meeting outside on the grass. That is an awful lot safer than having it inside, because the wind is going to blow the viruses away and the sunlight is going to keep things pretty sterile. Beer gardens and sitting outside of a coffee shop are reasonably safe too, but you do need to use an element of common sense.”

Citation also warns that kitchens and break zones will be two of the most challenging areas for businesses once employees begin re-entering the workplace. It suggests lunch times will need to be staggered and employees should not share kitchenware to prevent cross-contamination.

According to Dr. Pearson, this might mean temporarily pausing the office tea round as this will heighten the risk of viruses spreading to multiple members of staff.

He said: “A lot of rituals like the office tea round might die out for quite a while. What we have to do for the time being is be super hygienic in the office and much more aware of our personal hygiene. You should be thinking all the time: ‘Is someone else going to be touching this same surface?’”

Some of the other changes businesses could make according to Citation’s study include putting hygiene stations on every desk, installing automatic doors to reduce touch points and utilising UV light disinfectants before and after office hours that could kill up to 96% of the coronavirus.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon James .