Dr Matthew Tucker and Dr Hannah Wilson assess the plethora of back-to-work guides published by service providers and corporate real estate firms over recent weeks
As government advice pivots to a gradual reopening of workplaces, service providers rushed to advise workplace managers on best practice. Here, Liverpool John Moore University’s Dr Matthew Tucker and Dr Hannah Wilson evaluate eight such guides to identify recurring themes.
Eight return to work guides were selected from different CRE and FM providers. The guides were analysed using qualitative data analysis software to establish the main themes and relationships emerging, ranked here by the weight given to them:
- Building
- Cleaning
- Space
- Work
- Management
Analysis
The guides are dominant in looking at the physical spaces we will return to. Buildings are referred to the most in terms of how we manage building systems, operations, safety and equipment. The guides frequently refer to different types of building operations, systems and maintenance, such as HVAC and water cooler tests. An interesting feature was references regarding the provision of disposable equipment and the impact this will have on increasing building waste, predominantly from use of PPE, but also disposable cups and other single-use items to minimise the risk of spreading the virus.
Cleaning was identified as a theme in its own right due to its high frequency of references across the guides. Specific guidance is given regarding how we disinfect buildings specifically with high-touch areas and equipment; how we raise awareness of good hygiene practices, and implementing advanced cleaning regimes with more frequent deep cleaning.
This enhancement will inevitably have an impact on increased costs and budgeting. Building space is another dominant theme across the guides. Much of this relates to distancing, with some guides using the term ‘social distancing’ whilst others preferring ‘physical distancing’ as being more appropriate in terms of how we use common areas such as lifts, receptions, and toilets.
Distancing will have a major impact on the utilisation of building space and the need to implement occupancy and usage plans, whilst the configuration of floor plans and rooms will be repurposed and redesigned in many cases. Themes regarding the ways in which we work and how we manage our organisations and culture are identified. References are made in the guides regarding how employees transition back in to the workplace, in terms of their arrangements, work patterns, needs, health, specifically being able to undertake regular health checks, and references about working from home. However, unlike the themes regarding building, cleaning, and space, these issues lack granularity in their guidance.
The management of our workplace is considered, more from the perspective of ensuring requirements are met that adhere to standards and protocols that have been issued by government, with references also around change management and the ability for organisations to develop return to work plans and change management strategies. There is also emphasis placed around risk management in terms of contingency planning and scenario planning.
Summary
Given the urgency to produce guidance on returning to work, it is perhaps understandable the documents analysed here focus on reinstating the past, returning to the workplaces we remember pre-lockdown, through safer standards, protocols and practices. In doing so however, these guides provide us with clear short-term fixes, but less about the future value of how we can create a dynamic and vibrant workplace that is not governed only by physical space.
We have a unique opportunity to reset the clock and provide physical workspace that coexists with the virtual workspace, so we can perform our work to the very best of our ability.
At present these guides provide useful information on where and how we have worked in the past, but organisations must continue to pursue and embrace a mutually agreeable approach to where and how we want to work in the future.
Return to work: Thematic descriptions
Building Systems
- Reviewing and auditing BMS and technical systems
- Review and maintain air quality
- Ability to circulate fresh air
Safety
- Protocols for building safety
- Particularly fire safety
- Checks on safety devices, fire doors and equipment, escape routes
Operations
- Revising, adjusting and optimising
- Cost savings/budgeting
- Continuity – Resetting, rebooting, reopening
Maintenance checks
- General systems test
- HVAC
- Fans, motors, filters, refrigerants, condensers, moving parts
- Oil heaters, storage
- Water coolers
- Equipment
- Greater use of disposables/increase waste
- Single-use PPE
Cleaning
Disinfection
- High-touch areas
- Workspace and equipment
- Reactive and preventative
Awareness
- Following protocols and standards
- Practicing staff hygiene
- Training and protocols
Enhancement
- Advanced cleaning measures and regimes
- Deep cleaning regime
- Increase funding/added costs
Space
Social and physical distancing
- Develop occupancy and usage plan based on guidelines
- Implement strategy/plan
- Tracking space utilisation
- Using utilisation software
- Add sensors to quantify
- Receptions, elevators, casual meeting spaces
- Avoiding high traffic and congestion
- Limit access
- Review standards and spacing guidance
- Enhanced cleaning
Rooms
- Floor plans – redrawing, repurposing and reconfiguring spaces and rooms
- Repositioning furniture
- Reviewing shared spaces
- Repurposing meeting/conference rooms
- Separating or reconfiguring changing/shower rooms, control rooms, multi- faith rooms, mail rooms, print rooms
Desks
- Increase space between desks
- Limit sharing
- Repositioning and partitioning
- Adding to previously underused space
Meetings
- Use virtual meetings
- Prohibit shared use of rooms
- Maintain physical space for 1-1 collaboration. Limit to 3 people
- Use outside space
Work
Employee transition
- Identifying who is returning
- Staggering/splitting work/working day
- Frequent and on-going communication
- Consideration of needs
- Helping transition and engagement
- Extending remote working for some
Employee health
- Dealing with the ‘new’
- Providing support and guidance
- Feeling safe and engaged
- Supporting bike schemes
- Health checks and screening, checking temperature daily, self-checking mechanisms
Working from home
- Impact on productivity
- Supporting technical solutions
- Develop training programmes
- Establish arrangements
- Allowing flexibility
Management
Requirements
- Work environment
- Work conditions
- Work arrangements
- Cleaning
- Safety
- PPE and other equipment
- Building, operations and systems
Change
- Changes to strategy, approach, vision
- Developing return-to-work plan
- Developing change management strategy
- Communicating changes and communication plan
- Empowering change
- Adjusting and communicating expectations
Risk
- Reviewing and communicating
- Scenario planning
- Contingency planning
Guides from the following organisations, all published during May 2020, were evaluated: Atalian Servest, Barbour Index, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Jones Lang LaSalle, Morgan Lovell, Mitie and Sodexo
