CH. 04: The Office Work Environment

I can provide some ideas we’ve identified for office desk jobs involving supply chain, logistics, finance, sales, marketing for the travel neck pillow and accessories biz when the office is permitted to reopen:

1. We will start by allowing only half the employees into the office each day. Managers will work out A and B groups/days for at least two weeks. Finance and supply chain will probably be every day.
2. Workspaces have been reconfigured to maximize spacing. Images of footprints may be placed on the floor to remind people about proper distancing when chatting.
3. Small conference rooms off limits for meetings.
4. Facemasks and gloves available for any who wish to use them along with individual wipes and hand sanitizer.
5. Meal breaks to be at one’s desk rather in a lounge/kitchen.
6. Daily personal health update done online and available to HR (temp, cough, general feeling).
7. Discourage use of public transportation.

Our expectation is 75% or less productivity to start but recovering rapidly.

As you can surmise, nothing earth-shattering or within the category of a new paradigm, just plain old common sense!

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Knowledge Based Workers

Looking at knowledge-based workers, the real question is, “what work really needs to be face-to-face in order to happen?”

As we are learning, the answer is, “very little.”

For years, the idea of being face-to-face has been, to me, the lazy answer. Most will take that to mean lazy on the managerial side (i.e., I want to make sure that person is where I can see them). But, what I have learned is that the managerial side is quickly put at ease if the worker is showing progress to meet goals, has the confidence of management, and develops a track record of performing.

So, how can that start? Communication. The important point here is that this is not just what is communicated. Sure, that is ultimately important, but the confidence (and ultimately respect) is built by the method, the detail, the frequency, and (maybe most importantly) the responsiveness. Let’s look at each of these…

METHOD

Being remote typically means doing a lot by email. But, that is no longer the only tool with which to communicate. Email, Text, Slack, WhatsApp, Teams, Phone (let’s not forget!), and Video Conferencing. Being able to successfully navigate all of these is paramount for success. That’s a lot to keep track of (or get distracted by), but learning which platform is best for 1) disseminating certain information and 2) specific audiences is extremely important. And, understanding that the personal touch of social discussion across all platforms can’t be forgotten.

For many here, email is the long-standing vehicle of communication. I am witness to so many work emails everyday that they have almost become numb. But, some always seem to stick out. Why? Because they author/sender has a tone in their writing that makes it seem like they are in front of you. That is important. Having a proper conversational tone, and one where ideas and comments cannot be misinterpreted in another voice improves the success of that email – and limits the extra follow up ones.

>> More to come…

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A Work from Home Strategy

A first step in planning a work from home (WFH) strategy might be to define what it is that an associate needs to effectively work from home. We start with a Remote Work Survey, which asks these questions:

• Employee Name:
• LOB/Job Function:
• Group:
• Direct Leader:
• Contractor?
• Do you utilize a shared work station?
• Have you ever successfully connected to our VPN from home?
• Have you ever worked from home for more than one day? If yes, did you experience any issues, if so, what issues?
• Do you have internet connectivity at home? What speed internet do you have? (speedtest.com)
• Does your internet have any Voice Over Internet Protocol/ Virtual Private Network restrictions that you are aware of? If yes, what restrictions do you have?
• Do you have a designated area to work from that is protected from background noise?
• Do you have a designated area to work from that your work area would be protected from other members of your household to view sensitive information on your screens?
• Do you have personal monitors or docking stations that you would like to use if WFH approved? If yes, how do you connect these monitors?
• Is there any additional equipment that you require in order to work virtually? If so: what?
• Do you have additional virtual work location(s) you could utilize in the event you were not able to work virtually from home?
• If yes, have you ever tested working virtually from those locations?

The foundational structure to enable and execute a WFH strategy is an integral part of an overall comprehensive Business Continuity Management Program.

WFH components can include, but are not limited to:

1. Establishment of an Employee Call Tree:

• Recovery Team Leader
• Employee/Contractor – LN
• Employee/Contractor – FN
• Work #
• Home #
• Cell/Other #
• Date/Time Contacted by recovery team leader

1. Establishment of an Emergency/Mass notification system:

• Establishment of Corporate Policies:
• On a quarterly basis, all staff and contractors are reminded to ensure that personal contact information is current and that remote connectivity can be made to our systems. We do this for safety and security purposes, and also to ensure that business can continue as normal in the event that our facilities are not accessible.
• Employees are required to keep personal contact information current within the Emergency/Mass notification system.
• Employees that have Vendors reporting to them need to ensure that they have current contact information available at all times for those Vendors in case you are told to contact them.
• Employees and Contractors must register in the emergency notification system, registration is mandatory and audited.
• Recovery Team Leaders please ensure that your Employee Call Trees are reviewed and updated each quarter.
• Building evacuations and/or closures pertain to all employees, contractors and visitors.
• Employees and contractors (with network access) must register with xxx, our business continuity call forwarding system, registration is mandatory and audited.
• Employees and contractors (with network access) must test connectivity via VPN on a monthly basis.

1. WFH Communications:

• CEO/Leadership updates to Employees
• Frequency
• Types – phone, email, video
• CEO/Leadership updates to BOD & Committees
• Frequency
• Types – phone, email, video

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Working At Home

I operate a public relations business. As an independent contractor, I am retained directly by clients and also by other agencies to represent them with their clients. I keep an office, which is really a luxury, as it gives me a quiet place to go; where I can write and speak loudly on the phone without driving my wife crazy (she works from home). I can count on one hand the number of “formal” face-to-face meetings I’ve had with clients in the last year. We meet when we need to launch big campaigns or perhaps discuss information that is sensitive. But for the most part, I receive my assignments through email or over the phone. We set deadlines together and then I go to work. They trust me to get it done. They retain me because I’m a professional. They don’t need to schedule meetings with me to check in on things. I get the work done. If I didn’t, they’d end the relationship. It doesn’t matter to them if I get the work done at midnight or six in the morning as long as it gets done. There are many days that I need to leave my office to run a baseball practice, coach a game or go to a school activity or just be at home to cover for my wife. If a client needs me, they know how to find me. I don’t feel chained to my office. Ever.

So, moving forward, perhaps all employees should be treated like independent contractors (but with health insurance…that’s one expense I find painful to pay every month). Give employees the same freedom I feel in operating my business. Let them come and go, spend more time with their families and get work done on a schedule that fits their needs and lifestyle. Create a culture of trust within companies; the same trust that I am fortunate to receive from my clients. I think many would be surprised by how productive people can be with more balance in life.

My earning power and my motivation to deliver results went up tremendously when working in this type of environment.

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Rani Molla, Working From Home, Vox’s Explanatory Journalism

(Excerpts)

If and when you return to your office after the novel coronavirus pandemic, you’ll probably notice some differences.

Upon entering your building, the doors may open automatically so you don’t have to touch the handles. Before you board your elevator, you might tell the elevator where you’d like to go, rather than pressing the many buttons within the elevator. When you reach your floor, you could walk into a room full of dividers and well-spaced desks instead of the crowded open floor plan you’re used to. In common areas like meeting rooms and kitchens, expect to see fewer chairs and posted documentation of the last time they were cleaned.

These are just the changes you can see. Less noticeable in the post-coronavirus office would be more frequent cleaning policies, antimicrobial properties woven into fabrics and materials, amped-up ventilation systems, or even the addition of UV lights for more deeply disinfecting the office at night.

Coworking spaces will probably never be what they once were as they forgo hot desks and communal spaces for more sanitary — and less profitable — private areas.

The Covid-19 crisis will force swift and permanent changes in both commercial real estate and work culture itself. The office as we know it will never be the same.

Working from home will be the new normal for many

According to a new MIT report, 34 percent of Americans who previously commuted to work report that they were working from home by the first week of April due to the coronavirus. That’s the same percentage of people who can work from home, according to a recent University of Chicago publication. 

The economic impact of the pandemic will likely force many employers to cut costs. For companies to reduce their rent obligations by letting workers work from home is an easy solution, one that’s less painful than layoffs.

Furthermore, the necessity of working from home brought on by the pandemic has also caused many employers and employees to spend money on new technology, like video conferencing subscriptions as well as new equipment. According to data from expense management provider Emburse, the most frequent employee expenses in the first half of March included computer monitors, desks, office supplies, mice, and keyboards — a departure from the norm. These purchases presumably happened at companies where working from home was a new development. 

More formalization and company policies around remote work are necessary for the shift to be successful. A recent PWC study showed that about half of businesses expect a dip in productivity during the pandemic due to a lack of remote work capabilities. Companies where people have worked from home for a while and have built up guidelines — about, say, what time of night is appropriate to expect a response on Slack, how employees can securely access company files, and whether employees are allowed to expense an at-home monitor or standing desk — will probably have an easier time working from

Coronavirus will likely change the way office space looks and works

Office space will probably have to be altered in order for people to feel safe being there. That could mean a reversal of the open office trend.

“I do think this is going to reshape the workplace,” Janet Pogue-McLaurin, principal and workplace leader at design and architecture firm Gensler, told Recode. “Social distance thinking may be part of our DNA moving forward.”

“Densification will take a hiatus,” Pogue-McLaurin said. “We’ll shift to, ‘How do we dedensify to create the physical distancing that we now need to have?’”

This could also mean the reintroduction of various types of barriers between desks, including much maligned cubicles.

Christine Cavataio, president and chief operating officer at architecture firm Cuningham Group, thinks that while physical barriers will be used in the short term, the more long-term architectural fix will be done with spacing.

In the immediate future, “we’ll see physical, hard things that create separation,” Cavataio said. “Over time, we will start to design differently to create space, versus how tight can we get it. Can we get our generous six feet of physical distance and still create a company environment people want to be in, knowing you have safety inherently based in the design?”

Expect: “higher-quality air filtration systems to more-powerful cleaners. Every surface — including door handles, light switches, countertops, copy machine buttons, AV equipment, coffee makers, and many more — will have to be dealt with. According to Cavataio, regular offices will likely take cues from health care design. This shift could include the addition of things like copper fixtures, fabric that retains fewer germs and can more easily be cleaned, more space in kitchens and bathrooms, as well as more attention paid to how far liquids can splash. Some companies could even use UV lighting to disinfect offices at night or meeting rooms in between uses, a practice that’s increasingly common in hospitals.

Automation and voice technology could also play a role. Technology like Amazon Alexa for Business, for example, could become a new interface and remove the need for physically pushing a button or touching a surface in an office. As Bret Kinsella, founder & CEO of the voice technology publication Voicebot.ai, explained, “There is voice tech in warehouses today but very little in office settings. That will absolutely change.”

Inevitably, the most consequential way to prevent the spread of germs in an office might just be to limit the number of people allowed inside at once. Rather than having everyone work in the office from nine to five, companies might want to bring in certain teams at specific times to lessen congestion. The initial process of bringing employees back to work, at least, will probably be staggered.

Demand for office space is uncertain 

There are two conflicting trends that will affect whether or not the coronavirus leads to a sizable decrease in demand for office space. 

First, fewer employees coming into the office, either due to layoffs or to an increase in working from home, could mean less need for office space. 

Second, safety protocols that require people to be spaced at least six feet apart could cause more demand for office space so that the people who work there aren’t as packed in as they used to be. 

“In short, it is too early to tell if companies will lease less space,” Julie Whelan, Americas head of occupier research at commercial real estate services company CBRE, told Recode

It’s possible these two trends will cancel each other out. 

“We’re going to reevaluate face-to-face meetings: which are really important, and which can be substituted,” Gensler’s Pogue-McLaurin said. “We want to reserve when we do come together to be special and important and about creating relationships — and to create social distance without feeling awkward.”

Coworking is not doomed, but it’s destined to change

What the coworking space enthusiasts didn’t anticipate was a fear — and a legitimate safety hazard — of working in close quarters to others.

Coworking as we know it will probably have to change to survive. Coworking spaces are known for their communal areas and shared amenities like hot desks, where anyone can use an open work station — and where it’s often unclear how recently the space has been cleaned.

In addition to heightened cleaning protocols, coworking spaces will have to rethink their vaunted — and highly profitable — use of communal space.

“What will be most in demand will be spaces that offer a measure of control and privacy during the recovery, when there’s still uncertainty financially and from a health and safety perspective.” 

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Going To Work Sick

I want to specifically address one aspect of the workplace that will need to change: sick days and/or calling out sick.  I suspect many people like me tended to go to work when the winter sniffles, sneezes and coughs started up.  I know I did not always feel great but did not feel bad enough to stay home from work, especially since my company at the time did not have a work from home option.  Keep in mind, this was not the flu, it was simply a head cold, and I always felt it was important to work as long as I could.

Once people start to return to work, I suspect those days are over.  Gone are the days of showing up to work with congestion and blowing your nose all day or coughing all over the office.  But there are 2 key implications of this: first the number of allowable sick days allotted by a company to its employees will need to increase (and on the flip side, will be subject to abuse by employees); and second, the determination of when the illness is “over” and someone can return to the office.  I often have a lingering cough for weeks after a cold.  Will this mean I need to stay home until the cough is done?  How is the differentiation made between a cold and allergies?  Will people need to be tested to have an affirmative confirmation of allergies vs illness?  What about people that medicate to minimize the symptoms but could still be contagious?

Long story short, policies and practices will need to change.  People will likely need to stay home at any sign of illness, and not return until all symptoms are gone.  But how do companies prevent employees from abusing this and staying home because they have a little sniffle in the morning?  Newly established and tested work from home environments will help, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the HR and company policy space. 

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Working in the Field

Case Example: CEO Leading A 3000 Person Services Company In A COVID-19 Environment

I am a CEO of a national company which fully employs more than 750 people and engages several thousand contractors. Our core mission is inspecting, servicing and maintaining large scale fire prevention systems and equipment.

This work involves the functions of management and administration, selling, order taking, field inspections, field construction and repair. This cross function of activities gives me a look at people who work in offices, call centers, fly on airplanes, and skilled technicians who service and repair equipment in the field.

Our employees and contractors have management, administrative, selling, and content specific knowledge regarding our fire protection mission. We maintain over twenty district offices in the United States, and operate call centers in both Long Beach, CA, and also Long Island, NY. The call center employees take work orders from customers and dispatch field service personnel to customer locations.

This is my story about how we are protecting our employees from COVID-19.

We were quick to recognize the COVID-19 new reality. We knew we would be classified as an essential business. So, by the start of March, we were in serious discussions about our operational model and by March 14^th we were unrecognizable. We were virtual within a week!

We started by moving most of the call center operators to their homes. For reasons unrelated to COVID-19, we had a head start on this because we too frequently faced situations on Long Island where transportation was impossible in bad weather and people needed to work from home. These practices were quickly adopted by our California people.

We made sure that every operator had the electronic support equipment required to do the job. Their jobs actually require two independent screens. Most of our calls are out bound, and our operators have close relationships with the customers, who have their contact information, so we had no communications networking issues. We made these jobs location independent.

Our salespeople conduct business all over the Country and I am on an airplane most weeks. Not now. No one has used an airplane since March 14. We are learning how to sell remotely to our prospects and customers. This is not an equivalent method.

Our offices all follow the CDC guidelines of social distancing, use of masks, cleaning and disinfecting hygiene, and so forth. No one comes to work sick or slightly sick. People who are not 100% healthy stay home and get paid.

The lives of our full time and contractor field personnel, the largest group of people in our company, have changed considerably. From the start, we developed formal direct messaging with regard to the virus – how to get it, and how to avoid it – based on the best medical information we could collect. Yes, they are still working. Yes, they are still going to customer sites to inspect, maintain, and repair systems and equipment.

But the first fifteen minutes of their paid workday is spent disinfecting their trucks and their equipment. They are instructed to take their temperature before they go on site and log their temperature. They are permitted to work if their temperature fits within the range advised by medical personnel. (It has been hit and miss to fully implement this step.) They wear protective garments when obviously required.  They are instructed to wear masks or protective covering over their faces at all times. They wear disposable gloves and throw them out when the on-site work is completed. They practice social distancing at all times, with customers and with each other. The customers understand and support all of these changes.

We could not have functioned within the CDC guidelines without the technology that we have embraced over the past decade. Specifically, the CRM type technology has empowered our call center operators to perform all of their job functions without needing to be in a single location. This also applies to management and administration. We are learning how to effectively communicate with each other by teleconferencing and conducting business over Microsoft Teams, as others may be conducting business over Zoom Meetings or Google Meet.

Did this create a perfect world? Of course not.

We had to furlough about forty people at the beginning.

It took a while to purchase and assemble all of the new protective materials and cleaning products. So, our people were not fully protected from day one.

All businesses share a behavioral dimension that is as important as its technology and operating processes. It is challenging to lead, to drive our culture, to build energy when key groups of people are not sharing the same physical space. Remoteness works for a while but, in time, it leaves some holes. In person leadership matters.

In person selling matters. This is not happening right now. Among other differences, there are no dinners and lunches which foster building trusting relationships.

While everyone – businesses and governments – are bending over backwards to make sure our employees are financially protected, it is also the case that this may result in new behavioral patterns that do not align with what is required to be a competitive business. If we need to, we will address such matters later.

The scoresheet looks something like this. Out of 700 field personnel we have three confirmed cases of COVID-19, and those people are doing OK. We are proud and relieved by this accomplishment.

We have been able to pay the full benefit costs for our furloughed people. Coupled with the Federal and State programs of direct cash transfers and unemployment insurance, this is keeping them reasonably safe.

On the other hand, for the months of April and May, we will operate at about 60% of former productivity. We are hoping to improve that to 75% in June and perhaps 95% in July. But, a lot of things we do not control must fall into place for these projections to be realized.

In terms of financial performance, it aligns with productivity. 2020 will essentially be a lost year. Our chief goal this year, as it probably is for most companies, is to survive and to protect as many of our employees as possible. We are building new economic models for an uncertain future. We are managing cash with vengeance.

We were able to qualify for a high-end loan from the PPP program, put in place by the Federal Government. This provides good back up and helps us keep almost 700 full time employees fully engaged.

I appreciate the opportunity to share our experience. We have been out there for almost six weeks, working safely in a COVID-19 world. We are confident that our changes will work. Perhaps some of what we have learned will provide both hope and knowledge for those of you who are going to start up in the coming weeks.

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A Former President Of An International Equipment Manufacturer Comments On Appropriate Practices For  COVID-19