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SPP Trends: Welcome Back

05/27/2021 styles_trends, worklife

Coming back to work is going to be an adjustment. Learn how updating the office space, prioritizing work balance and creating a safe environment will make employees feel safe at work.   

 

Before 2020, workspaces everywhere were heading to a fluid and collaborative direction. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, this collaboration had to be moved online while employees began working from home.   

 

Now that vaccines are available, companies around the world are shifting and updating how their offices operate to accommodate social distancing standards. While this is obviously great news, your employees have high expectations and will want to come back to a different type of office—one that has higher standards of being clean and safe.  

 

Whether your company is choosing to go back full-time or adopting a hybrid schedule, your brand can benefit by using this time as an opportunity to focus on meeting these new standards while re-establishing the office culture.   

 

Work-Life Balance and Comfortability  

 

Mobility and flexibility will likely be a key component to creating a healthy work-life balance. It's important to not just say but prove to returning employees that their health, safety, and comfort are genuinely top priorities for your organization.   

 

Fortunately, organizations can use hybrid work schedules to help ease those who are less comfortable returning to the office feel better about the transition. In a hybrid setup, employees can choose to come into the office or work from home, depending on the day of the week. This will allow fewer people to be in the office at a time and will avoid employees feeling like they are being forced to return.      

 

Accommodating Social Distancing  

 

After feeling isolated for so long, many people are more than ready to get back, while others are a little more hesitant. While it's important to get back to working and collaborating together as a team, respecting employees' comfort level needs to remain a priority.  

 

We still need to work as a team, but gathering safely in person will obviously require some prior preparations. Using clear partitions can be a great way to feel together as a team while still prioritizing social distancing protocols and employee safety. Providing masks, hand sanitizing stations and other safety PPE items will also make employees feel like your organization is doing everything they can to ensure the safest work environment possible.   

 

Office Makeover  

 

As we return to our office spaces, it's also important to focus on making the environment feel open, inviting, clean and most importantly, less "stuffy." When everyone is in the same room all day with little or no ventilation, it can take an impact on everyone's health. Utilizing plants to keep is a great way to not only keep the air clean and focus on healthy environments but also serves as a stylish minimalist desk decoration no matter where they choose to work from.   

 

Focus on creating a sanitary environment with branded merchandise designed with natural and industrial designs and patterns can make returning employees feel comfortable in the office again.   

 

 

We're here to help. If you have any questions, please feel free to use our live on-site chat feature, call 1.800.369.4670 or email scs@staples.com to learn more.