In less than three months, COVID-19 has radically redefined how we relate to space and to each other. Compare today to March of this year: face masks are now an everyday accessory. We wait to enter grocery stores in six-foot-spaced queues without a second thought. And we cross the street to avoid people not as a snub, but to protect our health and others’. Sustained periods of hardship are known to change human psychology and behavior, sometimes permanently.Pandemic mitigation itself requires mass, coordinated behavioral change to succeed. As people return to offices in the coming months, we should expect those who have adapted to social distance and working from home to bring a set of new concerns, expectations and even unconscious reactions to situations that previously seemed harmless and normal. The importance of business continuity through the pandemic makes it incumbent upon employers to reshape the workplace to make workers feel comfortable, supported and able to do their jobs effectively.
The challenge is clear. Workplaces must adapt. Yet, how do we design a workplace that responds not just to fear and anxiety, or the invisible threat of germs, but the full range of learned behaviors and attitudes that have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis?
In the last decade, employers have increasingly prioritized employee wellness, including mental health, understanding that happiness and productivity go hand in hand. Many employers are initiating workplace assessments to identify where physical changes can help mitigate germs. If they go one step further to examine the problem holistically from the user perspective, taking into account COVID-19-related attitude and behavioral shifts, they will succeed in creating a powerful support tool for worker morale, public health and business continuity.
We’ve narrowed down a list of five behavior and attitude shifts we predict will have the heaviest impact on the corporate workplace along with recommendations for meeting these challenges.
1. People will have a newly heightened consciousness of space, surfaces and each other.
Feeling skittish around door handles these days? You’re not alone. One survey found three out of 10 people now try to avoid touching public surfaces such as doorknobs or elevator buttons. New hygiene products are surging and touchless technology has a renewed momentum. And the ever-robust discussion around the open-plan workplace is turning to de-densification.
How do we accommodate this new mentality about space and touch, to both aid in germ mitigation and create a comfortable, reassuring environment?
De-densification strategies must go beyond spacing between desks to consider workable circulation strategies. Planning for one-way circulation will reduce crowding, but to be successful, must include plenty of adjacent, prominently marked “step-aside” spaces to allow people to pass with adequate distance. Other areas that may draw crowds in an office, such as work cafes or kitchens, can be marked with floor and wall graphics to demonstrate how to keep distance, and well-marked queueing systems will control foot traffic into these areas. Graphics and signage must be clear and unambiguous, ideally supported by a strong communication strategy that makes office policies clear to employees.
Improving cleaning protocols within offices is never a bad idea, but COVID-19 has highlighted how valuable inherently disinfectant materials and finishes can be in indoor environments. Copper has received a lot of attention for its ability to kill off SARS-CoV-2 pathogens, and this is an option that can be used in a variety of fixtures and finishes. But we also have many other solutions available, for example, anti-microbial paint which can kill common pathogens such as staph, MRSA, and E. coli up to four years after application.
We are seeing a steady surge of interest in touchless technology for the office. IWMS systems are easily integrated with people’s mobile phones to allow them to book space or perform other normal functions without touching a single public surface. Technology will continue to play a huge role in navigating post-COVID requirements.