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Co-working spaces are an essential service for modern professionals. Often, people find themselves away from home and out of the office but still in need of the conveniences of an office environment. High-speed internet and ergonomic chair are uniquely important when they aren’t available anywhere else. Maybe you need somewhere to hang your solopreneur shingle, or maybe you’re on a business trip and your hotel ‘business center’ is just a slow desktop computer in the lobby.
For whatever reason you need co-working, it’s also important that you be able to access this resource without fear of virus exposure. The pandemic brought to light some concerns about shared spaces but co-working is uniquely adapted to keeping each professional separate from each other and safe from exposure – as long as everyone knows what to do.
Fortunately, we’re dealing with well-mannered self-starter professionals who can handle a few protocols. Today, we’re diving into some practical methods to keep yourself and others COVID-safe while sharing a nice co-working space.
The first and perhaps most important step is to know the co-working space you’re planning to visit. Each brand and location is different, with unique buildings and mini internal cultures. If you know that your co-working location has widely spaced workstations and private offices for rent, then there’s you’ll likely have an easier time maintaining your own COVID safety procedures.
Masking is the number one way for everyone to stay safe from viral spread. Asymptomatic people and those who have to work even with a cough can avoid sharing a virus by wearing a two-layer cloth mask, while those who are well can avoid infection with the same masking procedure. This means that the best way for everyone in a co-working space to stay safe is for everyone to wear a mask whenever possible.
Be sure you’ve found a mask that is the right material and thickness, fits well, and is comfortable for all-day use. Bonus points if it matches your business casual attire.
The other, less prominent, way that COVID can spread is through touch and surface exposure to breath. If everyone is wearing masks, this risk is limited but it’s still a good idea to be safe. Bring a pack of sanitizing wipes with you to any public space you visit, including your co-working space. When you arrive, quickly wipe down the surfaces and equipment in your chosen office or workstation. This way, you can be certain that nothing you are handling puts you at risk. When you are finished, wipe down everything again just to be courteous. If we all do this, then surface-based infection becomes nearly impossible.
Social distancing and co-working go well together because most people choose to be 6+ feet apart from their co-working colleagues. When each person is on their own business, it’s best that workstations and offices remain spaced out so that business can be conducted separately. However, if there is a shared workspace room with many desks and computers, be courteous and pick a station two or more wingspan (the length from fingertip to fingertip with your arms stretched out) from others. This might be every other desk, every three desks, or just the next well-spaced desk in an open work area.
If you want the privacy and safety of your own airspace, rent an office before you arrive. Many co-working spaces have an array of private offices that can serve as your office-away-from-the-office for as long as you need. By booking one of these private offices ahead of time, you gain social distancing and the surety that your computer and work supplies stay 100% isolated from co-working colleagues.
Lastly, be extremely considerate of others in shared rooms like the co-working break room. Many co-working spaces offer snacks and drinks for colleagues to share, but sharing is something we should do more carefully now. Try to stagger your lunch break so that there are never too many people in the break room at once. Don’t share drinks or snacks out of the same container and distance yourself when it becomes necessary to remove your mask for eating.
Working from home doesn’t always have the resources you need – or the focusing business atmosphere. If remote work isn’t quite doing it for you, try some time in a co-working space. Just remember to keep a respectful and covid-safe distance from your fellow remote co-workers in the space. Contact us for more remote work insights.
Today’s employers are facing an interesting challenge: Many teams and new hires don’t want to come back to the office. Between the year spent perfecting home offices and the continued viral risk and safety concerns, many people feel that it’s both safer and more comfortable to continue working from home.
However, many jobs are still better and more safely done in the office and most businesses have invested both revenue and infrastructure in their custom office space for team productivity. What will it take to get remote employees eager and willing to come back to the office? While many brands are going all-out with in-office perks, what really matters can be refined into a few considerate and well-thought upgrades to make office space both welcoming and safer for returning teams.
The single biggest concern in returning to the office is the shared workspace. With COVID mutating as every coronavirus does, we won’t see the end of viral care any time soon. Instead, it’s time to take a wholesale approach to make sure everyone is safe. While you’re upgrading your HVAC, air filtration, and room-to-room airflow, it’s also important to monitor CO2 buildup in rooms shared by more than one person.
Why? While CO2 is not virus-carrying, it is a good way to measure concentrated exhalations. The less CO2 in the air, the better the airflow must be. Many are carrying personal CO2 monitors to work or school. Instead, show you care (and prove your safe-workspace results) by mounting large-font digital CO2 readers in shared spaces where everyone can see the air is clear and moving.
Gone are the days of “cube farms” where employees are packed tightly together with non-air-tight dividers in between. Gone are the ‘pools’ of desks arranged in the closest possible floorplan. Instead, we need about 10 square feet per desk which means a whole new approach to personal workspace design.
Dividers, ventilated pods, and more widely spaced open floorplans are the new name of the game. This is also your company’s opportunity to use the broader desk design to make a more aesthetic space with great traffic flow and a real sense of personal space at each workstation.
Digital signage is a trend that has seen a meteoric rise in the last year, and not just because it’s nifty. Digital signage uses tablets and screens mounted on walls (and other surfaces) to display dynamic information. For conference rooms, digital signage is used to schedule the space, indicate when the space is booked, and also to help ensure each room is thoroughly cleaned between uses.
Conference rooms are often used as private spaces, for team meetings, and of course to meet clients. By upgrading each conference and enclosed office space with digital signage, you make it more dynamically ergonomic, welcoming, and virally safe at the same time.
Consider upgrading your health plan. When employees know they will be taken care of on the off-chance that they get sick from any cause, they are more likely to brave spaces outside the home. Whether you want your team in the office or working in the field, a great healthcare plan and generous illness policies will provide the protection and incentive your team neads to consider less remote work.
Believe it or not, natural light has become a major selling point for going back to the office – if you make it available. Many people prefer their sunny home office to a dim interior space in an office building. But there are also millions whose homes aren’t well-situated for uplifting natural light during the day.
Make those big beautiful picture windows a selling point for the return of your team by optimizing natural light in your workspaces. Re-prioritize office access and workspaces for sunny areas of your office and push storage toward those dim interior spaces.
Last but not least, make it easy – even automated – for your team to keep themselves and the space sanitized. Provide dispensers for sanitizer (and hand lotion, sanitizer is drying) at accessible intervals around your office. Provide dispensers of alcohol wipes at every workstation, lobby, and conference room. Then look into automated sanitization like anti-microbial railings and coatings and even sanitizing misters in key locations to keep your office not just clean, but high-tech clean.
Is your team hesitant to come back to the office? With these upgrades, your business can make your workspaces more appealing, productive, uplifting, and feature high-tech viral safety. Anyone who hasn’t fallen fully in love with their home office will be happy to come back when the office is welcoming and provably safe to return to. Contact us for more insights on remote work and the hybrid transition.
This article is for general information purposes only. It is not insurance, tax, legal, business, or other advice. For specific insurance questions related to you or your business, please contact our office.
Setting up your business for the long run takes a great deal of planning to make possible. From planning for profit and growth to potential damage or disaster, it’s nearly impossible to be prepared for every “what-if” scenario.
The best way to alleviate these growing pains is to determine what is most important to your business’ sustainability and make sure those areas are protected. For example, ensuring you have enough working capital to run your business is likely a major concern for most business owners. Additionally, preventing a major disaster, whether physical or operational within your business is another way to ensure nothing can stop your business from surviving long-term.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the best future-proofing small business tools for you to consider as you make plans for your business.
The more specific you can make your business goals, the more likely you are to achieve them. It’s important to know exactly what you want for your business at present as well as in the future in order to see actual growth and ensure that growth will continue to happen.
When looking to ensure the future of your business, write up a formal business plan that you can refer to regularly to stay on track with your goals and objectives. This plan will become your guiding force for all things from funding, to marketing, to hiring employees and more. A business plan gives you the opportunity to be as detailed as possible with your intentions for every area of your business, making success much more attainable. Take your time with this step as it will become the foundation of your business’ legacy.
Once you have mapped out your path to success, be sure to tie up any loose ends that could potentially stop your business from becoming what you want it to be.
One of the most important ways you can prevent any roadblocks in your business operations is by making sure your business is insured. Business insurance can help protect expensive assets such as office or retail space, automobiles used for business operations, and even your most valuable assets, your employees. The resources you need for your business are invaluable to you as a business owner. It often takes a great deal of saving and planning to be able to afford these upgrades in the first place. After all the hard work you’ve done to obtain these things, you cannot neglect to put protections in place. Insurance is just as, if not more, important than the business’ belongings.
Business insurance will also protect your bank account from taking a hit anytime something unexpectedly goes wrong. This way, you are able to stay in business without having to sacrifice any of the valuable items or people that help your business thrive.
Another way in which businesses tend to fail is by not having enough funding to keep operations running. Naturally, events will come up that require unexpected spending, which in turn, can upset your budgeting goals and may make it difficult or nearly impossible to continue operating.
While managing money is a struggle for every business owner, having access to additional funds can help alleviate a lot of your stress. Instead of acquiring a hefty business loan and locking yourself into years of debt, a business line of credit is a more manageable way to afford what you need for your business.
Much like a credit card, a line of credit can help you financially as and when you need it, and you can control just how much debt you accumulate. You can easily pay off your balance in a shorter amount of time and won’t be overcome with debts to be repaid for decades to come. Now a small blip in your financial timeline won’t stop you from sustaining a profitable business long-term.
No matter what type of business you run, the data you use and collect in order to conduct business is invaluable. You will want to protect this data from any sort of mishap that could compromise this information, because, if it is compromised, stolen, or completely lost, you may not be able to stay in business
From important documents containing sensitive information to WiFi networks and log-in information, all of these pieces of information must be secured. For a complete list of all data information that will need security and how to protect it, follow the FCC’s recommendations for small business cyber security. When you have strong security measures in place to protect your data, you will stand a greater chance of enjoying long-term business success.
As you begin your journey as a small business owner, guard your business for whatever could happen. That way you can handle any of those “what if” scenarios that come your way. A well-planned and protected business is one that will see success for many years to come.
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