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Re-opening your office with Sign In Workspace's 6 steps

Starting April 4 Google employees in the San Francisco Bay Area will be going back to the office. * According to Reuters this was announced in a company-wide email, which stated that due to "advances in prevention and treatment, the steady decline in cases we continue to see and the improved safety measures we have implemented,” Google “can officially begin the transition to the hybrid workweek." In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Sundar Pichai who is the CEO of Google highlighted the flexibility of the hybrid work format. * Some employees will continue working remote full-time, although Google expects that most employees will be coming into the office about three days each week. Having both fully remote and hybrid employees will pose some challenges, especially when it comes to opportunity isolation which the company will need to address.

Apple is another big company that has publicly announced their intention to have employees go back to the office, along with a roll out plan for making it happen, and that plan starts on April 11. According to an article by Bloomberg, Apple’s plan is to gradually increase the number of days employees spend in the office. From the 11th and three weeks after employees will be going to the office once a week. * After that the frequency of going to the office will be increased to twice a week and by May 23 employees are expected to come to the office three times a week. Unlike Google and Twitter, however, Apple seems to have opted for a fixed schedule for work in the office – Mondays, Tuesdays. and Thursdays. While this approach does remove the need for dedicated scheduling tools, it also reduces the flexibility offered by this solution. This approach may seem to remove the need for dedicated scheduling tools at the cost of reduced flexibility, but that is not the entire story. While many focus on the desk booking capacities of such tools, there’s also the question of being able to find out where people are seated. In Apple’s case, it sounds like they are opting for an activity-based work. This means employees will not necessarily be sitting at the same desk every day or even for the entirety of a single day. As they move between work zones dedicated to specific purposes.

When you have found out which work model will suit your company and your employees, it’s time to implement, but you shouldn’t expect to make the switch over night. Coming up with a roll out plan and a gradual return will let your employees get used to the change from 100% remote work (or a 100% in office job) to the hybrid setup you have chosen.

While you are working on your roll out plan, it’s also a good idea to find out how you can make your facilities support your new way of working. While social distancing isn’t as central as it was over the winter, it is still of consequence, and your office space needs to supply a greater distance between employees than earlier. This applies to both workstations, meeting rooms, break areas etc.

Even though virtual meetings have become our ‘new normal’ during quarantine, physical meetings will gradually be introduced to our everyday working life again once offices re-open. Meetings with external participants will also gradually resume, requiring guidelines for how to welcome visitors to the office. Even if you don’t have any measures related to COVID-19 having both internal and external participants at hybrid meetings requires more forethought than when everyone was working from the office.