Facility Managers Determining Post-Pandemic Work Models

The coronavirus pandemic affected the workplace practices of various industries, sending many employees to work from home, while essential workers remained on site and others worked a hybrid combination of remote and in-person. As many workplace facilities are preparing for a full reopening for the first time in over a year, facility managers should be prepared to discuss and implement the best work model for their building and industry, Facility Executive reports.

Facility managers need to consider their options relating to workplace models. For in-person and hybrid models, they need to determine how much building space is required in relation to square footage costs with their realtor, total number of employees, and social distance compliance guidelines.

Other safety considerations include:

• The possibility of contamination when more than one person shares a desk or workspace
• Methods for checking all employees for symptoms before entering the building when the employee roster is different each day
• Best practices for maintaining social distancing and maximum capacity in common areas such as breakrooms.

Businesses that prefer to have employees work 100% remotely need to choose and implement software to “oversee their resources portfolio management.” In other words, they need to have the best practices and resources in place to oversee a remote or hybrid workforce.

Software programs are available to help facility managers determine the best work model for their building. The software gathers companies’ necessary data points, tracks employee metrics, and offers smart decision-making tools and artificial intelligence (AI) forecasting to predict the future needs of the business based on their workplace model.