How to reopen (safely)

The key to reopening is genuine understanding and meaningful action.

There’s been a lot written on the macro situation with some paying more attention to the science than others. One excellent piece is the Hammer and the Dance which thoughtfully gives an overview of the science involved.

There’s a lot that goes into a safe and smart plan to reopen. If we take a step back, all that complexity comes down to two critical areas: genuine understanding and meaningful action.

Everything you need to move forward with a plan falls squarely in one of these areas. Get these two right, and you will safely bring the team back together, over time.

Genuine Understanding

Your number one priority is genuine understanding.

This comes in two parts:

1. Knowing the physical well-being of your community and the health risk you face as an organization.
2. Knowing the emotional well-being, desires, and anxieties that your community is battling.

All of this information will change on a daily basis. Staying current is critical to your ability to truly make a plan that protects your workforce.

Physical Well-Being

In some ways, understanding the physical well-being and risk associated with your population is more straightforward than the psychological aspects.

You need to have a deep understanding of at least the following:

• Is your physical space used by employees only, or do you have visitors coming and going?
• If you have employees entering each day: how seriously are they still treating social distancing or following the rules?
• Have they been tested or do they currently have any symptoms?

Desires & Anxieties

You can only make an informed decision by understanding the wishes and anxieties of your population.

Before you can make a safe (and scalable) plan you need to know,

• Do your employees even want to go back to the office?
• Do they feel you’re communicating enough?
• Do they feel you’re doing enough to keep them safe?
• Are they comfortable with your current timeline?

Meaningful Action

Your number two priority is taking meaningful action to protect your community.

This also fits into two categories:

1. The steps you take to manage capacity, facilities and controlling the physical space
2. How effectively and efficiently you communicate with your teams.

Facilities

In some ways setting up your facility is the easiest to understand, but there are a lot of details.

From a high level, facilities management starts before anyone even enters the space. You need to track and control who is coming and going and where they are while in the office.

You’ll need contact details, confirmation visitors are symptom-free, and proof that they are willing to follow your new policies.

This is the gateway to ensuring that all other actions are effective. Without getting this step right, everything else is in jeopardy.

Once your community is back, you’ll need to enforce social distancing, keep surfaces obsessively clean, change your airflow if you’re able to, and keep track of every space within your office. All of these moving parts will become the new normal when back in the office.

Communication

It’s best to take a design thinking approach to your crisis communication.

Everything you do and say regarding the crisis should exude authority and compassion.

You are there to keep your employees safe and they need to feel that you are going to make good on that. You need to have an understanding of best practices and communicate that you are taking all steps to ensure safety. Your employees need to know that you will not do anything that puts someone at unacceptable risk.

Your two most critical areas of communication are:

1. Policies, timelines, and upcoming plans
2. Managing in the event of a confirmed case

Policies and timelines should be clear and plainly worded. A wall of text for legal compliance does not exude safety. Your policy should consist of simple, easy-to-understand directives. You should expect 100% compliance and be firm with any non-compliance. If you’re going to let some things slide, don’t put that in your policy.

For example:

“Using the office requires the approval of your manager. You must wear a mask covering your mouth and nose when using the facility. Maintain social distancing while inside and outside the office”.

“We will do our best to eliminate any queueing. If there is a line, please wear your mask and stay 2 meters apart”.

“The lunch room is now closed, but there will be takeaway meals available”.

“Before entering the office, please use the Bird Level app to report symptoms”.

A simple, straightforward communication of the highest priority items will give your employees a feeling of confidence and provide them with the information they need for compliance.

Communication in the event of a confirmed case needs to be equally direct and as targeted and relevant to specific populations within your organization as possible. Speed-to-message once you have a confirmed case will make or break successful prevention.

If someone who works on the 6th floor has tested positive, how will you handle messaging to the immediately impacted individuals? Will other floors or groups be notified?

Your messaging plan needs to be specific, convey severity without causing panic, and have a clear solution and next step. Without this, chaos can bring danger.

In Conclusion

Remember, in a crisis it’s best to aim for simplicity.

• Genuinely understand what’s happening within your community

and…

• Take meaningful actions to protect them.
• Track and control entryways
• Enforce in-office safety and prevention policies
• Practice authoritative and compassionate communication

Get these high-level things right and you’ll be on a path to legitimately safely reopening.

In a crisis situation, humans tend to come together. If you listen, communicate, and adjust you will have a population that suggests, listens and acts appropriately.

Check out Bird Level to start implementing these critical steps now (at no cost).