Are you ready to get back into the office and have a normal work life again? It’s been almost a year for most of the “work from home” life and with a glimmer of hope, employees might be heading back to the office life come summertime. Just like working from home required a transition, returning back to the office will too, of course.
With those few months, you can do a few things to prepare your office for reopening and get the excitement among your employees as they had back into the office. Here are five tips to freshen up the office space and welcome everyone back in a positive way.
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Revamp The Workspace
Let’s start with recreating the employee work area. Make the area inviting and exciting for when the employees return and build an anticipation for the office reopening. This doesn't have to be a major overhaul. Take the simple things like
wall, window and
floor graphics- this can make any space feel brand new. You can apply vinyl graphics just about anywhere-how about on the ceiling, appliances, furniture and doors. Design with your brand in mind and bring the pride among your employee teams. Here’s an example we did for one of our local businesses. We applied floor to ceiling graphics in their employee training/break rooms and it show cased the history of the company. This type of update was just the special touch to welcome their employees back during the pandemic.
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Floor to Ceiling Wall Graphic[/caption]
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Floor to Ceiling Wall Graphic[/caption]
2. Update Visitor Areas
Not only are employees coming back into the office, this means clients and customers will be welcomed back also. Refresh the waiting rooms, lobby and meeting rooms. Consider adding your logo to the conference room wall, update with graphics that display who your brand is and what it stands for. It’s time to strengthen those relationships with clients especially after being distanced for a year.
3.Think Employee Comfort Levels
Not all employees will be at the same comfort level when returning back to the office, so make sure to take that into consideration. One way to make everyone feel comfortable is to have
social distancing signage throughout the work areas, common areas and conference rooms. Signage like floor decals and directional arrows, cleaning signs on tables and chairs. Also another way to improve comfort levels with employees is a way to express nonverbally with comfort indicator cards. There are many options you can do like desk signage, chair decals, wristband, or lanyards for what type of interaction is appropriate. Take this idea- a red sign can mean no physical contact, yellow says elbow bumps are okay and green indicates handshakes, hugs and high fives are good to go!
4. Pump Up The Excitement
Time to bring the excitement into the office and get the employees excited to see each other again and see the newly updated office space. Build up that excitement and have a “Welcome Back” gift box waiting at each of their desks when they return.
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AG Welcome Back Box[/caption]
This will make the employee feel appreciated and the gesture that you are excited to have them back in the office. You can put almost anything in a branded box like: essential office supplies, updates on the new guidelines, comfort level indicators, snacks or self-care and relaxation items!
5. Start Fresh and Reward
After working from home for such a long period of time, transitioning back into the office will take some time for the employees to get used to. Make sure your employees know that you are there to support them through this time.
Keep messaging positive and remind them of the why returning to the office is a great thing! Remind them of the team collaborations, creativity and problem solving as well as team unity. And no more zoom conference calls!
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No More Zoom Calls![/caption]
Bring back the celebrating of team and individual accomplishments, team wins and goals, and special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. No doubt it may look a little bit different but keep those company traditions alive and watch the smiles appear on your employee’s faces.
No doubt this has been a very hard year on your staff, so by starting to plan now for their welcoming back will bring ease back into the transition to the office in a few months.
Reach out to your local sales rep Karen Schnell at kschnell@alphagraphics.com to find out how you can refresh your office before your employees head back in!
708.482.4488
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