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As the economy slowly begins reopening and many businesses and offices prepare to return to work and to normal business hours over the coming weeks, many adjustments and special measures will need to be put in place to ensure the health and safety of customers and workers, and to protect against the spread and transmission of Covid-19.
Good preparation is key to ensuring the smooth reopening of your business. We’ve put together a list of steps to take before returning to the workplace and show you some of the solutions that Nesta offers to make the reopening transition smooth and stress-free!
Be informed and implement government-recommended health and safety measures
Before considering reopening to customers and allowing employees to return work in an office or other space, it is essential that business owners familiarise themselves with the government’s return to work safety protocol. Some key safety measures in the workplace include:
- Enforcing good hand hygiene: Businesses must ensure that appropriate hygiene facilities are in place, such as providing alcohol-based sanitisers and setting up sanitising stations in the workplace.
- Implementing respiratory hygiene measures: Employers must provide tissues as well as bins/bags for their disposal, empty bins at regular intervals, provide advice on good respiratory practice to their workers and install screens and/or use PPE such as masks and gloves where appropriate.
- Practicing physical distancing: It is recommended that a distance of 2 metres is maintained between people in the workplace. Businesses and employers should, where possible, use free office capacity, reorganise and rearrange working and break areas to ensure physical distance and space is maintained, and consider closing canteen facilities and other areas of the workplace if physical distancing can’t be maintained.
Take a look at the full list of recommended steps that employers must take in order to comply fully with the COVID-19 related public health protection measures here.
Prepare your workspace for employee and customers
Many businesses and offices will need to ensure that there is enough space for customers and workers to observe physical and social distancing guidelines. This may mean taking out furniture such as tables, desks, chairs and seating areas, or removing additional decorations and ornaments for hygiene purposes. They may also need to rearrange spaces and figure out the best layout for safety purposes. This is a lot for business owners to consider!
Let Nesta take some of the stress and hassle away from this process and store your excess furniture with us until your business is ready to re-open to full capacity. Self-storage is more cost effective and flexible than traditional warehouse storage that requires you to commit to a long term lease. At Nesta, you can rent a room for as short or long as you need it and we only require 7 days’ notice when you want to move out. With four Dublin storage locations, a wide variety of room sizes and competitive prices, self storage has never been easier, and such a flexible solution is a great option for SME’s and independent retailers during this time.
Get your stock, equipment and supplies ready
As your business prepares to open its doors, it is important to check that stock and inventory levels are assessed and are correct before reopening. It’s also important to ensure that equipment and extra necessary supplies (such as hand sanitiser, PPE and additional cleaning products) have been ordered and are ready for use.
However, the return to work and to a fully operational business is likely to be a slow and uncertain process for most, and many businesses will not see a full return to normal working hours or to full staff and customer capacity for another few weeks. While this is happening, businesses and offices may need to store additional equipment that is not being used and is taking up space (for example, if canteen facilities have been closed catering equipment may need to be stored). In the case of retail, some businesses may need to move excess stock or inventory to ensure that there is enough space in their store for customers to move about freely and observe the two-metre distance at all times.
At Nesta, we offer secure, fully monitored self-storage suitable for managing and storing equipment and stock. All of our locations have 24-hour CCTV, individually alarmed rooms, onsite staff, and personal access codes. What’s more, we offer individually tailored solutions and packages for businesses. For example, we can accept deliveries on your behalf so that you can focus on the important stuff like navigating the new working environment and on getting your business up and running again.
For more information on how Nesta can help your business in preparing for reopening talk to one of our team members on 1800 77 22 33 or simply fill out our contact form and we’ll get back to you!
