Solutions to send your employees safely home

A poll from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) showed that 19% of respondents were working in their workplace rather than from home some or all of the time, despite being capable of doing their entire job from home.

This is in contrast to the current UK government instruction that people should work from home if it is possible. Almost half of those surveyed said that they were under pressure from their management to turn up in person.

Why is this? Some employers say that it is to staff the phones, or man reception, or that because the company works in an essential industry, their workforce can stay on location. The rules, however, are clear. If you can work from home, you should.

Technology is available to substitute for many aspects of office life. Telephones, for example, can be unplugged and taken home, with the right connector, or rerouted through a mobile with VoIP software. Project management software and chat services can help teams keep in contact and keep on top of their workload.

Manning reception is a common complaint, but owners worried about the optics of visitors turning up to an empty desk should remember the current pandemic situation. Visitors may be relieved to stop facing the unnecessary risk inherent in even a masked and screened conversation. If you’re still receiving enough visitors to prioritise that aspect of the workplace, then have you considered something like our Self Service Visitor Management App? It enables visitors to check-in for their pre-booked appointments, or to create adhoc ones. Visitors can give all necessary information using secure check-in forms, and their assigned hosts are alerted of their arrival via email. This can even be integrated with facial recognition access control to create a seamless checking-in experience for repeat visitors.

Our remote clocking app SSM also gives worried managers peace of mind, as it enables employees to clock in and out in real-time regardless of where they are. The mobile app version of the software will even log the GPS position of employees, which can be later plotted onto a map if necessary.

Please get in touch for more information about our products and services, and really consider how to do your management part in keeping everyone as safe as possible.