With the threat of COVID-19 still lingering, everyone needs to understand exactly what it means to come back to the office. Contact centres are at an especially high-risk for transmission due to the number of people on each shift and the sharing of equipment between team members throughout the day. There need to be strict safety guidelines in place for businesses that are bringing their workforce back into the office. In this blog, we go into detail on what bringing your staff back to the contact centre should look like.
Additional Cleaning
The cleaning protocols and processes have never been more important than they are right now. Thoroughly clean and disinfect any common space multiple times a day, paying special attention to door handles and any other surface that is frequently touched. Your cleaning crew should be instructed on the newest best practices for maintaining a clean office environment in the wake of the pandemic.
Restrict Equipment Sharing
While a simple alcohol swab on the mouthpiece of your agent’s headset may have sufficed before, the sharing of your contact centre equipment will have to be entirely restricted. Your processes will have to change to allow your agents to work at the same workstation every day, minimizing the risk of transmission. This may mean that your contact centre will need to purchase more equipment, or even update the existing equipment. While that might be an expense your business wasn’t prepared for, it’s a worthwhile investment to fully resume operations.
Maintain Social Distancing
Social distancing might be the most important aspect of bringing your agents back to the office. Maintaining social distancing protocols is the most successful way to reduce the rate of transmission. Ensuring social distancing may require some members of your team to continue working remotely. Setting up a remote work rotation for your agents might allow a little more space for people to practice social distancing. Ultimately, if your agents are uncomfortable with working from an office so soon, your company should try to find ways to address those fears and allow them to continue to work from home.
Use tools like Alvaria WFM Reserve
Alvaria WFM Reserve is an additional module that works alongside Alvaria Workforce Management to assign and track where your staff sits while working. This is useful if you need to know who was sitting near someone should an outbreak of COVID-19 occur in your centre.