Planning for a Normal Fall Season
As we enter the heat of summertime, we must spend a few minutes to think about the future. Now is the best time to begin to anticipate your needs for the fall. This year will be very different than the prior one. Most of our children will be returning to in person learning and classrooms are expected to be at full capacity. The same can be said about the commercial workplace. Many companies have already started to require people to return to the office. Additionally, more companies have begun the planning stages of returning to normal. The companies who plan now will be more prepared for the challenges of returning to a more traditional work environment.
Moving Out of Our Home Offices
The processes and IT infrastructure that most companies created during the past year will never go away. Being able to work from home or remotely will forever be easier because of them. That being said, we must begin to think about moving out of our home offices and back to the commercial environment. The changes we must make will likely be small but they must still occur. Often times we do not realize what we are forgetting about when we make the move. Simple things like having snacks and coffee readily accessible are often overlooked but their importance cannot be. Once we return to the office we will no longer have the luxury of simply walking to our kitchen and getting our drink or snack of choice without a hassle. Other small changes will slowly happen organically and over a period of time. The small personal items we like to have on our desks like picture have to be moved. The small tools we need to do our jobs will need to be moved if we did not get a separate set for our homes. Finally a good cleaning might in order, both for your home office and your commercial office. Cleaning our home offices to get rid of a years’ worth a clutter and dusting off our unused commercial offices may be all that is needed or could be used as a starting point. Whatever change we make, we must ensure it is beneficial to our productivity and ensures we are comfortable no matter where we work.
Commercial Setup
An important question we must all consider is whether or not our commercial workplaces are still set up in the most productive way. A lot has changed in the last year and the way we all do business is no exception. Some of us can simply go back to the old office building and get started without having to make a single change; however, some companies will need to rethink how their offices are set up. Large gathering places and conference rooms will always have a need in the commercial work environment but the immediate need for these venues will still be limited in the fall. Companies big and small will ease their way back into large events and conventions, so while it is important to keep these spaces we might be able to put them to other uses initially. In contrast, some of our companies spend the past year creating separation between employees at the office. Walls, both permanent and temporary, were installed to ensure social distancing was occurring. As we move forward, it might be time to consider removing some of these barriers. The trend before the pandemic was large open communal workspaces. We do not expect to immediately return to this way of office design but as people get more comfortable we will eventually move in that direction. Now is the time to consider what barriers and walls to remove and which ones to keep. For those of us who used temporary screens we might consider where to store them and when to use them. These screens can be useful for future events and are worth keeping. Perhaps even store them in the unused large gathering places, at lease for the time being.
Return of the Conventions
Can you remember the last time you went to a convention or trade show? It has been a while; however, we can expect for these events to make a slow and steady return. As COVID cases continue to decline and vaccination numbers continue to increase, we can start thinking about hosting or returning to these events that we often look forward to. These gatherings are a great way to forge new business relationships and to see new products and services that organizations are offering. Additionally, they are usually fun and entertaining events. These conventions get us excited for future work projects and enable us to break up the routineness of our work weeks. It will be great to have them back. Now is the perfect time to look into what events will be returning and which ones will be beneficial for us to attend. If you have hosted an event in the past it is time to start thinking about how to host your next trade show. These events will likely be set up a bit differently than in the past, but change can be good. The cleanliness standards created during the last year will only help to ensure these events are safer for the future. Additionally, having some time to think about what was done in the past can often lead to ideas that help create a better future. It is never too early to plan. So, if you are getting ready to return to the office start to think about what work trips would be beneficial to take this fall and even next year. It’s never too early to plan.
If there is one lesson all of us learned over the last year is that our work environment is always changing. There will always be new challenges and we will always overcome them through diligent thought and planning. In conclusion, remember that those of us who are always thinking about the future will be more prepared for the challenges when they present themselves. Start thinking about what this fall and even this winter has in store for us to ensure we are ready and can win at whatever we do.