As businesses all around the United Kingdom begin re-opening their doors and starting up commerce again, the million-dollar question for all stakeholders – from the intern to C-Level executives – is how do we maintain safe physical distancing with employees – without negatively impacting on collaboration, innovation and efficiency within the organisation.


The social distancing measures brought in in March 2020 clearly had a huge impact on encouraging companies and employees to explore working from home as an option – the Unified Communications market experienced a worldwide stock shortage (exasperated by key manufacturing plants in Wuhan) as businesses raced to get their staff trained and adequately equipped for remote working for the foreseeable future. I am confident that the ‘tried and tested’ rigid office worker will be a thing of the past moving forward – and agile working will become even more mainstream as barriers to change are slowly broken down.
However, I still believe their will be a desire from all stakeholders for physical office space – whilst maintaining physical and social distancing guidelines and the biggest question I have been receiving from customers recently is..

How can I manage and maintain safe working guidelines in a post-covid19 office environment? Let’s look at some of the main pain points for co-working;

Let’s look at some of the main pain points for co-working;

Ensure staff are kept sufficiently distanced

This is a twofold question regarding desks, and general traffic flow in the office which would require a two-fold solution.

To ensure availability and to manage the number of people at the office, your colleagues use the GoBright app, to book a workplace in advance. They check the status of a desk with our unique Desk Connect and Glow: Available (green), Almost occupied (orange), Occupied (red), Non bookable (off), Needs Cleaning (Purple). The great news is GoBright have acted quickly with this and this feature will be live to new and existing GoBright users by September.



To manage general traffic flow to minimise distancing between colleagues we would recommend a combination of digital signage and wayfinding (depending on campus size). Digital signage messages can be regularly updated to reinforce health and safety messaging with scheduling and ad-hoc posting, whilst wayfinding can instruct visitors and staff on the safest way to navigate around the building.

Provide a safe and hygienic working place?

GoBright have now built an alert into there meeting room and hot desking software – which can notify the facilities manager when the room/desk has been vacated and requires cleaning – the room/desk will become unbookable until cleaned.

How can I manage the number of people in the building at one time?

GoBright Visitor Management ensures contactless registration at the reception. Your visitor receives by email a QR code and e.g. safety instructions with his/her appointment confirmation. Scanning this QR code on the registration display prevents touching it. You can also place multiple displays at busy receptions. This ensures social distancing and reduces waiting times.



Internal staff can book meeting rooms and hot desks using a mobile app – non-configured desks will be unavailable to book – 30-minute cleaning windows can be built into booking time slots to ensure time for cleaning. A booking on this app means you can access the building – giving admin complete overview on who is entering and leaving the premises.



Finally, direct visibility on an interactive map of Available (green), Almost occupied (orange), Occupied (red), Non bookable (grey) or Needs cleaning (purple) desks – tied in with sensors for automatic updates on desk availability.