Coronavirus made us all come up with new solutions. We have figured out distance learning, zoom meetings, social distancing, and not going insane while sitting at home all day. We did a pretty decent job. However, now we have to learn how to go back to life before the pandemic hit.
It is not as easy as it seems, and it is hard to say whether things can go back to what they have used to be. Some aspects of our routines will definitely change, and we still have to be very careful. Covid-19 is still an issue, we do not have a vaccine yet.
Businesses started to reopen, though. We can not sit at home forever. Considering everything that was said before, businesses have to develop strategies that ensure employees` safety. Otherwise, you will either shut the whole thing down after a week, or no one will agree on coming back to the office. In fact, 93% are willing to continue their remote working journey. So if you want to make them go offline, you have to convince them to do so.
5 Benefits of Reopening the Business with IoT
The ones who have already reopened report using more IoT than they have ever done before. “IoT is extremely beneficial at times like this: you need fewer employees, and you don’t have to control safety measures on your own,” – PR expert from Essay Tigers explains.
IoT is needed when you reopen your business. You will want IoT’s fine-tuned help implemented into your business life.
Image Source: pexels
#1 Distance Monitoring
Now that schools have started to reopen, many parents get concerned about how teachers will manage to teach their children without getting too close to them. Also, how can a teacher monitor how close students get to each other? The adult distance monitoring is applicable, too, especially as adults seem prone to harsher consequences of the COVID virus.
Research has shown it’s harder to keep the distance between adults. 47% of adults report feeling much lonelier than they have done before the coronavirus outbreak. This stat is not surprising since a lot of people live alone. During the worst part of the virus, we could not meet our friends.
Sitting at home for weeks did not contribute to our feeling of happiness and being content with life. People lacked socialization, and now they starve for human interactions. You can only imagine what will happen in the office as soon as employees see their colleagues after months of being apart. There is so much tea to be spilled.
Even if your employees do not get very excited about meeting each other, during the re=entry to work, one can get easily distracted from the real world. When you are absorbed in tasks, you tend to forget that you have to keep your distance — you just want everything to be done efficiently.
Discussing serious matters while being 1,5 meters apart does not seem as productive as the quick interactions at an employee’s desk in the past. Now, something private requires going to a separate room and then the requisite cleaning instead of quick low-voice, close interactions.
Companies have started to develop different strategies to make sure that coworkers keep the distance and not get everyone infected.
Many of these companies now track the mobile phones of their employees, and it is wrong. The question of privacy was acute a long time ago, and it is getting even worse now. If you have access to people’s phone, it means that you track them 24/7. Workers would rather not be tracked outside of the office.
IoT can help you monitor the required distances with your employees. You can give out bands at the beginning of the workday and get them back by its end. Every time two devices get too close to each other, owners will get notifications, and as a manager, you will get one also. It will remind people of social distancing without you having to watch them on the camera or track their phones.
You can also find out who doesn’t care about safety measures, and educate them on why it is essential for everyone to follow the rules to keep your business open and their paychecks coming.
#2 Temperature Monitoring
As we know, having a temperature is not a good sign. It may mean that the person has gotten a virus and can share it with everyone.
It seems reasonable to measure (or take) each employees temperature at the beginning of the day. If an employee has a temperature at the door, you merely send that person home before they even enter the office or a store. Yet, one can have no fever in the morning and end up with a fever later in the day.
Do you have to measure temperature repeatedly throughout the day? It seems like a lot of effort, and it takes quite some time if you have a lot of employees. Taking temperature readings will slow down the working process; workers will get distracted and get out of their productivity streak.
IoT has come up with a solution to this exact problem. You can install sensors that do automatically take temperature screenings. As soon as a fever is detected on someone, you can quickly take notice of that person, isolate them from the group, and send them home.
#3 Know How Many People There Are
All the businesses know the rule that it is allowed to have only a certain number of customers and workers inside the buildings, based on how big and airy they are (buildings, not people). When there are many employees or your shop is quite big, and many clients can come in, it becomes complicated to count them.
You may have seen security near the entrance with a notebook and a pencil who tries to count and not let more people in that it is recommended. Still, it is tough to keep the focus on both countings constantly, writing numbers down, and securing the door. If more than 50 people in the store, it is nearly impossible for a human to keep the situation under control.
IoT is there once again to help you. There are exceptional cameras that can count how many people are inside. So make the job of security people easier, get exact data in a matter of seconds, and spare yourself from the stress that you will not have to pay tons of money if someone checks your shop/office, and there are more people than it is allowed.
#4 Facial Recognition Is a Way to Go
In times like this, all businesses try to engage a bare minimum of employees so offices aren’t too crowded. It’s simple if you have a lot of staff and not that many rooms. With the help of IoT, you can minimize the number of security workers.
You see, when people go through a security check, they interact with the same person. If the first person to come into the office was infected, he could infect security personnel. Consequently, all the people to enter after the person are at a high risk of getting the virus too.
It can also help with employees who continually forget their badges or credentials. One can barely leave their face at home. You will no longer get irritated by such employees, and they need not stress about whether they have all the required documentation with them.
#5 Track Interactions Between Your Employees and Clients
In the worst possible case, when someone gets Coronavirus, owners usually panic and send everyone home again. Employees panic because of the employer’s panic, and don’t leave their home offices after two weeks: they are only scared, and it’s understandable. What if you could not shut everything down by sending home only those who had contact with the infected person?
While using IoT, you can track down the information about who interacted with who. Due to social distancing, it is unlikely that people meet as many coworkers as they had before the pandemic. Basically, you can see who is potentially sick, send them home, and continue working.
It might be risky though. Sometimes it’s better to double-check everything or, in that case, send everyone home so they can properly isolate themselves.
Conclusion
Coronavirus is changing our lives and makes us work in order to come up with new solutions and tricks. IoT managed to ensure your employees` and customers` safety. You can control social distancing, check the temperature, count people effortlessly, reduce the number of workers, and define the potentially infected staff.
We highly recommend using these technologies so that you can promise safety to your employees and make them leave their homes. Moreover, you will not be forced to close everything down again in no time.
Still, it is better to seriously think about whether it is actually reasonable to reopen. A home office is the safest idea, after all.
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