Updated 18th May 2020
Government advice remains to work from home whenever possible. Meanwhile, we have been preparing the space to allow teams to return to a safe environment whenever they decide to do so. We are currently open and accessible to all members as usual, 24x7.
In line with Government COVID-Secure guidance for offices and best practices, we have introduced new policies, changes to the workspace and advice for our members.
The ultimate responsibility to carry out a risk assessment and ensure compliance, as well as communicate with team members, is with each company. But we want to do what we can as a space to make the process as simple as possible, and provide you with the framework and infrastructure to comply where we can.
Many of these measures are temporary, some will undoubtably stay, and there are bound to be changes.
New K&D policies relating to Coronavirus
We have added the following policies and rules, which must now be followed by all users and visitors to the building:
- You must wash your hands using warm soapy water for 20 seconds, or sanitise your hands using the sanitiser provided, on entering an office floor.
- Do not come to the office if you have any signs of Coronavirus symptoms
- We recommend the use of face masks in communal and public areas.
- You should only book meetings where absolutely essential, and limit the number of external people in the space. Where possible, use the roof terrace or courtyard for meetings. Always maintain a 2 metre distance between people.
What we've done to make the space safer
We've introduced a number of things to comply with government guidelines:
General
- Hand sanitiser dispensers at all entry/exits 👏
- Hot water in the first and second floor kitchens, in addition to the ground floor
- Surface & hand paper tissue dispensers on all floors
- Compostable cups ☕ in all kitchens (in addition to the usual mugs/glasses, which are cleaned at high temperature)
- 🚴 11 more bike parking spots in the courtyard, bringing capacity to 15
- Safety signage throughout the space 📋
Social Distancing
- New room and area capacities in communal areas and meeting rooms, communicated with signage*
- Less communal seating and more free space on the ground floor
- We have perspex screens available for facing desks, in line with safety guidance. These will be fitted in the open plan space, and private offices on request.
Cleaning & Waste management
- We have implemented a comprehensive daily antiviral cleaning routine of all communal areas. We'll keep this, as well as regular cleaning routines updated as and when we see how (and, how many) people return to the office 🧽
- All bins 🗑️ are now touch free, and we no longer have bins in private offices in line with guidance to centralise waste. As before, waste is removed daily.
Meeting Rooms
- Pens and whiteboard markers ✏️ in meeting rooms will now be single-use, with a disinfection bin provided and more stock. These will be disinfected and replenished.
- Paper towels and sanitiser available in meeting rooms
- Checking in and out of meetings using the meeting displays is no longer required (meetings won't get auto-cancelled as before)
Toilets & hallways
- We are not currently planning making any changes in the toilets, as after reviewing many touch-free options, we feel that a true touchless journey between the office spaces and toilets would be difficult to achieve. As such, we are recommending to wash hands inside the toilets as usual and wash or sanitise with warm water upon re-entering an office floor.
- We'll be providing personal deadlock keys to everyone for first-in/last-out. Our key fobs will remain as they are, since they're already personal and allow touch-free entry. Hand sanitisers are accessible from each entry/exit door.
Reducing people in the space
- We will reduce our own deliveries 📦 as much as possible by increasing stock of consumables and trying to aggregate orders into as few suppliers and deliveries as possible, and aiming to have deliveries out of office hours
- We're now doing remote 360 degree virtual tours and will be pushing that going forward, again to reduce the number of external visitors
- We will continue to try to carry out any maintenance works, especially those involving external contractors, outside of working hours 💡
We've also re-painted pretty much all the floors, many walls, deep cleaned the building throughout and had a big clear-out, so the space is generally more light and airy, and easier to clean.
Company-level measures
Things we're aware other companies are looking at for returning back to the office, and you may want to look at introducing:
- Alternate / phased [office] work schedules, with reduced capacities in private offices
- Providing personal storage baskets/bins/bags for personal items. This helps us clean desks better, as well as generally maintaining a cleaner space and reducing things people touch.
- Reducing meeting room usage
Schemes & external things you may want to look at / communicate with teams
- Running a Cycle Scheme to help team members affordably buy bikes, or encouraging use of personal bikes or Santander bikes (we have 4 docking stations within a few minutes walk). We now have more private bike parking in the courtyard, and there are lots of street parking spots. London's Streetspace programme is also aiming to make biking even easier.
- If you use Amazon Web Services, we now have an increased £4200 allowance for you, so drop me a note
We'll continue to adapt these over time and based on guidance, feedback and common sense. As always, we're here to help, and welcome any requests or feedback.
